What Happened to Sheryl Leach? Where the 'Barney' Creator is Now

Millennials and Generation X-ers will be no strangers to Barney, the big purple dinosaur bursting with enthusiasm and knowledge.

Author, television writer and producer Sheryl Leach was the creator of Barney & Friends, alongside Kathy Parker and Dennis DeShazer.

Barney burst onto screens in 1987, bringing joy to the lives of children across the globe and winning several accolades. However, behind the scenes, there was a much darker side to fame at play. This is explored in Peacock's documentary series I Love You, You Hate Me.

Newsweek has everything you need to know about Barney's creator, Sheryl Leach.

What Happened to Sheryl Leach?

In 1988 Leach created Barney the Dinosaur to keep her 2-year-old son Patrick Leach entertained at home.

At the time she created the idea of Barney, she was a newlywed and a full-time mom. Initially, Barney was envisioned to be a bear. However, when Patrick took an interest in dinosaurs, she decided to adapt him into a purple Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Barney was first released via a series of home videos called Barney and the Backyard Gang, which were sold directly to the public. In 1992, the series Barney & Friends premiered on PBS.

Leach left the show in 1998 and Barney & Friends would continue to run until 2010.

Barney's legacy would ultimately be tarnished in 2013 when Leach's son, Patrick, the person who inspired Barney, was arrested for shooting his neighbor Erick Shanks. Shanks survived the wounds.

Patrick, who was 27 at the time, alleged Shanks was trespassing on his property when he fired the gun. He was pulled over by police on the Pacific Coast Highway and a search found he had a loaded handgun and rifle with him in the car.

Brenda Lee, the Deputy District Attorney with Los Angeles County's District Attorney's office, assessed Patrick at the time of his arrest as "paranoid and very tightly wound."

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2015 after pleading no contest to assault with a deadly weapon.

His sentence was commuted from 5 to 8 years instead of 15.

Speaking in I Love You, You Hate Me, Barney crew member Sloan Coleman reflected Patrick's arrest was "beyond what anybody could ever think would happen, for a child that was raised with basically anything he ever wanted. But there were a lot of hidden dark pasts that followed him."

In I Love You, You Hate Me, the darker side of Barney's success on those behind the purple dinosaur is also explored.

As heard in I Love You, You Hate Me, Leach's family life at home became impacted by Barney's growing popularity, particularly the attention paid to her young son Patrick.

Stephen White, who worked as the show's head writer until 2005, told I Love You, You Hate Me filmmakers: "Barney was like another entity in the family competing for attention, I can imagine that Patrick wouldn't be crazy about that comparison. But can you imagine having a sibling rivalry with a large purple dinosaur?"

Her marriage also began to fall apart. Her husband, Jim Leach became a stay-at-home dad while she thrived in Barney's success. They divorced in 2001 and 3 years later Jim Leach died by suicide. At the time, his son Patrick was 18 years old.

Patrick's health also deteriorated. He had to undergo multiple surgeries to remove a benign brain tumor and he developed a marijuana dependency.

Elsewhere, Barney became the center of a hate campaign and movement. Leach's beloved dinosaur was even at the center of homicidal video games and there was a mock religious organization called the Jihad to Destroy Barney.

Newsweek has contacted Sheryl Leach for comment.

Where is Sheryl Leach Now?

Today, Leach, 69, is dedicated to her philanthropy work.

Outside of the television world, Leach and her partner Howard Rosenfeld have been involved in numerous charity projects, including establishing their philanthropy organization, the Shei'rah Foundation, which has sponsored a variety of film and television projects as well as supporting youth-based media projects and beyond.

For her work with the Shei'rah Foundation, she was honored with the National Freedoms Foundation, becoming the first woman to receive the award since former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

She is also an avid supporter of farming and was involved with community development and land conservation projects in Litchfield County.

Leach owns a farm in South Africa that supports the Global White Lion Protection Trust.

Leach declined to take part in Peacock's I Love You, You Hate Me.

Speaking to TV Insider, I Love You, You Hate Me director Tommy Avallone explained Leach's absence, stating: "For the most part, Sheryl was this person who, even when she was running Barney, avoided any of the bashings, any of the backlash, and avoided any of the negativity. If we called this movie I Love You, she should be into it, you know? But the fact that we talked 'you hate me,' I think that was the reasoning for her not to be in it. I know Sheryl, I've met her because of this project. I had lunch with her before this project even started and we kept in touch by email. She's [a] super nice, amazing person. She just doesn't pay attention to me the negative that happened with Barney."

I Love You, You Hate Me is streaming on Peacock now.