In the span of a few weeks, famous television hosts Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne left their respective talk shows after facing immense backlash over comments that were branded racist.
Following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's explosive tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, many have been vocal about their opinions of the couple. One of those people is Piers Morgan, the famously controversial former talk show host of Good Morning Britain. After the interview aired, he said that he "didn't believe a word" the Duchess of Sussex said about her mental health. His statements resulted in immense backlash and the host decided to quit his six-year gig with the breakfast news show, according to BBC. However, he isn't done expressing his opinions.
Following that, it was revealed that British-American television personality Sharon Osbourne would be quitting the CBS show, The Talk. This news came after she got into an on-air heated debate on March 10, 2021, where she defended Morgan for his comments, according to HuffPost. She had said during the episode, "Educate me, tell me when you have heard him [Morgan] say racist things," to American comedian Sheryl Underwood, who is Black. “I feel even 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?"
A couple of days after the episode, CBS released a statement confirming the host's decision. "Sharon Osbourne has decided to leave The Talk," the statement read. "The events of the March 10 broadcast were upsetting to everyone involved, including the audience watching at home. As part of our review, we concluded that Sharon's behavior toward her co-hosts during the March 10 episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace."
To this, Morgan replied, "What's happened to @sharonosbourne is an absolute disgrace that shames CBS. Bullied out of her job for defending me against an invented slur of racism because I don't believe a liar. In tomorrow's Mail on Sunday, I'll tell MY truth about this woke cancel culture bulls*t," on his Instagram, according to the Daily Mail.
“I’ve never said a single thing about Meghan Markle that could possibly be construed as racist, either in print or on television,” Morgan wrote in the column for the Daily Mail, as per The LA Times. “In fact, the only time I’ve ever mentioned her race has been to repeatedly say how great it was that a bi-racial woman was marrying into the very white British royal family.”
“It’s true that having once been friendly with her, I’ve been very critical of her in the past three years because I believe she’s a fake virtue-signalling hypocrite who ruthlessly exploits her royal titles for financial gain,” he continued, speaking of the 18-month online friendship he shared with the former Suits actress before she met Prince Harry. “But none of that honestly held opinion is based on anything to do with her skin color. I’ve been equally critical of Harry for his own ludicrous antics and he’s white.”
In the column, he also reiterated his thoughts on what went down with Osbourne. “‘I never want to have an argument with someone like Sharon,’ I said, ‘and then say at the end, right because I don’t agree with you, I want you fired from The Talk immediately. That is not democracy,’” he recalled. "... the behaviour of CBS, the Cowardly Broadcasting System, who've so pathetically bowed to the woke mob illiberally baying for blood like a bunch of crazed language-policing fascists."
"Sharon Osbourne was entitled to defend me without being deemed a racist. Just as I was entitled not to believe Meghan Markle without being deemed a racist. The fact we’ve both lost our jobs is not just an appalling attack on free speech, but it’s also a terrible indictment of woke cancel culture bull— and the stinking hypocrisy that lies at the heart of it," he continued.
References:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56334082
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sharon-osbourne-piers-morgan-remarks_n_604a41afc5b60e0725f5a3b6
Cover image source: Getty Images | Photo by (L) Frederick M. Brown (R) Grant Lamos IV
