Shocking Truth Revealed: Roseanne Barr’s Secret Daughter Grew Up Believing Goldie Hawn Was Her Real Mother—Was This a Cruel Twist of Fate or a Calculated Hollywood Cover-Up? How Did a Leaked Secret at 17 Shatter Her World and What Does This Say About Celebrity Adoptions?

“All she knew was that her mother was famous in Hollywood, and Jewish,” Barr recalled of daughter Brandi Brown

Roseanne Barr (left) and Goldie Hawn.Credit : Astrid Stawiarz/Getty; Amy Sussman/Getty

For almost her entire childhood, the daughter that Roseanne Barr placed for adoption thought her biological mom was Goldie Hawn. At 17, she learned the truth — after Barr’s former boyfriend leaked information to the press.

During the June 23 episode of Bunnie XO’s podcast, Dumb Blonde, the actress and comedian, 72, recalled the story of the child — Brandi Brown, now 53 — who she placed for adoption when she was 18.

Barr, who was living in Denver at the time, told Bunnie that she “got to have” Brown for a week before placing her for adoption. “I told her when they came to get her, ‘Well, I’ll see you when you’re 18.’ I knew,” the actress said, adding that she “always knew that we’d find each other when she was 18.”

Until that day came, however, Barr said Brown thought her biological mom was the Overboard star. It was an assumption based on her resemblance to Hawn, 79, and the few pieces of information she had to go on.

Goldie Hawn.Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic

“All she knew was that her mother was famous in Hollywood, and Jewish,” Barr said. “And so she thought it was Goldie Hawn, was her mom, because she looked just like Goldie Hawn.”

At age 17, Brown learned the truth, thanks to Barr’s fame — and, allegedly, a sneaky ex-boyfriend, the comedian recalled to Bunnie.

“I was on TV, and that’s how they found me,” Barr claimed, referring to the National Enquirer. “My boyfriend at the time [Tom Arnold], I found out way later, he went to the Enquirer and told them that I had a baby that I gave up.”

According to Barr, the tabloid magazine contacted her first, and told her they were going to run a story about Brown “whether you want us to or not.” The outlet allegedly wanted to photograph the mother-daughter duo meeting for the first time, but Barr declined.

After jumping through some hoops to find Brown’s mother, Barr said she called her to give the family a heads-up about the Enquirer’s call, and to offer to meet up.

Shortly after, the publication spilled the beans. “The Enquirer called her, and she answered the phone, my daughter, and they said, ‘Would you like to know who your mother is?’ And she’s all excited thinking it’s going to be Goldie Hawn,” Barr recalled. “And they go, ‘It’s Roseanne Barr.’ And her words — so hilarious — she goes, ‘Christ, I didn’t even know she was a Jew,’ which is so hilarious.”

“And she was mad too, ‘cause I was fat and everything,” the actress claimed.

But after looking at a photo of Barr, Brown quickly saw the resemblance between them, according to the comedian.

“She goes, ‘Oh my god, I do look just like her.’ And she took the picture to the mirror,” Barr said. “And she just kept looking and going, ‘I do, I look exactly like her.’ ”

Roseanne Barr in 2024.Araya Doheny/Getty

The following day, Brown — along with her mom — flew out to meet Barr.

They “met, and it was wonderful,” the actress said. “So we’ve been back together since then, and she is now 53. And she is awesome.”

“She has a son, and a lovely husband,” Barr added of Brown. “She’s a wonderful woman.”

The comedian previously spoke about meeting Brown in an October 1989 issue of PEOPLE.

“A tabloid called to tell me, ‘We found your daughter.’ I was stunned,” she said at the time. “They had gotten hold of the birth certificate of the baby girl I bore out of wedlock and gave up for adoption after nine days in Denver when I was 18.”

At the time, Barr also told PEOPLE she felt “pissed off” at the Enquirer at first, but in a new documentary Roseanne Is America, she said she no longer feels any ill will toward the magazine.

“Am I upset about it?” she said in the documentary. “No. I’m grateful.”