Here’s Why Sharon Osbourne Is Being Dragged Online

Sharon Osbourne is not facing backlash for being friends with Piers Morgan, but for her own actions. 

On March 11, countless headlines read “Sharon Osbourne Fiercely Defends Piers Morgan,” “Sharon Osbourne Defends Supporting Piers Morgan,” or even, more specifically, “Sharon Osbourne Argues With Sheryl Underwood Over Support for Piers Morgan,” but none of these articles gets to the heart of what really happened.

What The Talk viewers witnessed on March 10 was not a defense of a friend who lost his cushy Good Morning Britain gig after relentless criticism of Meghan Markle—in fact, it didn’t have anything to do with Piers Morgan at all.

Here’s everything you need to know. 

Piers Morgan left his job on Good Morning Britain.

Whether you believe Morgan stepped down on his own accord or was fired, the controversial figure was the host of Good Morning Britain one day and gone the next over vicious comments about Markle. Following the emotional sit-down between Markle, Prince Harry, and Oprah Winfrey, in which Markle revealed she struggled with thoughts of suicide, Morgan went on the air and said he didn’t believe the Duchess of Sussex. “I don’t believe a word she said, Meghan Markle,” he said. “I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report.”

On March 9, ITV released this statement: “Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain. ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add.”

Sharon Osbourne defended him on Twitter.

“Piers Morgan I am with you. I stand by you,” she wrote on March 9. “People forget that you’re paid for your opinion and that you’re speaking your truth.”

Then came her rant on The Talk. 

After defending her “friend” once again, Osbourne’s cohost Sheryl Underwood asked the TV personality what she would say to viewers who feel like she’s validating Morgan’s statements. “What would you say to people who may feel that you—while you’re standing by your friend, it appears that you give validation or safe haven to something that he has uttered that is racist even, even if you don’t agree?” Underwood asked.

That’s when Osbourne went off. “I very much feel 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 said. “What does it gotta do with me?”

She went on to demand Underwood specify what Morgan has ever said that was racist and yelled at her cohost multiple times. “Don’t try and cry ’cause if anyone should be crying, it should be me,” Osbourne said. “Educate me! Tell me when you have heard him say racist things.”

Underwood responded to Osbourne’s request while trying to clarify that she doesn’t feel Osbourne is racist. “It is not the exact words of racism,” she said. “It’s the implication and the reaction to it, to not want to address that because [Meghan Markle] 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. But right now I’m talking to a woman who I believe is my friend, and I don’t want anybody here to watch this and say that we’re attacking you for being racist.”

“I think it’s too late,” Osbourne said. “I think that seed’s already sown.”

You can watch, below:

People on Twitter had thoughts.

This story will be updated.