Sara Gilbert Tearfully Announces She's Departing The Talk

The out actress and producer explained why she's leaving after nine seasons.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

April 09 2019 11:27 AM EST

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One of the creators of the CBS's The Talk, Sara Gilbert, announced Tuesday that she would be leaving the show at the end of this season.

Gilbert cited the need to balance her career and family as the reason for her departure; she's married to music producer Linda Perry, who she has three children with. A tearful Gilbert (who was recently behind the Roseanne reboot that became The Conners after Roseanne Barr made racist comments on Twitter) spoke about the difficulty of trying to do it all.

"This is something that I have been struggling with for a while, and going back and forth, but I've decided that it's time for me to leave the show at the end of this season. I obviously love it here, and like I said, this was extremely difficult," Gilbert said.
Last season, I did The Conners and was also producing and [hosting] here. I loved it and felt totally empowered, but also, if I'm being honest about it, my life was slightly out of balance. I wasn't able to spend as much time with my three kids as I'd like, or take time for myself."
As I've continued on, I'm starting to develop more things to produce, and I'm having opportunities to act. I'm just feeling like I don't know how I'm going to do it all. I was looking at the next six months and thinking, There's not time."
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It's difficult because this is a place that I love and a place that I'm extremely happy. I love the hosts, I love the crew, I love our staff. I'm so grateful to the audience for letting me in your homes every day. It's been such an honor."

Gilbert also said that her time on The Talk was not completely over as she plans to occasionally appear as a guest host.

But Gilbert wasn't the only one on the panel who was choked up. An emotional Sharon Osbourne said she's loved Gilbert's "dry humor that comes out of nowhere."

"You can respect people and enjoy working with them, but there's always someone that gets on your nerves," Osbourne said. "And there's nobody that gets on each other's nerves here. Sara, since she took over this seat, has just been slamming it every show."

"I want to say, personally, you are an amazing woman," cohost Sheryl Underwood said. "You are a true example for others to follow. You created something very special."

Rounding out the Talk's current panel are Eve and Carrie Ann Inaba.

Watch Gilbert's announcment below.