Entertainment
Sheryl Underwood on getting Sharon Osbourne ‘fired’ from The Talk and other revelations as she breaks her silence
Sheryl Underwood has broken her dignified silence following her on-air clash with Sharon Osbourne, releasing a three-part series on her podcast to set the record straight.
The two presenters went viral in March after getting into a heated debate on The Talk about Piers Morgan and whether he had been racist towards Meghan Markle.
During the row, Sharon became tearful as she repeatedly asked Sheryl to ‘educate’ her about racism. Viewers felt uncomfortable by Sharon’s behaviour as she raised her voice and swore, while many felt it wasn’t Sheryl’s place to explain racism to her as a Black woman.
CBS announced they were conducting an investigation into the incident before Sharon announced she was leaving the show.
Sheryl addresses the controversy in-depth in the latest episodes of her podcast, The World According To Sheryl Underwood, tackling every major moment that’s happened since the incident.
Here are Sheryl’s biggest revelations…
Sheryl’s friends are being ‘attacked’ after Sharon clash
The 57-year-old presenter revealed the controversy has begun to affect her friends personally.
‘My friends are being attacked. It’s a situation where things that are said after the fact still do not bring me any solace. It doesn’t bring any comfort. It opens the wound further and coming back on Monday April 12 in this situation, I know a lot of people are looking for a lot of things.
‘I equate it to Mike Tyson at the height of his boxing fame. People were coming because they were Mike Tyson fans but some people were coming to see him get knocked out because you hated him.
‘The situation now, we’re learning a lot about ourselves. Where does the show go from here? As the world was changing and evolving and conversations have to be different, so does The Talk. I’ve heard a lot of people go they’ll never watch again. Well, you said you’ll never watch again the last time something happened.’
Sheryl claims she hasn’t received a personal apology from Sharon
When asked if she’d heard from Sharon, 68, since the episode, Sheryl replied: ‘No, I can go back as far as I can go,’ while scrolling through her phone.
One of Sheryl’s co-hosts then noted that Sharon didn’t mention her directly in her apology, to which the TV star admitted: ‘To me, I felt a odd feeling about that.’
Sharon has since refuted this and claims to have apologised on the phone and in person.
Sheryl didn’t get Sharon fired
When Sharon announced she would not be returning to The Talk, speculation mounted as to whether Sheryl had a hand in it.
Addressing the rumours, she stated: ‘I want to be clear, I don’t have the power to hire. I don’t have the power to fire. That’s the same thing that Sharon was saying but what I notice is, if you want to join something, then you join it and it sounds like a family which suggests orchestration.
‘They’re not just her fans, they need the narrative. The woke police, the cancel culture.’
Sheryl on why she stayed silent
‘I’m gonna tell you something. People say “why are you not out interviewing? Why are you not defending yourself? Why aren’t you doing certain things?” I felt because there’s an investigation, be quiet.
‘People say “you’re speaking right now on the podcast”. This is my platform, I wanted you all to be able to ask. I want to be able to face the questions that my own team has.’
Sheryl on holding a grudge towards Sharon
Sheryl isn’t holding any resentment towards Sharon and hopes to move on from the incident.
She said: ‘There is part of me that felt she had to do what’s best for herself and her family. She had to do the best for her life and I do think that a lot of people was like “you’re a sucker, why are you still wishing her well?”
‘It’s about my friendship towards them and their limited friendship towards me from what everybody’s seeing. I had to understand that people are coming to it and looking through their lens.
‘There were certain things that were happening, that were consistent and strategic. So for me I had to stay true to who I was and I did not want to drown in disappointment.
‘[Disappointment] that it happened, period.
‘If you read the statements and investigations… I had to let that play out.’
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