On Monday, The Talk returned to the airwaves following a month-long hiatus. But despite its much-anticipated comeback one notable person was reportedly missing from the viewing audience: Sharon Osbourne.
Last month, Osbourne made headlines after she had a heated on-air clash with Black cohost Sheryl Underwood over her decision to defend Piers Morgan for saying he didn’t believe Meghan Markle was suicidal. Following days of public backlash for what many perceived to be a racially motivated verbal attack, an internal investigation was launched to look into allegations of misconduct.
The March 10th incident ultimately led to the 68-year-old star leaving the program, and now sources have told TMZ that Osbourne was “otherwise engaged” when the show returned on April 12th.
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Upon the show’s return, Underwood joined her fellow remaining Talk co-hosts Carrie Ann Inaba, Amanda Kloots and Elaine Welteroth, along with special guests to address the scandal head-on and reflect on their paths to healing and moving forward.
When asked whether she could remain friends with Osbourne, Underwood admitted, “People have asked me, ‘Well, if you see Sharon, what would you do?’ If she greeted me warmly and sincerely, I would give her back the same, because we’ve been on this show for 10 years.”
“I want people to understand when you’re friends with somebody you stay friends with. And what did Maya Angelou say? When people show you who they are, believe them,” she continued.
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Despite her stoic disposition during most of this scandal, Underwood did make a stunning revelation about the psychological impact of being berated by a white colleague in front of millions, and then having a clip of that jarring moment go viral on a global stage.
“I feel like I’m in PTSD because it was a trauma,” Underwood said of her lingering feelings about Osbourne’s verbal attack. “And I feel like I want to get past this because I really wanted to get back to work with my friends and my colleagues and the crew — but I also wanted to get back to the audience.”
The 57-year-old comedian also addressed the conflicting stories about whether her former friend ever reached out to make things right during the hiatus.
“I want to clear something up,” she began. “There was a discussion about Sharon and I communicating with each other — I have not spoken to [her] and do not have any phone call, missed or received, that I can find in my phone [from her].”
“But there were text messages sent to me,” she confirmed. “And the reason I did not speak about, or acknowledge, or even respond to those text messages [was] because they were coming to me during the internal investigation. I’ve never been through anything like this so I didn’t know if you were supposed to communicate or not communicate while there’s an internal investigation,”
“I have not spoken to Sharon,” Underwood emphasized. “I have not had a phone call from her.”
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