Sharon Osbourne Denies Racism Allegations After On-Air Fight Over Piers Morgan

After Sharon Osbourne defended her longtime friend, Piers Morgan, over his response to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell interview on The Talk, Osbourne wanted to turn the heated moment into an educational lesson.

“I very much want to listen to the youth,” Osbourne told Entertainment Tonight in an interview, which aired Tuesday. “Do I have my finger on the pulse of what’s going on with the black situation in this country? No.”

Allegations against the co-host were made on Tuesday after journalist Yashar Ali published a an article citing former Talk co-host Leah Remini, alleging that Osbourne used racist and homophobic language while speaking to her colleagues on the CBS talk show.

“The only thing worse than a disgruntled former employee is a disgruntled former talk show host,” Osbourne’s spokesperson Howard Bragman said in a statement to CNN. “For 11 years Sharon has been kind, collegial and friendly with her hosts as evidenced by throwing them parties, inviting them to her home in the U.K. and other gestures of kindness too many to name. Sharon is disappointed but unfazed and hardly surprised by the lies, the recasting of history and the bitterness coming out at this moment.”

The Talk went on a brief hiatus after the heated debate between Osbourne and her co-host Sheryl Underwood over Morgan. Osbourne has apologized to Underwood on Twitter, but she has still not heard back from her.

Osbourne told Entertainment Tonight about how she felt blindsided during the incident. “Sheryl turns around and asks me this question and… she was reading it off a card. It wasn’t on my cards,” Osbourne said. “And then [co-host] Elaine [Welteroth’s] reading her questions, and I’m like, ‘I’ve been set up.’ They’re setting me up. My anger was like, ‘I cannot believe this, I’m you sacrificial lamb.”

Osbourne said she had “nothing but respect and so much affection for” Underwood and Welteroth, who are both black.

“I am not a racist and if you can’t have a go at your friend who happens to be black, does that make me racist because I said certain things to my friend but I said them on camera,” Osbourne said. “I will keep on apologizing to Sheryl, even if I decide not to go back, I will still keep apologizing to Sheryl.”