When Ozzy Osbourne asked his beloved wife and children to bury him under a crabapple tree in the garden of the family’s sprawling Buckinghamshire estate, they immediately agreed.
It was, of course, his dying wish and a place where they could remember him.
In fact, he wrote in his 2009 autobiography I Am Ozzy that he wanted to be buried under a fruit tree, ‘so the kids can make wine out of me and get p**sed out of their heads’.
He’d repeated the request to Sharon in person, telling her: ‘Don’t cremate me, whatever you do. I want to be put in the ground, in a nice garden somewhere, with a tree planted over my head. A crabapple tree, preferably.’
So when the legendary Black Sabbath front man died in July following a long battle with Parkinson’s, his wife Sharon dutifully carried out his wishes.
Now, however, I can reveal that this final act of love for her husband of 43 years has left Sharon with a painful dilemma.
For while Ozzy is buried in the grounds of Welders House, a Grade II-listed Georgian mansion in the village of Jordans, Buckinghamshire, which the couple purchased in 1993, their three children Aimee, Jack and Kelly, as well as their five grandchildren, have all now decamped Britain and gone back to Los Angeles, leaving Sharon grieving alone.
Sharon, 72, is a doting grandmother to Jack’s daughters – Pearl, Andy Rose, Minnie Theodora and Maple Artemis – and also to Kelly’s little boy, Sidney, and misses them dreadfully.
Speaking about Sharon, one source tells Katie Hind: ‘She can’t cut herself in half and be in both places but she is so devoted to Ozzy. ‘She is in a state of pure devastation’
Ozzy is buried in the grounds of Welders House, a Grade II-listed Georgian mansion in the village of Jordans, Buckinghamshire, which the couple purchased in 1993
Sharon, who worked alongside Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh on the now defunct ITV show, the X Factor, has a huge network in Los Angeles where she and Ozzy lived for 20 years
She’s now torn between staying in the UK with Ozzy, or leaving him behind and jetting back to a life in California where she will be surrounded by her loved ones.
A source close to the star tells me: ‘Sharon is heartbroken, she thought she would be nursing Ozzy for much longer in the UK. It’s where she thought her short-term future would be while she looked after him.
‘Now she’s sad, she is lonely, she’s a widow.
‘For a while Kelly, Aimee and Jack were around but the world moves on, they have lives so they gradually left her.
‘Sharon faces living a life without the children but it’s so upsetting to leave Ozzy cold in the ground.
‘It’s impossible. She can’t cut herself in half and be in both places but she is so devoted to Ozzy.
‘She is in a state of pure devastation, her friends hope that she makes the choice to go back to living in America really soon.
‘It’s her birthday soon and surely she won’t want to be celebrating alone. She needs to hug the family that she loves so much.’
The Osbourne family in 1997. While daughters Kelly and Aimee were saddened at the idea of the couple leaving LA, they were supportive of Ozzy’s wishes. Meanwhile, their older brother Jack spoke out publicly of his disapproval at the plans
The Osbournes’ family home in Beverly Hills. Ozzy, who grew up in Aston, Birmingham, had always insisted he wanted to return to England to die, and so, as his health failed, the US property was put on the market, with an asking price of $18million.
Ozzy and Sharon on their wedding day in Hawaii in 1982. The couple were supposed to return to the UK in 2024 as they had been working on a ten-part reality series called Home to Roost, but Ozzy was simply not well enough
Sharon, who worked alongside Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh on the now defunct ITV show, The X Factor, has a huge network in Los Angeles where she and Ozzy lived for 20 years.
Their hit reality show, The Osbournes, which ran from 2002 to 2005, was filmed primarily at the family home in Beverly Hills – a large gated estate in the prestigious Hancock Park neighbourhood.
Yet Ozzy, who grew up in Aston, Birmingham, had always insisted he wanted to return to England to die, and so, as his health failed, the US property was put on the market, with an asking price of $18million.
Sharon then set about ensuring that their UK home – thought to be worth around £10million – was fit for his increasing needs.
She masterminded a plan to overhaul the house to include a ‘rehabilitation wing’ to help him learn to walk again, and had an extension built to ensure there was enough space for a nurse’s flat for an on-site carer who could provide round-the-clock care.
The renovation also boasted a ‘health and welfare exercise studio’, an ‘art studio room’ and ‘pool house orangery’ complete with spa, wet room and changing area.
There’s also a terraced area overlooking the vast garden and a new lake.
Upstairs in the new wing also includes an attic space and kitchenette, and the current gym has been extended.
Ozzy’s emotional funeral, on July 30, included a procession through the streets of Birmingham, where fans lined the streets to watch his hearse go by, before a private burial in Buckinghamshire, attended by his family and a host of rock royalty
Jack and Sharon during Ozzy’s emotional hometown procession in Birmingham. While Ozzy had battled ill-health for years, having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019, his death took everyone by surprise
To make sure that Ozzy could get fit in private, a 2.4m high fence was installed to keep out prying eyes and the CCTV monitoring their grounds was upgraded. There’s more visitor parking spaces as well, presumably for any professionals and medics charged with looking after him.
But sadly, none of it was needed for very long.
Sharon and Ozzy were supposed to return to the UK in 2024 as they had been working on a ten-part reality series called Home to Roost, documenting their return to England, but friends tell me that Ozzy was simply not well enough.
They finally returned earlier this summer, in time for Ozzy’s final Black Sabbath reunion concert at Aston Villa’s Villa Park stadium in Birmingham, where he was joined by fellow original band members Tony Iommi, Terence ‘Geezer’ Butler and Bill Ward on stage.
Weeks later, on July 22, he died at home – just as he said he wanted to.
Official documents listed three causes of death, including cardiac arrest, acute myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease, and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction.
While Ozzy had battled ill-health for years, having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019, his death took everyone by surprise.
Days before, he’d just completed an updated autobiography, and while the now posthumous publication will, undoubtedly, head straight to the top of the best seller lists when it is released later this year, it will feel bittersweet for the family, who’d fully expected him to be around for the launch.
‘Sharon thought she would have longer with him in the UK,’ said one source.
His emotional funeral, on July 30, included a procession through the streets of Birmingham, where fans lined the streets to watch his hearse go by, before a private burial in Buckinghamshire, attended by his family and a host of rock royalty.
While Sharon decides on her course of action now, concerns continue to grow for her own health.
She’s been left almost skeletal, after losing a dramatic amount of weight on slimming drug, Ozempic, which has left her struggling to eat.
She’d been spotted looking frail in Los Angeles, before their move to the UK, and admitted she’d lost three stone using the controversial drug.
Friends of hers have previously told me: ‘She’s smaller than Kylie Minogue now, she is absolutely tiny.
‘She could have a whole roast but it wouldn’t make any difference, there is nothing she can do to put the weight back on. She keeps being told not to show her arms as they just look so small. It’s terrible.’
Now, though, friends are even more concerned for her well-being.
‘Sharon is deep in grief,’ says one pal. ‘And when you’re grieving you tend not to eat and Sharon really, really needs to.
‘She’s as tough as old boots but she’s an older lady now and she looks so thin.’
I’m told that while Kelly and Aimee were saddened at the idea of the couple leaving LA, they were supportive of Ozzy’s wishes.
Meanwhile, their older brother Jack spoke out publicly of his disapproval at the plans, something which he will surely now be wishing his parents listened to a little harder.
Speaking on the family’s podcast in 2023, he said at the time: ‘I’m the only one in the family who thinks it’s a terrible idea.
‘They are going to be thousands of miles away from me, Kelly, all the grandkids. I’m like, “What are you guys going to do all day? Wander around the house?”’
Indeed, now, say friends of the family, Jack ‘called it right’.
I’m also told the Los Angeles house is still on the market, meaning it would only take a phone call and a plane ticket for Sharon to pick up the threads of her old life.
Whether she can bear to do so, however, remains to be seen.
