Sharon Osbourne says she’s returned to Britain after being ‘cancelled’ and ‘blacklisted’ in the US in a row over the Duchess of Sussex.
Two years ago she fiercely defended Piers Morgan on her US chat show The Talk when her co-hosts said he’d been "racist and sexist" in his coverage of Meghan.
Now Osbourne, 70, has insisted: "I’ve never spoken with hate and I stick up for my friends and that’s what I was doing. I know who I am."
Appearing on This Morning on Monday, she told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that she’s living proof you can get blacklisted in America, adding: "I got threats."
Asked why she’s returned to the UK, Sharon explained: "I can’t get arrested in America. It went wrong. It went very, very wrong.
"They say there isn’t blacklisting in America but I’m living proof that there is. Not that I’m resentful or whatever. It’s just a fact of life, it happens doesn’t it?’"
Schofield asked: "So did you actually get cancelled?" to which the former X Factor judge insisted: "Yes, I did."
Asked how her LA-based children feel about her decision to return to the UK, she admitted: "They’re not happy. They say, ‘you can’t do this’, but I just don’t feel content there anymore."
In March 2021, Osbourne came to the defence of Morgan who had stormed off set of Good Morning Britain where he served as co-host after getting into a row live on air with his colleagues.
The media personality was taken to task about his assertion that the Duchess of Sussex had lied about having mental health issues and feeling suicidal during her time as a working member of the royal family.
Morgan received widespread ridicule and condemnation for walking off in the middle of the heated debate and for his comments about Meghan.
Osbourne and her former The Talk co-host Sheryl Underwood also got into a heated discussion over his comments.
Osbourne claimed that the seemingly impromptu TV moment was orchestrated by a CBS show executive who told her co-hosts to ask her if people now thought she was a racist, to spark controversy.
A visibly angry Osbourne appeared to dominate the row, she said at the time: "I very much feel like I’m about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend [Morgan], who many people think is a racist, so that makes me a racist?"
She then asked Underwood to "educate" her before sharply telling her, seemingly without empathy, to stop crying.
As a result, Osbourne lost her job. She said she had to then hire 24 hour security and undergo months of ketamine therapy.
She added to This Morning: "I got threats and things like that… "
CBS said at the time: "Sharon Osbourne has decided to leave THE TALK. The events of the March 10 broadcast were upsetting to everyone involved, including the audience watching at home.
"As part of our review, we concluded that Sharon’s behaviour toward her co-hosts during the March 10 episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace.
"We also did not find any evidence that CBS executives orchestrated the discussion or blindsided any of the hosts."
Osbourne now works at UK’s TalkTV, and said she is enjoying the experience. "At TalkTV I don’t have to [hide what I think] because everyone has different opinions," she explained to Schofield and Willoughby.
"And we all say what we feel in a respectful way. There’s no hate speech or ‘I’m really secretly part of this party’.
"People say what they feel and you’ve got a space to feel it and it’s great."
