Ozzy Osbourne was a staunch defender of his wife, Sharon Osbourne, until the end.
In the late rocker’s new memoir, Last Rites, the former Black Sabbath frontman wrote about the 2021 controversy that led to Sharon, now 72, leaving The Talk. At the time, Sharon faced criticism for defending her friend Piers Morgan, who’d recently come under fire for comments he made about Meghan Markle.
“Sharon basically said her friend was entitled to his opinion, even if she didn’t agree with him,” wrote Ozzy, who died in July at age 76. “She also said not believing Markle doesn’t automatically make you a racist. That was it, as far as I know. That’s all she said.”
After an internal investigation, CBS issued a statement saying Sharon’s behavior “did not align with our values for a respectful workplace.” The network said she made the decision to depart the talk show and noted that they would be “coordinating workshops, listening sessions and training about equity, inclusion and cultural awareness for the hosts, producers and crew.”
Ozzy, for his part, claimed in the new book that Sharon was set up — and that Sharon thought the same.
“Honestly, Sharon was f***ed the second the subject even came up. It was a complete carve-up, what happened,” he alleged. “The person she is convinced set her up — and I ain’t gonna name names, ’cos the last thing I want to do is stir all that s*** up again — knew what they were doing, I think. And Sharon, when she feels like she’s being cornered, she’s gonna come out fighting.”
Sharon Osbourne on ‘The Talk.’ Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty Images
The Grammy winner also pushed back against claims that Sharon is racist, which escalated further after Sharon was accused of saying her former cohost Julie Chen Moonves had “slanty eyes.”
“It’s against everything she’s ever stood for,” Ozzy wrote of the situation. “Anyone who’s spent more than five seconds with her knows that. The people she worked with on that show knew that. To be stuck with that label, it was just f***ing wrong. Because you can never get a gig anywhere on TV once that’s what people think of you. It’s game over. They knew that when they took her down.”
Ozzy went on to note that Sharon was “gutted” by the whole incident “for the first few weeks,” but soon moved past it.
“Once she’s cried all her tears and gets over something, she just lets it go and never talks about it again,” he explained. “In fact, she’s still friendly with a lot of the girls who used to work on the set. She’s an incredible woman, my wife. As for The Talk, poetic justice was served in the end. It got f***ing canceled.”
CBS canceled The Talk in April 2024, and the show’s final episode aired in December of last year.
“It took longer than I thought,” Sharon quipped of the cancellation in May 2024 during an episode of her family’s podcast.
Last Rites, which hit shelves Tuesday, October 7, was announced less than two weeks before his July 22 death.
“People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I’m like, ‘F*** no,’ If I’d been clean and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. If I’d done normal, sensible things, I wouldn’t be Ozzy,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said in a press release at the time. “Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can’t complain. I’ve been all around the world. Seen a lot of things. I’ve done good … and I’ve done bad. But right now, I’m not ready to go anywhere.”
Last Rites is out now.
