Piers Morgan has jumped to Sharon Osbourne’s defence while criticising Whoopi Goldberg for her controversial comments about the Holocaust on The View.
On Monday (31 January), Goldberg and her co-hosts Joy Behar, Sara Haines and Ana Navarro discussed a Tennessee school board choosing to ban Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust.
After talking about the graphic novel, Goldberg said: “Let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race. No. It’s not about race.”
When Behar and Navarro countered Goldberg’s argument, the Sister Act star doubled down, stating: “But you’re missing the point! You’re missing the point. The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Let’s talk about it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. That’s the problem.”
She continued “It doesn’t matter if you are Black or white because Black, white, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other. So is it – if you are uncomfortable if you hear about Maus, should you be worried – should your child say, ‘Oh my God, I wonder if that’s me?’ No. That’s not what they’re going to say. They’re going to say, ‘I don’t want to be like that.’”
As the episode then went to a commercial, Goldberg repeated: “To learn about man’s inhumanity to man, however it exposes itself.”
Goldberg has been widely criticised for he comments, which were branded “ignorant”, and has since apologised for hurting Jewish people “around the world”.
The Holocaust is widely defined as the state-sanctioned extermination of Jews by Nazi Germany across Europe during the Second World War. It is estimated that around six million Jews were killed, as well as millions of others including foreigners, disabled people and homosexuals.
Now, Morgan has weighed in, drawing a parallel to the treatment of his friend Osbourne, who was fired from similar chat show The Talk after she was accused of racism.
Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial
Sign up
Amid the controversy surrounding Goldberg’s comments on The View, Morgan wrote on Twitter: “Sharon Osbourne was fired from The Talk for defending me against a fake charge of racism.
Whoopi Goldberg has since apologised for hurting Jewish people ‘around the world’
(Getty Images)
“Whoopi Goldberg said on The View yesterday that the Holocaust ‘wasn’t about race’, which for Jewish people is about as racist a comment as anyone could make. Bet she doesn’t lose her job.”
The incident involving Osbourne occurred in March 2021 after she defended Morgan’s remarks about Meghan Markle’s televised interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Osbourne raised her voice at co-host Sheryl Underwood, saying: “I will ask you again Sheryl… and don’t try and cry because if anyone should be crying, it should be me… You tell me where you have heard him say racist things.”
Piers Morgan drew a parallel between a previous incident involving Sharon Osbourne amid the Whoopi Goldberg controversy
(Twitter)
After the broadcast, Osbourne shared a lengthy Twitter post, saying that she’d been “reflecting” on the incident and wanted to apologise to any Black viewers she had offended.
Following an internal investigation by CBS, Osbourne was fired from the series.