Sharon Osbourne has backtracked on her controversial claims she fired a personal assistant after sending him into a fire at her home.
The former X Factor judge faced a backlash following an appearance on Would I Lie To You? over Christmas, where she shared a story about how she forced one of husband Ozzy Osbourneās former staff members to go back into a house fire to retrieve some of her familyās expensive artworks.
Sharon then confessed to firing him when he told the star he did not find the incident funny after sheād later laughed about it with Ozzy.
However, Sharon now has a different version of events, claiming she was ājokingā during her appearance on the BBC panel show, and actually fired the assistant years later.
Speaking on her US TV show The Talk: āI told a true story about a fire I had in my house. He went in, he got the paintings out. And then, just to be precocious, I said at the end of this little thing I was doing, āOh, and then I fired him.ā
āIt was a joke because I was on a comedy show. I fired him about 15 years later.ā
During her original recollection of the story, Sharon revealed that after lighting candles in their living room one Christmas, she came downstairs to discover that Ozzyās arm and āhalf his hairā were on fire, angrily remembering that the assistant in question was āsleepingā at the time of the incident.
She said: āI thought, right, where is that [censored] assistant? So I go into the guest house, and heās like āis everything alright?ā and Iām like, āno, the house is on fire, get out and help, go in and get the paintings outā. And I said, āyou must go in and find the dogsā.ā
She continued: āSo he has humming and ahh-ing ā this ex-assistant ā so anyway, he did get the dogs. And the fire engines arrived, very lovely people, and they came and they had this oxygen for the assistant. So I said, āhow very dare you. You work here. You get more paintings outā.ā
Sharon then claimed she took the mask off Ozzyās former assistantās face and āput it on my dogā, to applause from the studio audience.
Host Rob Brydon then questioned how the assistant came to be sacked, to which Sharon responded: āWell, after this terrible night, he was not talking to me. And Ozzy and I were recounting everything, we were laughing and laughing, and [the assistant] said, āI donāt see whatās funny about any of thisā.
āHe said āI think Iām going to have damaged lungsā, and I meanā¦ āpleaseā. So then, I just said āif you donāt think thatās funny, do you think this is funnyā¦ youāre fired!ā.ā
HuffPost UK did not receive a response from Sharonās representatives after contacting them last month.