Yahoo News Celebrity Big Brother's Sharon Osbourne and Simon Cowell's feud explained
Sharon Osbourne promises to spill stories on Simon Cowell on Celebrity Big Brother
Sharon Osbourne and Simon Cowell no longer speak to each other as their feud rumbles on.
Two decades have gone past since The Osbournes star, 71, first appeared on The X Factor alongside the music mogul. They were a huge hit on TV side by side on the judging panel as two of the biggest personalities in showbiz.
While they were once "really close friends" in the beginning, Osbourne has now revealed the pair don't speak to each other. She has reunited with fellow The X Factor judge Louis Walsh, bringing back memories of Simon Cowell. What's more the reality star has claimed that Cowell will need "more Botox" after she has shared lots of stories about him in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
Ahead of her reality TV stint, she told The Sun: "He would not call Louis or I. He is very, what’s the word? Snotty. Simon just is. He has his little posse around him, the same people he’s had for years, and that’s who he talks to.
"He’s not really one of these guys who’ll be like, ‘Hey, great. You’ve given us a call. How are you doing? Yada, yada, yada’. He’s not one of those ‘checking in’ friends that see if you’re doing OK.
"We were, in the beginning, the three of us, really close friends. But then he kind of left our group and went on. But no, he’s weird as far as friends go, very, very closed off."
Yahoo has reached out to Simon Cowell for further comment.
Friends
Osbourne began working for Cowell in 2004 alongside him as a judge on The X Factor panel. On TV, they had playful spats and hilarious moments - as friends. For The X Factor, Osbourne did a number of stints on there - first between 2004 and 2007, then in 2013 and again between 2016 and 2017.
She later worked with him on America's Got Talent between 2007 and 2012.
Why did Sharon and Simon fall out?
In 2018, Osbourne left The X Factor and it seems her friendship with Cowell crumbled. It is no secret that Cowell and Osbourne fell out in 2019. Osbourne grabbed the attention of headlines when she claimed Cowell dismissed her from The X Factor panel for being too old.
Speaking on the US show The Talk, she claimed: "I turned down the show Masked Singer. I was signed on to do another show at the time. I was signed to go to England and then Simon changed his mind and thought I was too old. Simon goes, ‘She’s old, we need somebody young’."
Simon Cowell tries to end feud
Then just a few months later in October 2019, Cowell reached out to Osbourne to try and mend the bond. The X Factor boss insisted there was "no bad blood" between them and he said he would always count Osbourne as a "good friend".
He told The Mirror at the time: "I phoned her up the other day and said “Look, I’ll be honest with you. How could I criticise you for being mouthy when it’s the reason I hired you in the first place?!"
"Sharon gets a bit carried away but deep down she’s got real affection for the shows. There will be other versions of these shows, I am sure, and she is always welcome back. If ever she had an issue, I’d be on a plane in 5 seconds, she'd do the same for me.
"I know that about her. There’s absolutely no bad blood at all and I like I said, when people think I’m annoyed with her, I’m not! She’s a good friend and always will be."
Osbourne agreed her feud with Cowell was over when she addressed the phone call on US show The Talk but she said they were not friends. She said at the time: "Well, we were never, for me, not, not friends. Because for me, it was business, not personal... And there's a huge line."
Osbourne continued: "That's what happens when you work with people that you like. You fall out business-wise, but for me, I say what I feel at the time, and for me, it's over. And because I said certain things about, and to, Simon, doesn't mean I hate him forever, just for that second I don't like him... I never use the word hate when I talk about people. He's okay, it's just, I don't want to work with him."
Will they ever be friends again?
Osbourne made her feelings known publicly about Cowell. Again she didn't hold back when she said she was "never really friends" with Cowell in an interview in January. "Look, I loved The X Factor and so many of the people I worked with, some of whom became lifelong friends," she told OK magazine.
Out of the show, she formed close friendships with Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger. But Osbourne pointed out that she never became lifelong friends with Cowell and that she wasn't referring to him.
She explained to the magazine: “No, he’s never been a friend. I thank him for giving me opportunities. I did well by him and he did well by me. But he’s never been a buddy. Would I ring him for a chat? No, never.”
It looks unlikely that Osbourne and Cowell will ever become friends again.
