Sheen can relate to Barr

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Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen understands the "absolute despair" Roseanne Barr has been going through after a racist tweet cost the actress her hit TV comeback.

U.S. network executives at ABC canceled the newly-rebooted Roseanne franchise on 29 May, when the sitcom's leading lady posted an ill-advised, racially insensitive tweet about former President Barack Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, leaving her cast and crew out of work.

Barr has since tried to make amends for the uproar, and also signed off on plans to rework the show into a spin-off, centered on Roseanne's TV daughter Darlene, played by Sara Gilbert, in an effort to save everyone else's jobs.

Charlie admits the controversy reminded him of his own turbulent exit from his hit comedy show Two and a Half Men, from which he was fired in 2011 over his drink and drug-induced behavior.

"I can relate to that tone of absolute despair, because it's not just about herself, it's about the people that she knows she affected as well," he told Australia's Kyle and Jackie O show.

Sharing his sympathy for Barr, he continued, "What I hear in her voice, trying not to focus on the words but the emotion, is I hear the frustration, pain, there's such a sadness there.

"The thing that is a little bit sad is that when someone does melt, everything good they have ever done that has entertained millions of people is always forgotten."

Charlie also used Monday's interview to express his regret at initially celebrating Roseanne's axe, after tweeting, "adios (bye) Roseanne".

"I shouldn't have said, 'Roseanne good riddance', because whatever happened she's been nothing but nice to me in the past, so that part I would delete," he shared as he reflected on the petty behavior.

His remarks come days after Barr sat down for her first TV interview since the scandal broke, and told to Fox News host Sean Hannity that she didn't mean the insult as a racist jab, because she had no idea Jarrett was black.

"I've apologized a lot, it's been two months," Barr moaned. "I feel like I have apologized and explained and asked for forgiveness and made recompense."