Talk show co-host and reality TV star Sharon Osbourne, wife of the famed rocker Ozzy Osbourne, has hired security detail, citing death threats over fallout stemming from a controversial discussion on race, Meghan Markle, and Piers Morgan on the CBS talk show The Talk.
TMZ reported on Friday that Osbourne has hired security detail due to a flood of hateful, death-laced messages following her heated discussion with co-host Sheryl Underwood. Messages, as highlighted by TMZ, include calls for her to “die and go to hell.” Others expressed hope that she contracts the Chinese coronavirus and dies:
We’re told Sharon’s personal phone numbers have also been blowing up, wishing harm on her and her dogs.
The private security company’s been stationed outside the Osbournes’ L.A.-area home all week to keep an eye on things.
During the discussion at the center of the controversy, Osbourne defended Piers Morgan, who doubted the claims of racism lodged by Meghan Markle, who made the suggestions during her exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“What would you say to people who may feel that, while you’re standing by your friend, it appears that you gave validation or safe haven to something that he has uttered that is racist, even if you don’t agree?” Underwood asked.
“Educate me, tell me when you have heard him say racist things?” Osbourne responded. “I very much feel like I’m about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend, who many people think is a racist, so that makes me a racist?”
“How can I be racist about anybody or anything in my life,” she said, adding, “And don’t try and cry, because if anyone should be crying, it should be me.”
Osbourne later apologized, stating that she “panicked, felt blindsided, got defensive & allowed my fear and horror of being accused of being racist take over.”
She spoke to ET this week, reiterating that she is “not a racist.”
“I am not a racist and if you can’t have a go at your friend who happens to be black, does that make me racist because I said certain things to my friend, but I said them on camera?” she asked. “I will keep on apologizing to Sheryl, even if I decide not to go back, I will still keep apologizing to Sheryl. I have nothing but respect and so much affection for Sheryl. I don’t want to hurt her.”
Osbourne added, however, that she should have “never have dismissed her feelings on national TV, ever. But I said it. I have to own it. I can’t say, you know, ‘Oh, I didn’t know why I said it.’ I know why I said it.”
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