‘The Talk’ hosts discuss what happened with Sharon Osbourne
“The Talk” returned to the air Monday afternoon with co-hosts Sheryl Underwood, Elaine Welteroth, Amanda Kloots and Carrie Ann Inaba engaging with a diversity and inclusion expert after the recent firing of longtime panelist Sharon Osbourne.
Donald E. Grant, who also focuses on equity and justice, served as moderator as the women discussed the notorious March 10 episode in which Osbourne spun out while discussing racism, prompting an extended hiatus while CBS investigated.
“It’s difficult to go back to that day because I just feel the trauma,” Underwood told Grant after saying she had aimed to be an example for people. She said she didn’t want to come across as the stereotype of the “angry Black woman” and explained that she began to tear up while talking to Osbourne because she had to restrain her strong feelings.
Welteroth said viewers that day had seen a familiar scene unfold on TV: two women “walking the tightrope that Black women are walking the entire day in the workplace.” Welteroth also wanted to make one thing quite clear: She and Underwood, she said, were in no way part of a “conspiracy” to attack Osbourne. (Osbourne had suggested in an “ET” interview that she was set up by network executives.) “Even if your voice shakes and even if you don’t have the perfect words,” Welteroth said, “it’s important that you find your voice and stand for your integrity and what you believe in.”
Underwood wanted to go on the record that while she had received text messages from Osbourne, she hadn’t replied to them because she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to behave during an internal investigation. Osbourne considered those texts to be an apology and didn’t understand why Underwood didn’t answer her.