Sharon Osbourne faces sack over Piers outburst, amid alleged racist slurs

American television show The Talk has taken a hiatus to investigate an explosive outburst by co-host Sharon Osbourne in defence of her friend, UK TV host Piers Morgan, who slammed Meghan Markle for her interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this month.

You can hear part of the outburst, below:

karen osbourne begging to be canceled live on the talk right now pic.twitter.com/YU217LK5rL

— Déjà The View (@dejatheviewpod) March 10, 2021

The Talk cancelled its episodes this week, to probe further into an on-air segment from Wednesday, March 10, in which Osbourne explained that while she didn’t agree with Morgan’s opinion, she supported him voicing it. (Morgan left Good Morning Britain last week after receiving backlash for saying on-air that he didn’t believe anything Markle said – including that she had suicidal intentions.)

The Talk executives at CBS investigating the incident are apparently divided as to whether Osbourne will be fired over her comments. “We are committed to a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace,” CBS said in a statement to Fox News. “All matters related to the Wednesday episode of The Talk are under internal review.”

During the episode, The Talk co-host Sheryl Underwood responded to Osbourne, saying, “While you are standing by your friend [Morgan], it appears that you are giving validation or safe haven to something that he has uttered that is racist. He doesn’t want to understand how Meghan was treated was racism and then says … ‘I don’t see it as being racist – I don’t believe what she’s going through’ – it’s that white entitlement, privilege that makes it racist upon itself. So if you’re saying ‘I stand with you,’ how do you address people who say then you are standing with racism? I’m not saying that you are.”

Osbourne then asked, “So if I like Piers and he’s seen as racist, I’m racist? Is that what you’re saying?”

Following the incident, damning new allegations have been made by Osbourne’s former colleague Leah Remini and others, accusing Osbourne of making racist and homophobic slurs against co-hosts and the production team of The Talk show.

The explosive report claims Osbourne called her former colleague, Chinese American Julie Chen, “slanty eyes” and “wonton”, and referred to the former executive producer of the show, lesbian Sara Gilbert, as a “p***y licker” and a “fish eater”.

Remini told journalist Yashar Ali that Osbourne made the comments during the US show’s first season, as she was angry that Chen was trying to take centre stage and Gilbert was doing nothing about it. According to Remini, Osbourne allegedly said, “Why won’t the p***y licker do anything about the wonton?” and “Why won’t the fish-eater be part of this discussion? She’s the f**king executive producer.”

Osbourne has since taken to Twitter to apologise for her comments on the March 10 episode of The Talk and to “anyone of colour that [she] offended and/or to anyone that feels confused, or let down by what [she] said”.