When Sharon Osbourne was a judge on The X Factor, she had a reputation for straight talking.
There wasn’t a single subject, no matter how intimate, inappropriate or downright embarrassing, that she considered off-limits. It got her into a lot of trouble at times – but also made her a lot of fun.
The 72-year-old grandmother, TV personality, wife and former manager of Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy, was particularly open about her 20-year relationship with cosmetic surgery, admitting to a full facelift, tummy tuck, eyelift, breast implants, abdominoplasty and Botox over the years.
At one point, she said she had ‘not that much skin left to stretch, pull or cut’ and complained that her last eyelift had left her ‘looking like f***ing Cyclops’.
Nowadays there’s one subject, however, that has stopped being funny – and that’s her dramatic weight loss.
Pictured in Los Angeles this week, it’s clear she’s painfully frail.
Dressed in an oversized, baggy white sweatshirt and cream trousers as she carried shopping bags, her shockingly thin frame was nevertheless unmistakable.
Sharon – a yo-yo dieter and former bulimic who has struggled with her body image her entire life – had started using the weight-loss injection Ozempic at the beginning of 2023 and lost more than four stone in a matter of months.
Sharon Osbourne in Los Angeles this month. She started using Ozempic at the start of 2023
The now 72-year-old with her husband Ozzy Osbourne in 2004. The rock star has faced his own health struggles after a quad bike crash in 2003
The power couple in 1987. Sharon struggled with her weight after three pregnancies following their wedding in Hawaii
With typical chutzpah, last year she confessed all to American broadcaster Howard Stern, saying: ‘It’s not a sin to use Ozempic if you have a weight problem, so why not talk about it?’
But a year after coming off the medication – which is licensed to treat type 2 diabetes in the US but can be prescribed by doctors here for weight management – she’s been left struggling to eat and today barely weighs seven stone, which is far too thin for her 5ft 2in frame.
She’s desperately worried about her health, friends say, as is everyone close to her – including her equally frail husband Ozzy, 76.
‘Sharon simply can’t eat,’ said a friend. ‘If you go for dinner with her, she pushes her food around her plate.
‘She struggles to eat a bowl of fruit. She has stopped taking Ozempic but the after effects have been awful for her. She didn’t expect it to end up like this.
‘She looks in the mirror, she knows what she looks like.
‘She’s gaunt, she’s so thin and while she has been very trim for a long time, this is something else and she knows it. Does she wish she never touched Ozempic? Yes.’
Other friends are urging her to take action against the manufacturers of the drug.
Sharon is said to be desperately worried about her health, with everyone close to her also concerned about her wellbeing
Sharon in 2014. Her popularity soared after reality series The Osbournes began in the early Noughties
‘Nobody else seems to look like Sharon after taking it,’ another friend of the star told me. ‘It has completely changed her. She looks awful at times, and she knows that Ozempic hasn’t been so kind to her.’
Ozzy, who spent years abusing alcohol and drugs as the archetypal wild man of rock, was seriously injured in a quad bike accident in 2003 which left him needing multiple spinal operations and frequently confined to a wheelchair.
Then in 2020 he revealed he had been diagnosed with the progressive neurological disorder, Parkinson’s Disease.
The couple, whose 42-year marriage has endured despite Ozzy’s infidelities and relapses, had been looking forward to returning to the UK where Sharon had been masterminding renovations to their house in Buckinghamshire. She saw it as the place for them to see out their days together.
However, Ozzy’s precarious health has left him currently unable to travel and confined to their home in Los Angeles – where he has full-time carers to look after him.
‘She is worried, he’s the love of her life and he is struggling,’ a friend says. ‘Their plans to come home to Britain and have a lovely life are not happening at the moment.
‘That gives you an idea of how bad the situation is and it is terrifying for her.’
In turn, I’m told that Ozzy is also worried about his wife and friends say that if anything happened to her he would be ‘inconsolable’.
The couple, whose reality TV show The Osbournes propelled them to international stardom in 2002, have been working on a ten-part reality TV series, called Home to Roost, about their plans to leave the US – where they’ve lived on and off for nearly 30 years – and start their new life back in England.
Sharon’s plans for their UK home include building a ‘rehabilitation wing’ to help the singer learn to walk again.
The proposed plans include an extension with enough space for an on-site nurse and round-the clock carers.
Also factored in are ‘an abundance of stopping and sitting’ spaces, as well as ‘discreet grab rails and aids’ throughout, plus a pool house orangery, exercise studio and garden room with views of a lake.
It’s now unclear whether Ozzy will ever able to make the trip – or indeed if Sharon will be able to continue to support her husband as her own health becomes an increasing concern.
It’s fair to say she has never trodden the conventional path, in either her personal or professional life.
London-born Sharon first met Ozzy in 1970 when she was only 18 years old and her father, Don Arden, was managing Black Sabbath. But sparks didn’t fly between them until many years later.
That happened after Ozzy found himself kicked out of the band due to substance abuse issues and spent three months living in a hotel. It was only when Sharon stepped in to help him recover that they fell in love in 1979. She also took over as his manager the same year, encouraging him to pursue a solo career.
They married in July 1982, in Hawaii – months after Ozzy finalised his divorce from his first wife, Thelma Riley.
They went on to have three children: Aimee, in 1983, Kelly in 1984, and Jack in 1985.
Three pregnancies in three years, however, left Sharon struggling with her weight and at one point she tipped the scales at more than 16 stone – more than double her current weight.
Of her relationship with food, she once said: ‘I was never a druggie. When Ozzy and I were first together, I’d try to keep up with his drinking but I was useless.
‘One wine gum and I’m on the floor. No, my weakness has always been food. When I’m happy, I eat. When I’m sad, I eat. I was a pig. At my heaviest, I weighed 225lb — that’s just over 16 stone. And I’m only 5ft 2in. I weighed more than my husband.’
Known for her tough exterior, she was plagued by insecurities. ‘I wasn’t happy. Sure on the surface, but at night in bed alone I was very unhappy.’
She had a gastric band operation in 1999, which reduced the size of her stomach and enabled her to lose eight stone. But she had it removed in 2006 because she didn’t like ‘the way it made her feel’ and switched instead to the high-protein Atkins diet.
There was another worrying episode in 2002 when she was diagnosed with colon cancer.
Given just a 33 per cent survival prognosis, she survived and founded the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai hospital in California two years later.
A decade later, she underwent a precautionary double mastectomy after finding she carries a faulty gene which increases the chance of breast cancer.
The phenomenal success of their reality TV show, The Osbournes, plus Sharon’s three-year stint as a host on the X Factor between 2004 and 2007, meant she was rarely out of the public eye in the Noughties – which no doubt further focused her attention on her appearance.
Having decided to give Ozempic a try two years ago, initially she says she was pleased with the results but was shocked at the drug’s dramatic impact on her body.
‘You can lose so much weight and it’s easy to become addicted to that, which is very dangerous,’ she has said. ‘I couldn’t stop losing weight and now I’ve lost 42lbs. I can’t afford to lose any more.’
When she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother last year, viewers were shocked by how desperately thin she’d become. Some were even left wondering if it was even really her on the show, she was so unrecognisable.
With typical self-deprecation, Sharon admitted on a podcast in February that she’d gone ‘too far’ and feared she’d permanently damaged her metabolism.
Whatever happens, it’s clear that the Osbourne Show is not yet over, and Sharon and Ozzy have yet even more obstacles to surmount, before they can finally enjoy the peaceful life they’ve planned for their old age.
