“The Talk” show host Sharon Osbourne has parted ways with the show after a heated exchange with fellow host Sheryl Underwood led to its brief hiatus surrounding remarks made by Piers Morgan about Duchess Meghan Markle.
Osbourne was taken to task for trying to defend her former “America’s Got Talent” co-show judge Morgan, who himself was excoriated for casting doubt on the Duchess’ claims during a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey that she and husband Prince Harry had been subjected to racist comments by the royal family.
“Sharon Osbourne has decided to leave The Talk,” the network said Friday in a statement to USA Today. “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.”
Osbourne was said to walk away from the show with a $10 million payout, though CBS called the reports false.
Morgan called “what’s happened” to Osbourne “an absolute disgrace that shames CBS” in a Saturday tweet, writing that she was “bullied out of her job for defending me against an invented slur of racism because I don’t believe a liar.”
Morgan continued to defend Osbourne Monday in a column for the Daily Mail.
“As a result of their emotion-charged debate, during which Sharon became understandably enraged by the sheer injustice of seeing a friend who she knows isn’t racist being branded a racist with nothing to back it up and seeing herself smeared in the process as a racist-sympathiser, she’s now been forced out of her job at The Talk after ten years in which she’s been by far its biggest star and most interesting panellist,” Morgan wrote.
I would like to wipe that smirk of Underwood face. She started the racist remarks not Mrs.O yet she got none of the backlash. This is an obvious case of reverse race discrimination. Underwood should’ve forced off the talk since she started the whole mess.