Morgan Fairchild responds to Sandra Bernhard’s apology on WWHL

Andy Cohen didn’t hide his shock over a “Watch What Happens Live” guest’s confession.

On the June 20, 2024 episode of his Bravo late-night show, Cohen asked guest Sandra Bernhard about her experience working with Morgan Fairchild on the 1990s sitcom “Roseanne.”

Fairchild played Marla, the lesbian girlfriend of Bernhard’s character, Nancy Bartlett, in a three-episode story arc on 1992’s “Roseanne.”

To Cohen’s surprise, Bernhard admitted that she was “not nice” to Fairchild on the set of the ABC comedy series. She then apologized to her colleague from 30 years ago.

Here’s what you need to know:

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Andy Cohen was stunned by Sandra Bernhard’s confession

After Cohen asked him what it was like working with Fairchild, Bernhard, 69, gave a surprising answer. “It’s one of my biggest regrets that I wasn’t nicer to her,” Bernhard admitted to the Bravo host. “I wasn’t. I was a little dismissive of Morgan, and to this day I would like to say to Morgan, it’s amazing to work with you, you went there, we were the first gay couple on television unlike this that everyone thinks everyone was. We were. You have been fabulous and you are on the right side politically.

“I owe you an apology,” she added, looking directly at the camera. “I love you. And thanks for putting up with my snotty little attitude.

Bernhard admitted that she still wasn’t nice to Fairchild on the set of “Roseanne.”

Cohen, stunned, asked, “Really? Were you a brat to her? And it left its mark on you. And you never contacted her?

Bernhard said she “didn’t really know how” to contact Fairchild before now. “I think it’s time,” she said. “She will watch (the show), she will hear it and she deserves it. She’s a great lady.

When Cohen asked what was going on with Bernhard at the time that caused her to be mean to Fairchild, she replied, “I don’t know! Not everyone was nice to her.

“Nooooo!!!! » replied Cohen, stunned.

“My name is honey, like everyone else,” Bernhard said.

After Bernhard’s appearance on WWHL, fans reacted on social media to speculate on why the cast would have been mean to Fairchild. One commenter on Instagram noted that comedians are sometimes “snobbish toward “non-comedian” actors in a comedy setting. Another speculated that Bernhard might have been annoyed that Fairchild was hired to play a gay man instead of hiring a gay actress. Others thought the actors may have been jealous of Fairchild’s good looks.

After the WWHL episode aired, Cohen tagged Fairchild on Twitter, now X, along with the clip of Berhard’s apology. Fairchild responded.“Hi Andy. …I am very touched by the words of @SandraBernhard. Very nice of her. Yes, it was a difficult set for me, but that’s show biz. I already follow her on X, but she doesn’t follow me. She can message me anytime and I’ll say “Let’s have coffee”.

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Morgan Fairchild once said everyone on the set of ‘Roseanne’ was ‘great’

Bernhard previously told the Dallas Voice that the story with Fairchild “was kind of a lark at first” but “evolved.” Nancy’s character was originally married to Tom Arnold’s character Arnie before coming out as bisexual. “They wouldn’t let me kiss Morgan Fairchild under the mistletoe – we had to break off the kiss – so that’s how far we’ve come in terms of what you see sexually on TV,” Bernhard said in 2018.

Fairchild, 74, has spoken about her role as “Roseanne” many times over the years. She described the role as “very revolutionary” in a 2018 interview with Pride Source. “When they offered it to me, I knew the last person in the world we would see walk through that door after the big release of ‘Sandra Has a New Girlfriend’ would be Morgan Fairchild. She’s the last person they would expect,” she said.

The “Falcon Crest” alum also spoke about the role in a 2023 interview on “The Behind the Velvet Rose With David Yontef” podcast.

“Well, you know, they called me and offered it to me, and my agent was a little hesitant about whether I should do it because we’d never really done a lesbian lipstick” , Fairchild told Yontef in the interview.

She added: “I thought it was eye-opening. I thought it was a chance to create a discussion in society, you know, because it was a really hot show, and I knew it would be a cooler discussion. So, I thought it was a good opportunity to open a discussion and it was funny.

“Roseanne” ended its original run in 1995. In 2018, Bernhard reprized her role as Nancy in the “Roseanne” reboot. The series has since morphed into “The Conners,” which is in its sixth season on ABC.

In her interview with Yontef, Fairchild was also asked if she would consider a guest role on “The Conners.”

“I mean, I would go back,” Fairchild told Yontef. “They didn’t call. I mean quite frankly, I mean they haven’t called so they should. I love them. When I was there, I loved doing the show when I was there. John Goodman was such a doll and Lori Metcalf and everyone, I mean, it was wonderful. Sara Gilbert was a doll, you know, she was always in love. It was a lot of fun, you know. Everyone was great.