American TV viewers haven’t seen Sharon Osbourne much since her contentious exit from The Talk in 2021, and now the former talk show cohost claims she’s persona non grata in the United States.
“I got banned in America,” Osbourne told Celebrity Big Brother housemates Lauren Simon and Louis Walsh on Thursday’s episode of the British reality show, as seen in a Daily Mail video.
Osbourne also agreed when Walsh, a music manager who judged the British X Factor, said that Osbourne was faultless. “I did nothing wrong,” she said, echoing Walsh’s words.
And when Simon, a cast member of The Real Housewives of Cheshire, asked if Osbourne couldn’t work in American TV now, Osbourne said, “I can legally, but nobody will employ me because they say I’m racist.”
Simon then pointed out that Osbourne is Jewish, Us Weekly reports. “I know, and that’s what I said to them!” Osbourne responded, per Us. “They think we don’t know what it’s like to be picked on. I wouldn’t pick on anyone because of their race or religion, ever.”
Osbourne was fired from The Talk after getting into a heated conversation with cohost Sheryl Underwood about Osbourne’s defense of friend Piers Morgan’s critiques of Meghan Markle. In a statement at the time, CBS said that a review of the episode concluded that her behavior toward her cohosts “did not align” with the network’s “values for a respectful workplace.”
The TV personality reflected on that firing in a 2022 interview on Fox & Friends, saying, “I was this lamb slaughtered that morning, and CBS denied responsibility.”
In other headline-making comments during her time on Celebrity Big Brother so far, Osbourne said that James Corden is a constant name-dropper who “played the L.A. game really well,” said that she thinks Anna Wintour is “the C-word,” and mimicked vomiting when hearing the name Ellen DeGeneres, as seen in a New York Post clip.