Kelly Osbourne reflected on her abrupt departure from E!’s Fashion Police while addressing former co-host Giuliana Rancic — nine years after the racism scandal involving Rancic and Zendaya.
In February 2015, Rancic, 49, “joked” that then-18-year-old Zendaya “looks like she smells like patchouli oil or weed” because she wore dreadlocks to the Oscars.
The episode, featuring Osbourne, Rancic, Kathy Griffin and George Kotsiopoulos, sparked major backlash, with Zendaya herself publicly decrying Rancic’s “ignorant insults and sheer disrespect.”
Rancic insisted her comments had “NOTHING to do with race” as she apologized for “offending” Zendaya.
At the time, Osbourne was forced to quell rumors that she had said the Zendaya joke off-camera and just weeks later she announced she was leaving the show after five years.
During Tuesday’s episode of The Osbournes Podcastthe influencer called 2015 racing one of her “biggest regrets” as she discussed the fallout with her family.
Kelly Osbourne reflected on her abrupt departure from E!’s Fashion Police as she addressed former co-host Giuliana Rancic – nine years after the racism scandal involving Rancic and Zendaya
She admitted that Fashion Police was “the best job I ever had” when she worked under the late Joan Rivers, who co-hosted with Osbourne and other panelists from the show’s premiere in 2010 until her death in September 2014 at 81 -year age.
The comedian’s daughter, Melissa Rivers, 56, served as executive producer until the show’s cancellation in 2017.
Kelly told mother Sharon Osbourne, 71, that it was “the closest I ever got to working with my mother.”
But when Sharon spoke about her time with Rancic, Kelly fired back, “We don’t have to give her anything.”
Kelly’s brother Jack Osbourne, 38, then reiterated the Giuliana/Zendaya scandal to listeners.
“One of the co-hosts of the show made a very racist comment about her hair, and nothing happened to the woman who made the comment,” Jack explained, referring to Rancic.
“And then Kelly took the position of, ‘That sucks. I don’t want to work with someone like that.”
“And then somehow it got turned around where Kelly said the comment, but Kelly didn’t say the comment,” Jack concluded.
In February 2015, Rancic, 49, “joked” that then-18-year-old Zendaya “looks like she smells like patchouli oil or weed” because she wore dreadlocks to the Oscars.
The episode, featuring Osbourne, Rancic, Kathy Griffin and George Kotsiopoulos, sparked major backlash with Zendaya herself publicly criticizing Rancic’s “ignorant insults and sheer disrespect”; Zendaya seen at the 2015 Oscars
Rancic insisted her comments had ‘NOTHING to do with race’ as she apologized for ‘offending’ Zendaya
“It became a big deal, and it made me take a long look at where I was, and it made me realize that I didn’t want to be there without Joan. [Rivers]Kelly explained.
She continued, “It’s one of the biggest regrets about all of this, to be honest, was that Melissa got hurt in that because she had just lost her mother and then the show.”
Months after condemning Giuliana’s Zendaya comments, Kelly found herself embroiled in a racism scandal during an appearance on The View in August 2015.
Kelly was on the talk show during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and in the aftermath of his “Mexico Isn’t Sending Its Best” speech, when she stated, “If you throw every Latino out of the country, who will it be?” clean your toilets?’
She quickly received gasps of shock from the audience and co-hosts Rosie Perez and Whoopi Goldberg, followed by backlash, accusations of racism and death threats.
Kelly reflected on the incident in a 2024 interview with Rolling stonetelling the outlet she considers it “the worst thing I’ve ever done.”
‘For me, that makes it by far the worst thing I’ve ever done… And to be labeled as something you’re not is really hard. But it happened. “I can’t do anything,” she said.
When asked who she saw when she watched that video now, she replied, “A self-righteous little bastard.”
She continued, “I hate it. I hate it so much because I look at it and think, ‘You think you know everything and you know nothing. Nobody wants to hear it. [your] opinion on this.”
The mother-of-one also revealed that she can now see some of the humor in the “cringe” moment, thanks to a new TikTok trend where users recreate the clip by sharing their own problematic stereotypes.
Osbourne was forced to quell rumors that she said Zendaya’s “joke” off-camera and just weeks later announced she was leaving the show after five years.
“It became a big deal, and it made me take a long look at where I was, and it made me realize that I didn’t want to be there without Joan. [Rivers]” Kelly explained; Fashion Police co-hosts Osbourne, Rivers, Rancic and George Katakouzinos pictured
“If you throw all the white women out of the country, who’s going to save all the pitpulls?” asked one user of the app.
“If you kick every lesbian out of the country, who’s going to rent your trucks, U-Haul?” asked another TikToker participating in the trend.
Kelly said of the trend, “It’s the most cringe-worthy moment of my entire life. But seeing people being creative with it puts a smile on my face. It turns something so ugly into something funny.’
She added that watching the original clip hasn’t made it any easier: “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hate myself a little more every time I see it.”
The daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne and TV personality Sharon Osbourne then clarified what she meant by the words she said eight years ago.
“This whole country is built on immigrants, and if you keep people from coming to this country to do the jobs that keep this country alive and thriving and prospering, who’s going to do all the jobs you don’t want to do? she said, adding, “It came out so wrong.”