‘The View’ Alum Sherri Shepherd Reacts to Sharon Osbourne’s Controversial Conversation With Sheryl Underwood on ‘The Talk’

Sherri Shepherd is speaking out on behalf of Sheryl Underwood amid the extended hiatus of The Talk prompted by the way Sharon Osbourne spoke to her co-host during a heated conversation about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this month. The View alum said in a Yahoo! interview Tuesday that she thought Osbourne had crossed a line with her co-host while defending friend Piers Morgan‘s comments questioning Markle’s mental health struggles.

Telling Underwood she would “educate” her and instructing her not to cry during the discussion is where Osbourne’s comments went overboard, Shepherd told the outlet. “It crosses a line when you’re a grownup and somebody tells you what you can and cannot do emotionally. When they tell you: You are not allowed to cry,” she said, adding that in a similar situation, her response would be, “Um, I’m grown. I’m raising children. This is a job for me, the way it is for you. So how dare you tell me how I can act?”

After the episode aired, CBS announced the show would go on a hiatus amid an investigation surrounding what was said. Osbourne told Entertainment Tonight of her actions, “I own up to what I did. I can’t not own up. I said what I said. I got too personal with Sheryl. I should’ve never said stop her tears. She was hurting as I was hurting.” She continued by claiming she was not “a racist,” asking “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?” The Talk personality added that she had apologized to her co-host but had yet to hear back.

Osbourne has also come under fire after claims surfaced in the wake of the episode that she had said racist, homophobic and bullying things to former co-hosts Holly Robinson Peete, Leah Remini, Sara Gilbert and Julie Chen, all of which the British TV personality has denied. Shepherd said of her denials, “It’s a little bit hard to say, ‘I’m not racist,’ when you get other reports from credible people,” which she called “pretty damning.”

“People see you defending [Morgan], who has made comments that were racial in nature … That’s a little bit hypocritical,” Shepherd added. “I think every situation is different. I really do. And that’s why they’re having an investigation.”

Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.