Sharon Osbourne Reveals Her Family Received Death Threats After ‘The Talk’ Controversy + Claims She Was ‘Betrayed’ By The Network To Generate Publicity For The Show

Sharon Osbourne Reveals Her Family Received Death Threats After ‘The Talk’ Controversy + Claims She Was ‘Betrayed’ By The Network To Generate Publicity For The Show

Sharon Osbourne is opening up about her side of her recent controversy!

As you may recall, Sharon Osbourne faced backlash after publicly supporting Piers Morgan, who made comments that many found to be racist. She was also later involved in a heated discussion with her now former co-star Sheryl Underwood over the matter.

Shortly thereafter, Sharon Osbourne left The Talk.

During her recent interview on the controversy, Sharon Osbourne spoke on her rationale for originally defending Piers Morgan. She said:

“It was a freedom of speech matter. It was pure freedom of speech. A journalist friend of mine who wrote something that people didn’t like and then a few crazies out there, some thugs go ‘You must be racist, that’s why you’re saying it’ about my friend Piers. It’s like, come on.”

She then claimed she was “betrayed” and “used” by the network in a “set up” to generate publicity through the controversy:

“To leave me for 20 minutes on live TV… on live TV… unprepared, not produced, not knowing what’s going on. Wait, where’s their apology to me? They could have cut at any time and gone to a commercial break, and why didn’t they cut? They didn’t cut because they liked the controversy and they liked that everybody would be talking about this because they needed something for the show that was going into the toilet. So they thought ‘Well, she’s got the biggest following. Let’s go for her.'”

Sharon Osbourne added:

“I felt totally betrayed, not protected by CBS. I felt used. I felt like an old shoe. They didn’t care. It was a set up and it was set up by one of the executives.”

Osbourne then revealed that other co-hosts, such as Carrie Ann Inaba, previously took issue with the network not prepping the hosts for hot-button conversations. In response, the co-hosts at the time–Sharon Osbourne, Carrie Ann Inaba, Sheryl Underwood, Amanda Kloots, and Elaine Welteroth–banded together to form a pact and protect each other. Osbourne stated:

“We went to lunch and we all agreed that no, we wouldn’t hijack each other. We all agreed, we all drank on it. We all agreed and it never happened, did it? Because the next month they were all wised up but me.”

Elaine Welteroth, Carrie Ann Inaba, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood, and Amanda Kloots

She then commented on the public backlash levied against her and said it was unreasonably harsh:

“It was as if I had gone in there with a machine gun and threatened to kill somebody. It wasn’t like I was coming in with T-shirts, with horrible slogans. I didn’t come in with a white hood, I don’t tell jokes about religion or color… Where is the forgiveness? Where is a second chance? So you say something wrong. You’re not threatening somebody, but you say something wrong. You’re out, you are out.”

Sharon Osbourne then began to speak on the hardships she and her family faced in the aftermath of her controversy, such as receiving death threats. She stated:

“I definitely went through a difficult patch at the beginning. I found it embarrassing. The humiliation that people would think that I might be a racist. They were going to kill the family. They were going to come at night with knives, cut all our throats and the animals. So I had all of that, all the threats, and we had to have 24 hour guards… Anything you got to say about me, I can take it. Do not start on my family. I mean, that’s… you can’t get any lower.”

Kelly and Sharon Osbourne

Jack, Sharon, and Ozzy Osbourne

She then revealed that she underwent three months of ketamine treatments due to the situation:

“I went through three months of therapy. I had ketamine treatment and I got it all out. All the tears and everything that I felt, you know. All of that, it’s gone.”

While ketamine is commonly known as a horse tranquilizing drug that’s sometimes abused, it can reportedly be medically administered in small doses to help with depression.

Sharon Osbourne proceeded to wrap up her interview by claiming she’s learned that talk shows are “not a safe place to be”:

“I’m not going to go on another TV show that’s talk because I know right now it’s not a safe place to be. The slightest thing and you’ve p***ed off half the nation and I don’t want to put myself up for that grief. I really don’t.”

What do you think about Sharon Osbourne’s comments? Share your thoughts down below to let us know!

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