Sharon Osbourne says death threats made her seek ketamine therapy

Sharon Osbourne claims that she received a series of death threats in the wake of her controversial departure from morning talk show The Talk which forced her into self-seclusion and ultimately led her to seek ketamine-based treatment in order to cope.

After a heated discussion with co-host Sheryl Underwood, Osbourne left The Talk over her defense of Piers Morgan’s comments about Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. As reported by The Independent, Osbourne claimed Markle “ain’t black” and that “she doesn’t look black”.

Osbourne claims she received death threats following her exit from the show. “They were saying they were going to come in the night, cut my throat, cut Ozzy’s throat, cut my dogs’ throats,” she told The Times. Osbourne says she hired round-the-clock security following the threats and retreated from social life, stating “I said, ‘I ain’t going out, I ain’t doing anything.’ I just couldn’t stop crying because all I was thinking about was all the things that I’ve gone through in my life, and now they’re calling me a racist, this is insanity.”

The former panel judge and host eventually went through several months of treatment involving the therapeutic use of the anesthetic and antidepressant drug ketamine. The drug is used medically to induce dissociative anesthesia, sedation, and amnesia in the patient.

“If you’re a person that stuffs things [down]… ‘I’m fine, I’m fine’, this drug relaxes you,” Osbourne told The Times.” You’re not out completely. You can hear, you can talk, but you’re so relaxed, and you can’t bullshit on it. It’s a truth drug.”

Osbourne is returning to television in her Native U.K. later this year, in her own primetime evening show entitled The Talk on the forthcoming UK TV channel TalkTV — presumably not to be confused with the American talk show of the same name she left last year. Osbourne will join her “good friend” Piers Morgan on the network, according to Metro.