‘The Talk’: Jerry O’Connell Speaks out on Replacing Sharon Osbourne

Jerry O’Connell opened up about his new position on The Talk and admitted that he was nervous taking over as co-host after Sharon Osbourne‘s contentious exit. O’Connell was a guest on the Radio Andy show Bevelations, and host Bevy Smith asked him about being a new addition to The Talk during such a time of transition, with the exits of Osbourne, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Elaine Welteroth and the addition of new co-host Akbar Gbajabiamila. “For you, were you at all concerned about coming into a space after there had been that kind of, uh, a blow-up or kerfuffle or drama?” Smith asked.

“Yeah, a little bit,” O’Connell admitted. “It’s funny, I didn’t know the exact details of everything that happened. I remember reading that Sharon Osborne was no longer on The Talk and then I was literally on there.” O’Connell also joked about being “the rebound guy” In more than one area of life, referencing meeting his wife Rebecca Romijn after her divorce.

“And I’ll tell you, being that rebound guy is fun. My wife would get depressed and I’d be like, ‘What are you depressed about? Like, let’s go have fun. Who cares?’” O’Connell said. “Coming in here right after Sharon Osbourne left, I could tell there was trauma with this group, you know, they were shook, they were shooketh.  And I came in and I was like, ‘Hey guys, I don’t know anything about that. Like, let’s just have a good time.’ And anytime it was even brought up, I was like, ‘Hey guys, guys, guys, that wasn’t me, please. Can we not talk about that today?’” O’Connell ended by quipping, “I get to be like the hot new boyfriend.”

Osbourne told the Daily Mail on Monday that she has struggled with the fallout of her controversial exit. She left The Talk in March after she was accused of using racist, homophobic and bullying language in her interactions with her former co-hosts. She also faced backlash for defending Piers Morgan’s statements about Meghan Markle.

“I definitely went through a difficult patch at the beginning,” Osbourne told the outlet. “I found it embarrassing. The humiliation that people would think that I might be racist.” She continued, saying that she and her husband, Ozzy Osbourne, hired round-the-clock security after receiving death threats. She said she developed anxiety and tried ketamine therapy treatments at the suggestion of her friend and former co-host Sara Gilbert.

“I went through three months of therapy,” Osbourne said. “I had ketamine treatment and I got it all out. All the tears and everything that I felt, you know. All of that, it’s gone.”