Julie Chen Says Sharon Osbourne's Exit from 'The Talk' Was a 'Mess,' Handled 'Really Horribly'
During an appearance on WWHL, Andy Cohen also asked Chen to spill on which cohosts allegedly complained about her before her exit, who she still speaks with and how she felt about the N-word controversy this season on Big Brother.
Julie Chen Moonves was put in the hot seat on Watch What Happens Live.
On Tuesday’s episode, Andy Cohen and the show’s viewers threw some tough questions at the TV host — who was asked about her exit from The Talk, her relationships with her former cohosts, her thoughts on Sharon Osbourne’s ousting from the same show and the racism controversy on the most current season of Big Brother.
While we’ll get to her comments about her exit from The Talk in a minute, her comments about Sharon’s were pretty interesting. They came after a viewer called in and asked when they last spoke and how she felt about the situation.
ICYMI: Underwood questioned Osbourne over her defense of Piers Morgan back in 2021, after he attacked Meghan Markle following her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. The exchange between Osbourne and Underwood blew up, as Underwood said some viewed Morgan’s attacks on Markle as racist, while Osbourne demanded proof and expressed concern about herself coming off as racist for defending him. The show then went on hiatus, an internal investigation was done and Osbourne “decided to leave.”
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“We texted probably before that, I would say maybe eight months before that, because I saw a picture of Kelly looking really healthy and beautiful and I reached out to her,” said Chen Moonves on the Bravo show. “Her departure, I thought was I think the whole thing was handled really horribly. It was very sad to see.”
After Andy said he thought Sheryl and Sharon “should have gone on and talked it out” on TV, instead of going on hiatus and Osbourne’s exit, Chen said she didn’t believe any of it was “produced” well.
“I don’t feel it was produced to the point where … I don’t think people knew what they were doing and getting themselves into,” she added. “The whole thing was a horrible mess. It was watching a train wreck.”
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Chen Moonves also addressed her own 2018 exit from the show, which happened just days after her husband stepped down from CBS following assault and harassment accusations. In the years since, she’s really turned to religion, something she talks about at length in her new audio book, “But First, God,” in which she also shifts the blame for her exit to some of her cohosts.
“It was more me losing my job, not my decision, at The Talk,” she said of turning to God. “That was a decision not made by me. It was two of my cohosts went to the head of CBS Daytime and said we won’t show up if she comes in at the season premiere.”
When asked whether the two unnamed cohosts were “mad” at her for sticking by her husband, Chen Moonves said, “I don’t know, I can’t answer for them.”
Julie Chen Claims Two 'Talk' Cohosts Refused to Work with Her Amid #MeToo Allegations: 'They Did Me So Dirty'
“Now that I know Jesus, it’s all water under the bridge. Life moves on,” she continued, before revealing who she still speaks with. “Aisha, every now and then, Sheryl and I have been texting all day, so it’s been good. Eve moved back to London, she had a baby, so we keep in touch. And Leah Remini,” she said.
Addressing her past beef with Remini — which she also opens up about in detail in her book — Chen Moonves said her former cohost and “some others were also trying to get rid of me Season 1.” She claimed they complained to higher-ups about her and was later told, “You’re not one of us, you’re trying to produce us and produce the show, you need to be just one of the girls and they had more fun when I was gone.”
Chen Moonves added there were never any talks about her leaving Big Brother after her exit from The View, since “it wasn’t the network who took away The Talk for me, it was two of the women.”
“Is it easy to figure out who those two people are?” asked Andy, trying to get a little more tea out of his guest. “That’s not important, Andy,” she responded, adding, “Jesus loves them as much as Jesus loves you.”
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During the after show, Chen Moonves was also asked about Luke Valentine casually dropped a racial slur while talking with a small group of racially diverse Houseguests earlier this season. He was quickly booted from the show.
“I am not in those meetings, but when I hear it happened, I thought, ‘Gotta go,'” she said of the incident. “You have to have zero tolerance, even if the intention, no, you can’t condone that. We have no room for that. Go and grow.”
Chen’s audiobook is available now.
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