Sharon Osbourne is not backing down with her claims that she was set up to fail in a live segment on The Talk by show executives which led to her eventual exit.
Osbourne, 69, blamed her former bosses and friends at CBS for ruining her career over the racism scandal, while appearing on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show.
Furious over how things were handled, Sharon called the showrunners ‘weak, weak women’ who had hung her out to dry during a tense discussion on race with co-host Sheryl Underwood back in March.
Hitting back: Sharon Osbourne blamed her former bosses and friends at CBS for ruining her career over the racism scandal, while appearing on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show
Sharon is doubling down on criticisms of CBS first mentioned during her exclusive two-part interview with DailyMailTV last month and now she’s naming names.
The former talk show host took the head of CBS Daytime Amy Reisenbach and showrunners Heather Gray and Kristin Matthews to task for their role in her professional downfall.
‘I think that the showrunners were doing what Amy had told them to do. Weak, weak women, that didn’t have a backbone to turn around and say, “This is suicidal. We can’t do this,”‘ Osbourne said.
‘And to let it go after the break, so it was 20 minutes on national TV of bashing me. Twenty minutes … They just … it blindsided me,’ she added.
Upset: Furious over how things were handled, Sharon called the showrunners ‘weak, weak women’ who had hung her out to dry during a tense discussion on race with co-host Sheryl Underwood back in March
Back in March, Sharon and Sheryl Underwood had gotten into a heated discussion over comments her friend Piers Morgan had made about Meghan Markle when Morgan was being accused of being racist in his public critique of the Duchess.
‘It was a freedom of speech matter. It was pure freedom of speech,’ Sha previously told DailyMailTV. ‘A journalist friend of mine who wrote something that people didn’t like and then a few crazies out there, some thugs go – ‘you must be racist, that’s why you’re saying it’ – about my friend Piers. It’s like, come on.’
Sharon claims that the seemingly impromptu moment was actually carefully orchestrated by a show executive who wanted to create controversy and without her knowing by telling her co-hosts to ask her if people now thought she was a racist.
As a result, Osbourne lost her job and was effectively ‘canceled’ by social media, leading to a series of death threats against her and her family. Sharon reveals that she was forced to hire 24 hour security and underwent months of ketamine therapy to deal with the trauma.
‘I think that the showrunners were doing what Amy had told them to do. Weak, weak women, that didn’t have a backbone to turn around and say, “This is suicidal. We can’t do this,”‘ Osbourne said. ‘And to let it go after the break, so it was 20 minutes on national TV of bashing me. Twenty minutes … They just … it blindsided me.’
‘They were friends of mine, especially Kristin Matthews,’ Sharon said on The Megyn Kelly Podcast. ‘And I told them that they’ve destroyed me.’
‘I told them I will never be able to get over this. It’s like, once you have that seed put on you, that you are a racist, it never goes away,’ she added before repeating once more, ‘I told them they destroyed me.’
Sharon went on to reflect on the moment things went downhill and said she felt Sheryl put her ‘on the hot seat talking about racism.’
‘She knows me,’ Sharon said. ‘She knows I’m not a racist.’
Telling her side: Sharon is doubling down on criticisms of CBS first mentioned during her exclusive two-part interview with DailyMailTV last month
The showdown not only lost Sharon her hosting gig on The Talk – a position she’d held for 11 seasons – but cost her her relationship with Underwood whom she hasn’t spoken to since the ordeal. Osbourne previously told DailyMailTV that she’s unlikely to ever speak to her former co-star ever again.
At the time of her interview, DailyMailTV reached out to CBS regarding Sharon’s accusations that she was set up by executives. The network responded by reiterating the same statement that they issued back in March when the incident went down.
‘Sharon Osbourne has decided to leave THE TALK,’ the statement read. ‘The events of the March 10 broadcast were upsetting to everyone involved, including the audience watching at home. As part of our review, we concluded that Sharon’s behavior toward her co-hosts during the March 10 episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace. We also did not find any evidence that CBS executives orchestrated the discussion or blindsided any of the hosts.’
‘I told them I will never be able to get over this. It’s like, once you have that seed put on you, that you are a racist, it never goes away,’ she added during the podcast before repeating once more, ‘I told them they destroyed me.’
Sharon also revealed back then that the betrayal was especially hard to swallow, because a similar ambush had occurred not long before with co-host Carrie Ann Inaba.
Not wanting to be caught unawares by producers again, Sharon had revealed to DailyMailTV that the ladies decided to band together and met in secret at Carrie Ann’s house to broker a pact to protect one another.
‘We went to lunch and we all agreed that no, we wouldn’t hijack each other. We all agreed, we all drank on it. We all agreed and. It never happened, did it? Because the next month they were all wised up but me.’
A month after Sharon’s departure, in April, Inaba also left The Talk. Carrie Ann revealed she was taking the extended break to focus on her health after recovering from COVID-19 in December. She announced that the leave would be permanent in August.
The public reaction to Sharon’s comments on the episode were loud, swift and unforgiving.
‘Where is the forgiveness? Where is a second chance? So you say something wrong. You’re not threatening somebody, but you say something wrong,’ she reflected during her interview.
The fallout was so severe that Sharon hunkered down at home, fearful of how people might treat her in public. Additionally, she and husband Ozzy Osbourne started getting constant death threats.
Her good friend and former co-host of The Talk, Sara Gilbert, suggested she try a unique form of therapy and recommended a doctor who did ketamine treatments.
‘I went through three months of therapy,’ she said. ‘I had ketamine treatment and I got it all out. All the tears and everything that I felt, you know. All of that, it’s gone.’
She said that time, therapy and her family helped her shake off her traumatic exit from The Talk and she’s ready to move forward. ‘You know how this industry works – nothing’s forever and everyone’s replaceable,’ Sharon said. ‘Everyone.’
‘Where is the forgiveness? Where is a second chance? So you say something wrong. You’re not threatening somebody, but you say something wrong,’ she reflected during her interview with DailyMailTV