Sharon Osbourne
(Picture: ES Composite)Sharon Osbourne was embroiled in a heated row on a live US chat show about her public support for her friend Piers Morgan.
The 68-year-old clashed angrily with fellow presenters on The Talk show and said she felt she was about to be “put in the electric chair” for backing the ex-Good Morning Britain anchor.
Morgan quit the ITV show after five years after saying he “did not believe a word” of the Duchess of Sussex’s claims about racism in the royal family and her own struggles with mental health in her Oprah Winfrey interview.
His comments provoked more than 41,000 complaints including one from the duchess herself.
It is understood that Meghan’s complaint was motivated by her concern that other people would be deterred from seeking help for their mental health problems. But Osbourne said in a tweet to Morgan: “I am with you. I stand by you. People forget that you’re paid for your opinion and that you’re just speaking your truth.”
She was questioned about her backing for Morgan by co-host Sheryl Underwood, who is black.
Osbourne, wife of rock star Ozzy, responded: “I feel even like I’m about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend who many people think is a racist so that makes me a racist.”
She added: “You tell me where you have heard him say, educate me, tell me when you have heard him say racist things. Educate me. Tell me.”
Underwood said it was “not the exact words of racism” but “the implication and the reaction to it, to not want to address that because she is a black woman and to try to dismiss it or to make it seem less than what it is, that’s what makes it racist”.
Underwood said she did not want viewers to think she was attacking Osbourne for being racist, to which she replied: “It’s too late.”
