Sherri Shepherd responds to the Sharon Osbourne controversy

'That's a respect thing,' said Shepherd

Oprah‘s landmark interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex continues to send shockwaves through the culture. After Sharon Osbourne publicly defended her friend Piers Morgan on Twitter after his racist and misogynistic attacks against Meghan Markle after the interview, her co-hosts attempted to have an open discussion about the implications of her tweet. In the now viral clip, however, the discussion quickly went off the rails, with Osbourne losing her tempter on her co-hosts, specifically Elaine Welteroth and Sheryl Underwood.

It’s been almost two weeks, and the fallout from that intense moment on The Talk with Sharon Osbourne and her co-hosts rages on. Now, The View veteran Sherri Shepherd responded to Osbourne’s argument with Sheryl Underwood in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment.

Panels: AT&T SHAPE
BURBANK, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 23: Sherri Shepherd speaks onstage during the ‘A Master Class with Niecy Nash’ panel at AT

Shepherd, who spent years on ABC’s The View (which served as a blueprint for shows like The Talk), is giving her opinion about the cringe-worthy segment. She revealed on Yahoo! Entertainment she did not appreciate Osbourne telling Underwood she shouldn’t cry, saying, “It crosses a line when you’re a grownup and somebody tells you what you can and cannot do emotionally. When they tell you: You are not allowed to cry.”

“I’m raising children. This is a job for me, the way it is for you. So how dare you tell me how I can act? I think that was definitely crossing the line. I would expect an apology to be forthcoming because you’re two grown women.” Shepherd also reveals that while The View certainly has no shortage of drama, they “never had an implosion” like that, “because we had a great deal of respect for each other.” She continued, “That’s a respect thing… If we would get into spats, an apology came right away because we cared about each other.”

Shepherd continued on to comment about Osbourne’s defense of Morgan: “It’s a little bit hard to say, ‘I’m not racist’ when you get other reports from credible people…people see you defending [Morgan], who has made comments that were racial in nature… That’s a little bit hypocritical.” Some of the “other people” Shepherd is referring to include Leah Remini, who was a witness to alleged racist comments Osbourne made towards Julie Chen.

Former host of The Talk, Holly Robinson Peete, also came out with her account of her experience with Osbourne the talk show. She tweeted out that Osbourne complained Peete was “too ghetto” for the series, and that the comment led to her being let go after the first season.

The Talk has been on an indefinite hiatus since the tense exchange, as CBS conducts an internal investigation into the incident and the racism claims made against Osbourne.

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