In March 2021, CBS announced that Sharon Osbourne had “decided to leave The Talk” – the daytime talk show she had been a part of since its debut in 2010 – after an on-air argument with co-host Sheryl Underwood. Osbourne was defending her longtime friend Piers Morgan after comments he made about Meghan Markle in the wake of her interview with Oprah Winfrey (which aired on CBS) that were called racist.
No stranger to cancel culture, Megyn called what happened to Osbourne “disgusting and not without significant trauma in its aftermath.” She invited her on the show to discuss what happened at CBS and The Talk that led to her departure.
What Happened On-Air
The heated exchange unfolded during the March 10, 2021 of The Talk, and Osbourne says she was “blindsided” by the questioning from Underwood and fellow co-host Elaine Welteroth because she had not been told by the producers that it was coming. “They left me out there to dry for the first part of the show,” she explained. “In the break, there was no executive on the floor, and Sheryl refused to look at me.”
The segment continued after the break. “It was 20 minutes on national TV of bashing me,” Osbourne said. Megyn called the incident “interminable” and asked if she knew who was behind it. Osbourne pointed the finger at CBS executive vice president Amy Reisenbach and two show runners. “I think that the show runners were doing what Amy had told them to do,” she shared. Calling them “weak, weak women,” Osbourne said they lacked “a backbone.”
What Happened Behind the Scenes
While she admits she received some backlash on social media for her defense of Morgan, Osbourne believes CBS took offense because the controversy involved the network’s highly coveted sit-down with Prince Harry and Markle. “The network was failing, and [the interview] was their big coup,” she explained. “To them, it was untouchable. You cannot say anything against that interview because it was the jewel in their crown.”
Ultimately, she believes ‘wokeness’ is to blame for the situation. “These people that run these networks – especially one that was failing – they are desperate to keep their jobs,” she explained. “They are desperate, in these times we live in, to be perceived as more than woke, but they’re all hypocrites.” In the end, “they’ll do whatever they have to do to keep their job,” she added.
Moving on from CBS
After requesting an HR investigation that she says ended with her being placed on unpaid leave, Osbourne decided it was time to call it quits. She remembers telling the show runners that she “will never be able to get over this” because “once you have that seed put on you that you are a racist it never goes away.”
Osbourne felt betrayed in large part because she had been with The Talk for over a decade and considered Underwood, in particular, to be a friend. “I don’t think that I was out of order by dealing with it the way that I did because I was talking to a woman that I’ve traveled with, that I’ve worked with, that I sat beside for 10 seasons,” she said. “She was a family friend and then boom she puts me on the hot seat talking about racism. She knows my history. She knows I’m not a racist.”
You can check out Megyn’s entire interview with Osbourne by tuning in to episode 179 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.