Sharon Osbourne says she’d like to turn her argument on “The Talk” into a teachable moment.
“I very much want to listen to the youth,” Osbourne told “Entertainment Tonight” in an exclusive interview which aired Tuesday. “Do I have my finger on the pulse of what’s going on, with the Black situation in this country? No.”
The co-host is currently fighting back against accusations she has used racist and homophobic language while speaking about her former colleagues on the CBS talk show.
The production hiatus on CBS’ roundtable chat show, which was placed on a two-day break after Osbourne and cohost Sheryl Underwood tangled last Wednesday, was extended for a week Tuesday.
Osbourne, 68, told “Entertainment Tonight” that same day that she felt she’d been set up by CBS executives. She referred to a pact the panelists allegedly made in February after Carrie Ann Inaba caught fellow cohost Elaine Welteroth off guard with a question she had been given by producers.
Inaba, who is Asian American, asked Welteroth, who is Black, what Osbourne called a “very naive” question about why white people couldn’t use the N-word. After Welteroth and Inaba both wound up in tears, Osbourne said, they all agreed that, moving forward, they wouldn’t blindside one another with surprise questions.
The accusations were made Tuesday in a story written by journalist Yashar Ali, citing former “Talk” co-host Leah Remini, who spoke on the record in the piece, and a number of unnamed sources.
CNN has not independently verified the claims. A spokesperson for Remini confirmed the accuracy of her statements as reported by Ali and declined further comment when contacted by CNN.
“The only thing worse than a disgruntled former employee is a disgruntled former talk show host,” Osbourne’s spokesperson Howard Bragman said in a statement to CNN in response to the allegations raised in Ali’s report. “For 11 years Sharon has been kind, collegial and friendly with her hosts as evidenced by throwing them parties, inviting them to her home in the UK and other gestures of kindness too many to name. Sharon is disappointed but unfazed and hardly surprised by the lies, the recasting of history and the bitterness coming out at this moment.”
The allegations became public just as the CBS daytime talk show had gone on a brief hiatus following a heated debate last week between co-hosts Osbourne and Sheryl Underwood regarding Osbourne’s support of her longtime friend, Piers Morgan, after his controversial comments about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, reported Wednesday that it had received a record 57,121 complaints, including one from the Duchess of Sussex herself, related to his “Good Morning Britain” remarks about Meghan and Harry’s conversation with Winfrey. (“Only 57,000? I’ve had more people than that come up & congratulate me in the street for what I said,” Morgan said in a mocking tweet Wednesday.)
The Winfrey interview aired in the U.K. on March 8, a day after it was broadcast in the U.S. and drew high ratings.
“I had sided with Piers, so it’s the cancel culture, isn’t it? Throw her under the bus,” Osbourne said.
The “Entertainment Tonight” interview appears to have occurred before Ali’s story was published and Osbourne, who apologized on Twitter after her dustup with Underwood, talked about feeling blindsided during the now famous run-in.
“Sheryl turns around and asks me this question and …. she was reading it off a card. It wasn’t on my cards,” Osbourne said. “And then (co-host) Elaine (Welteroth)’s reading her questions and I’m like, ‘I’ve been set up.’ They’re setting me up. My anger was like, ‘I cannot believe this, I’m your sacrificial lamb.'”
Osbourne said moments before the show began one of the show runners asked if she would mind answering questions about Morgan and how she would feel if “maybe one of (the women) doesn’t agree with you.” Osbourne said she responded, “I’ll answer whatever they want me to answer.”
Underwood and Welteroth are both Black. Osbourne said she’s tried to apologize to Underwood, who Osbourne said she has “nothing but respect and so much affection for,” but has not gotten a response.
“I am not a racist and if you can’t have a go at your friend who happens to be Black, does that make me racist because I said certain things to my friend, but I said them on camera?” Osbourne said. “I will keep on apologizing to Sheryl, even if I decide not to go back, I will still keep apologizing to Sheryl.”
“The Talk,” which also includes co-hosts Carrie Ann Inaba and Amanda Kloots, is currently on production hiatus “as we continue to review these issues,” CBS said. Osbourne told “Entertainment Tonight” she is unsure as to whether she will return to the show.
Osbourne said she had apologized to Underwood but hadn’t heard back. She also apologized publicly last week via social media, noting that she was truly sorry “to anyone of color that I offended and/or to anyone that feels confused or let down by what I said.”
As for the future of “The Talk,” Osbourne said, “I wish that we could go on and have a adult conversation calmly and work it out. But I don’t know whether we can. I don’t know whether it’s gone past that. But I don’t know whether I want to go back.
“I don’t know whether I’m wanted there.”
Osbourne is married to rocker Ozzy Osbourne, who went public in early 2020 with his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
