Sharon Osbourne discussed her controversial exit from The Talk as well as cancel culture during an interview Friday on Real Time With Bill Maher, Osbourne’s first TV appearance since departing the daytime talk show.
In March, CBS announced that Osbourne “decided to leave The Talk” following a heated on-air conversation about race as well as accusations of racist comments that led to an internal investigation by the network. Asked by Maher how she’s doing now, Osbourne said, “I’m angry, I’m hurt.”
Maher summarized the situation as this: “Meghan Markle and Prince Harry gave their interview with Oprah. Okay, then your friend Piers Morgan — he’s a commentator in Britain — he said he didn’t believe things that Meghan Markle said. And then on your show, you said, ‘He’s a good friend of mine, and I don’t necessarily agree with his opinion, but he is entitled to his opinion.’ So he was called a racist and lost his job and you were called a racist and lost your job. Do I have it right?”
“You got it right. That’s exactly how it went,” Osbourne said. “I’ve been called so many things in my life, I am so used to be called things, but a racist is one I will not take.”
After a conversation about the “coldness” of the Royal Family and Osbourne’s odd friendship with Morgan, Osbourne and Maher returned to the subject of Morgan’s comments about Markle — “She’s entitled to her opinion, Piers is entitled to his, and that’s what it’s all about,” Osbourne said, “You’re entitled to have a disagreement, discuss it in a normal way” — as well as accusations of racism levied against Osbourne by former The Talk co-hosts like Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete.
“I never, ever said that Leah Remini was whatever she said, I don’t even use those words, they’re not in my vocabulary,” Osbourne said, adding that the accusations against her are from “disgruntled ladies.”
Maher and Osbourne next railed against “cancel culture” and how, as Maher said, it “judges everybody by their worst moment.”
“I’m a fighter, I’m doing just fine,” Osbourne said. “What about the people that are cut from the knees down and they can’t afford to get lessons now on what’s politically correct and how to talk to people? What happens to them? It’s not fair. It isn’t about being a racist. It’s maybe not knowing what is correct and woke for your language that day. Because it changes from day to day, what is correct and what isn’t.”
From Rolling Stone US
