Sharon Osbourne Calls Out Simon Cowell for Paying Girls Less Than The Boys
NBC Reading Time: 3 minutes
Former AGT judge Sharon Osbourne has now shared her opinion on the controversy surrounding Gabrielle Union’s departure from the show. Sharon is once again calling out judge and producer Simon Cowell, this time for running a “boys club” and not treating the women on his shows equally.
Another former judge, Howard Stern, also recently spoke out against Simon, claiming the show swaps the women on the panel for “hotter chicks and younger chicks.” Read on to find out what Sharon had to say about the issue.
Sharon Osbourne Calls Out Simon Cowell For Gender Pay Gap
Sharon has called out Simon a number of times in the past, accusing him of firing her from The X Factor for being too old, and underpaying her for the show. She reiterated this point on The Talk Tuesday.
“It is a boys club, OK? It is,” Sharon said. “And the boys take care of each other, and the women are not paid as much as the men.”
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She also pointed out how often the female judges have been swapped out on Simon’s shows, and the discrepancy in age between the men and women. She used the American version of The X Factor as an example.
“There was [Simon], L.A. Reid, who’s an older man, and in between them was Demi Lovato and Britney Spears,” Sharon said. “The guys looked like two high rollers in Vegas who picked up a couple of kids. No, it’s true! They looked like dirty old men beside these two little girls.”
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Howard Stern pointed out that judge Howie Mandel has been on the show for 10 years now, while female judges have come and gone. Sharon, meanwhile, claims that Howie even got his own private plane.
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“I love Howie and I don’t begrudge anyone earning what they earn. Good for you, God bless you. But, when my old ass has been there shooting the show, and I get an American Airlines ticket and he’s in a private plane,” Sharon said. “And I get less because I’m me, and I’m not in the club, and I’m not one of the guys that go out looking for young women.”
She clarified that she didn’t mean Howie Mandel in that last remark. However, she did respond to AGT‘s recent statement concerning the Gabrielle Union situation by saying, “NBC can kiss my ass!”
It doesn’t sound like Sharon is particularly interested in returning to AGT or X Factor, but that hasn’t stopped fans from using the hashtag #BringBackSharon over the years.
