Ozzy Shows Support for Wife Sharon Osbourne After Her Exit From ‘The Talk’
Ozzy Osbourne has publicly voiced support for his wife, Sharon Osbourne, following last month's daytime TV controversy involving the Osbourne matriarch. Accused of exhibiting complicity with racism, Sharon's longtime post as a co-host on CBS talk show The Talk is no more.
That's because, on a March 10 episode of the show, Sharon clashed with co-host Sheryl Underwood over Sharon's defense of Piers Morgan, the British news anchor and former Good Morning Britain host who's a friend of Sharon's. Morgan had come under fire for criticizing Megan Markle's recent interview with Oprah, where Markle claimed she encountered racist behavior from the Royal Family. Backlash over Morgan's comments led him to leave GMB, an exit mirrored by Sharon on The Talk.
"While you are standing by your friend," Underwood told Sharon on the show, "it appears that you are giving validation or haven to something that he has uttered that is racist." Per Deadline, those remarks reportedly "caused an explosive reaction from Osbourne, both in front of and later behind the camera."
Following the blowout, CBS announced they were temporarily suspending airing The Talk before ultimately revealing that Sharon had decided to leave the program. Unsurprisingly, Sharon's husband of nearly 40 years, the heavy metal "Prince of Darkness" himself, went to bat for his partner.
"I can't f*cking hear you!" Ozzy writes in the March 31 message that captions a red carpet photo of the rocker and his wife. The online rallying cry gets addended with the hashtag #TeamSharon.
But the support will likely do little to get Sharon her daytime TV gig back, as, following internal deliberations, CBS decided that the co-host's behavior last month didn't reflect their ideals as a network.
"The events of the March 10 broadcast were upsetting to everyone involved, including the audience watching at home," CBS said last month in a statement reported by E! News. "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."
The Talk, sans Sharon Osbourne, is set to return to TV on April 12.