It’s been a little over a year since Sharon Osbourne was fired from CBS’ daytime talk show The Talk, and now she’s back to asserting herself on TV, having landed at the UK’s newly launched channel TalkTV for a show that’s also called The Talk. (Not to mention joining The View UK.) Even though the TV personality seems to have landed on her feet, she’s still deeply affected by the allegations of racism and homophobia that led to her exit after 10 years of serving as a co-host. She’s been vocal over the past year about how the situation affected her and her family, all while continuing to vehemently deny the accusations, and ahead of her return to hosting, she opened up again on the “humiliation” she felt.
Sharon Osbourne spoke with fellow controversy courter Piers Morgan on his new TalkTV series about the events of the past year. It was actually Osbourne’s defense of comments made by Morgan, er longtime friend, that sparked her troubles on The Talk. Ozzy Osbourne’s wife maintained that she was defending Morgan’s right to give his opinion as part of his job, but the implication that race played into it is what embarrassed her the most:
I definitely went through a difficult patch at the beginning. I found it embarrassing. The humiliation that people would think that I might be a racist.
Sharon Osbourne has spoken out about cancel culture over the past year and apparently told CBS they had “destroyed” her, since racism accusations don’t tend to go away naturally. Kelly Osbourne also spoke out in defense of her mother at the time, calling alternately for “counsel culture.” The former The Talk co-host pointed out that wouldn't be so much of a problem for her famous family if she was unable to find work after being quasi-blacklisted, because she comes from a position of privilege. However, she warned that cancel culture has worse effects on people less fortunate than herself, and who don't have others around for support. In her words:
You are untouchable. You are an untouchable. And what makes me so mad is I'm in a blessed situation that, no matter whatever happens to my career, my husband will always take care of me. But what happens to a person that, you know, say I didn’t have a husband and I had kids to bring up, right? What happens to people like that, that are canceled or fired because they've used the wrong term or something's taken out of context? And they're fired? To the average person, what happens to that person?
Sharon Osbourne also talked about the death threats her family received — including their dog — from people on social media. She said she was in a pretty dark place for a while, because it felt like she’d worked so hard to achieve her success, and she was afraid these accusations would become her legacy:
It was tough on me, and it did affect me mentally. It honestly did, because after everything that I felt, all my dreams I had achieved, everything that I'd wanted to do, I had achieved. And did I want my legacy for my family to be, 'Oh, well, your Nana was on television, but everybody said she was racist, so she never went on television again.’
Back in March 2021 Sharon Osbourne tweeted to Piers Morgan, “I am with you. I stand by you,” after he made comments about not believing Meghan Markle’s claims about the royal family in her and Prince Harry’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. This led to a heated, headline-making confrontation with co-host Sheryl Underwood, causing CBS to conduct an investigation that ultimately uncovered other incidents of problematic behavior, which led to Osbourne exiting the show. Morgan also left Good Morning Britain amid backlash for his comments at that time.
Sharon Osbourne announced April 28 on The View UK (per Deadline) that she is going to take some time off of the show to care for her husband, who has COVID. Sharon said she’s “very worried” about Ozzy but hoped to have him back on his feet in a week or so.
Check out our 2022 TV Schedule to see what new and returning shows are premiering soon.
