Tom Arnold Reacts to Ex Roseanne Barr's Uncharacteristic Defense: 'Hell Froze Over'

Tom Arnold, 67, reacted with astonishment to a rare, almost complimentary statement from his ex-wife, Roseanne Barr, 73. The sentiment emerged after Barr defended Arnold against allegations by Chuck Lorre, creator of "The Big Bang Theory," who claimed Arnold took credit for scripts written by others during their time on the iconic sitcom "Roseanne."

Lorre, 74, worked as a staff writer on "Roseanne" from 1990 to 1992. He alleged that Arnold's name appeared on scripts penned by other writers.

Barr and Arnold were married from 1990 to 1994 and both worked on the ABC sitcom during that period. Despite a contentious divorce and continued public disagreements, including differing political views, Barr publicly supported Arnold in a recent interview.

"Unbelievably — I don't think you'll hear me say this often — but Tom Arnold is telling the truth for once," Barr told The Hollywood Reporter. "Talk about the paradigm switch here. Tom Arnold is defending me. I have to thank him for that. That's the first time he's done something right by me in his f***ing life. Thanks, Tom."

Arnold took to X, formerly Twitter, to express his disbelief. "Don't give up. Don't ever give up. 33 years ago I predicted I would do something so cool my 1st X Wife Roseanne would be forced to say something almost nice about me. Hell finally froze over today."

Arnold had previously addressed Lorre's accusations directly in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I never would put my name on a script that [Lorre] wrote," Arnold stated. "Roseanne and I sat around talking about what we wanted to do in the next season, or maybe some ideas we had that'd be fun episodes, or groundbreaking, or whatever our bulls*** was, and I'd write them down."

He described the writing process with Barr as a team effort, explaining that while they would brainstorm ideas, the official writing would be completed by the staff writers closer to the start of production. Arnold maintained that "every writer's fingerprints" were on the "Roseanne" scripts.

The original run of "Roseanne" spanned from 1988 to 1997. A brief revival in 2018 was cut short when Barr was fired following racist social media posts. The character of Roseanne Conner was killed off for the subsequent spin-off, "The Conners."

Arnold and Barr's split in 1994 was notably bitter, reportedly involving allegations of infidelity on Arnold's part and a volatile on-set confrontation. Barr filed for divorce, seeking a restraining order and alleging abuse, though she later temporarily withdrew the charges. Their divorce was finalized with Arnold reportedly receiving a settlement in the tens of millions of dollars.

The feud between the former couple resurfaced in 2018 after Barr's firing. Arnold publicly called his ex-wife, a supporter of Donald Trump, "obviously" racist and a "conspiracy theorist."