Strange Things About Ozzy And Sharon Osbourne's Relationship
Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne have been the power couple of rock and roll for 40 years. The reality show pioneers met when Sharon's dad, Don Arden, managed Black Sabbath. Ozzy was ousted from the band in 1979, so Sharon stepped in to revive the Prince of Darkness' career. The business partners-turned-lovers got together when Ozzy was still married to Thelma Riley.
Their union may have been doomed from the start, beginning a relationship with an affair where they would heavily drink and physically fight each other. Somehow, their love conquered all, and they got married in 1982. The couple had three kids: Jack, Aimee, and Kelly. The famous family, with the exception of Aimée, let cameras in to capture their chaos in MTV's "The Osbournes" from 2002 to 2005.
Ozzy told GQ the show brought a sort of Beatlemania upon his family. However, success could not fix the issues in his marriage to Sharon. Years later, the couple would continue to defend their love against relapses and affairs. It's safe to say the Osbournes' marriage is truly a "Crazy Train" ride for the ages.
Ozzy Osbourne got arrested while wearing Sharon's dress
In February 1982, Ozzy Osbourne was arrested for public intoxication when he relieved himself on a statue across from the Alamo building in San Antonio, Texas. According to Sharon Osbourne in "The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne," her husband was on a bender and wanted to join his friends at the bar once she was asleep. In an effort to keep him in, Sharon hid his clothes, but he couldn't be stopped. The Prince of Darkness donned one of Sharon's dresses and headed out.
The rocker showed up to a photoshoot at the Alamo the next day still wearing the dress. "I wanted to take a pee, so I found this old wall, I thought it was an old alleyway, and I started to pee," Ozzy said. He was actually peeing on the Cenotaph, which was built to honor those who died defending the Alamo, and was arrested on the spot.
Per Loudwire, his bail was set at $40, so he was released in time to play a gig that night. For ten years, Ozzy was banned from performing in the city. In 1992, he made a donation of $10,000 to the Alamo's maintenance organization, apologized in public (and was forgiven), and gave two free concerts in San Antonio.
Ozzy Osbourne tried to kill Sharon Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne tried to kill Sharon Osbourne at the height of his drug and alcohol addiction in 1989. The couple opened up about the experience in the A&E series "Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne" (via Insider). Ozzy does not remember the incident, only waking up in a jail cell where he learned he was facing attempted murder charges. Sharon, however, remembers vividly.
"We've come to a decision that you've got to die," Sharon recalled Ozzy saying before lunged at her and strangled her. "He was calm — very, very calm," she said. "... I felt the stuff on the table and felt the panic button and just pressed it. Next thing I know the cops were there."
"It's not exactly one of my greatest f***ing achievements," Ozzy admitted. Although this could've been the end of Sharon's life, she decided to drop the charges against her husband, which Ozzy was "very, very surprised" about. But the judge did put Ozzy on the path to recovery and sentenced him to six months in rehab.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
Their marriage survived through Ozzy's addictions and rehab stints
Ozzy Osbourne struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for about 40 years of his life. In 1996, he told Howard Stern that Sharon Osbourne once tricked him into going to rehab by telling him that he would learn how to drink "properly" in the program. At that time, Ozzy seemed to be just going through the motions of treatment. He went through this vicious cycle for years, leading to arrests and a murder attempt.
Ozzy did well for awhile but confessed that he relapsed on alcohol and drugs in 2013, prompting him and Sharon to consider separating (per Rolling Stone). "For the last year and a half I have been drinking and taking drugs," Ozzy wrote on Facebook. "I was in a very dark place and was an a**hole to the people I love most, my family. However, I am happy to say that I am now 44 days sober," the musician added, along with an apology.
A 2021 Variety interview captured Ozzy after around seven years of sobriety. "There's nothing special about me," he admitted. "I should have been dead 1,000 times," he said.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Sharon Osbourne's self-harm
Sharon Osbourne revealed on "The Talk" that she once slit her wrists to prove her love for Ozzy Osbourne. She said she was 27 years old at the time, and was dating and on tour with Ozzy despite him being a married father of two with Thelma Riley.
"When we first got together, we would drink a lot," Sharon told her then-co-hosts. "We had a session of romance, drinking, partying. It's about 4 in the morning and he says to me, 'How much do you really love me? I don't know if this relationship is gonna last.' And I'm saying to him, 'I'd do anything for you, anything, I absolutely adore you. ... I'd give my life for you.'" She said she grabbed a steak knife from a room service cart and cut her wrists ... deeper than she meant to, she admitted on the talk show.
The couple ended up having to call an ambulance, and Sharon was taken into a psych ward because doctors believed her declaration of love was a suicide attempt. "These scars are a big embarrassment," Sharon said, showing the camera her wrist. She added, "It's like, grow up ... It's sad, pathetic on a 61-year-old... Please let it go away already."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's plans if they become ill
Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne are live together, die together, soulmates. So much so that in 2007, Sharon told the Mirror that they have an assisted suicide pact together. The couple agrees that if they get an illness that affects their brains, they would go to Switzerland for euthanasia.
"I saw my father suffer from the day he came back into my life in 2002 to the day he died in July. There's no way I could go through what he did, or put my kids through that," Sharon reasoned. The star added, "Ozzy and I have asked our lawyers to make the appropriate arrangements. It's taken away some of the fear of our ending and is a final gift of love to our kids."
Ozzy elaborated on the couple's plans when speaking with the Mirror in 2014: "If I can't live my life the way I'm living it now — not the financial side — If I can't get up and go to the bathroom myself and I've got tubes up my a** and an enema in my throat, I'll just say to Sharon, 'Turn the f***ing machine off.'"
Sharon and Ozzy's volatile relationship
Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne may be rock's power couple, but nobody ever said they were relationship role models. The couple has a long history of domestic abuse, thanks to their violent upbringings and shared alcohol misuse. "I used to think if you got angry it was absolutely okay to hit someone," Sharon told Event Magazine (via The Sun) in 2017. "I would wake up with my two front teeth missing," she revealed.
The celeb spoke about her troubles with Ozzy in an interview with The Guardian in 2001. "Our fights were legendary. We'd beat the s**t out of each other," she said. "At a gig, Ozzy would run off stage during a guitar solo to fight with me, then run back on to finish the song! We were in the gutter, morally, and I realized that if we both carried on, we'd wind up a washed-up pair of old drunks living in a hovel somewhere." Though it would take Ozzy more time to become sober, Sharon quit drinking after realizing what could become of her.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Ozzy Osbourne sought counseling for his sex addiction
Ozzy Osbourne's rep released a statement noting that the rocker had a sex addiction, after reports of his multiple affairs became public in 2016, per People. The notice read in part, "...Ozzy has gone into intense therapy. Ozzy is mortified at what his behavior has done to his family. He thanks God that his incredible wife Sharon is at his side to support him."
Ozzy's mistress of four years, his longtime hair colorist Michelle Pugh, told People that the musician wanted her to exclusively see him. "When I say he gave me the greatest love of my life, I mean it," she insisted. But Ozzy's rep denied her claims, saying in a statement, "He is sorry if Ms. Pugh took their sexual relationship out of context. He would like to apologize to the other women he has been having sexual relationships with."
That same year, the "Crazy Train" singer surprised Sharon on her birthday while she was hosting "The Talk" by delivering a bouquet of flowers and a ring. She didn't open the box on the show, but showed off her new bling across the pond on "Good Morning Britain." "My husband got me a new wedding band before I left," she said, showing off the sparkler.
Sharon Osbourne's sexual orientation is 'her husband'
Sharon Osbourne admitted she was thinking about her sexuality on an episode of "The Talk" in 2016. The hosts were talking about James Franco's Vulture interview in which he said he was "a little gay." Hosts Aisha Tyler, Sheryl Underwood, and Osbourne all said they could relate to Franco's comment, with Osbourne saying, "I am not a little bit gay. I am extremely interested in the fact of what I missed out on, but too late now," per Advocate.
Some outlets, like Yahoo News, labeled her as bisexual after the comment, but Osbourne took ownership of her sexuality with Gay Star News. While she said the bisexual label didn't bother her, she clarified, "My sexual orientation is: I'm in love with my husband."
"I do truly feel that everybody at some time in their lives wonders — not that they [necessarily] act on it — what it would be like to have a sexual relationship with somebody of the same sex," she continued. "I just do. I think people who say they don't are lying."
They split due to his infidelity — then got back together
Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne's marriage has been a rollercoaster full of drugs, affairs, fame, and fights. But every time the couple thought about going their own ways, they always came back together. Ozzy's 2013 relapse had prompted discussions of a split, per Rolling Stone. "Just to set the record straight, Sharon and I are not divorcing," Ozzy wrote in a Facebook post at the time (via Loudwire). "I'm just trying to be a better person."
In 2016, the Osbournes had to once again defend their marriage as rumors of another Ozzy relapse swirled on the internet. However, Ozzy denied that drugs were the issue."I have been sober for three and a quarter years. I have not touched drugs or alcohol in that time. Any reports that I am not sober are completely inaccurate," he told E! News.
This time, the rift came from his affair with hairstylist Michelle Pugh. The Sun reported that Sharon kicked him out of their house when she learned about his infidelity, and even missed an episode of "The Talk" over the news (via the Los Angeles Times). Ozzy reportedly went to The Beverly Hills Hotel for temporary lodging.
Sharon Osbourne's reactions to Ozzy's cheating
Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne may always reconcile whenever hardships rock their marriage, but that doesn't mean it's always a graceful fall. After his affair with hairstylist Michelle Pugh in 2016, Sharon shaded his mistresses, telling Conan O'Brien she helped Ozzy see his mistakes. "We worked it out, after I got him glasses and said: 'My god, you do need glasses. Who would do that with that?'" she quipped. "Anyway, he now wears very thick bifocals and he is fine.
In 2020, the couple told "Good Morning Britain" how Sharon once reacted to him cheating on her. "I was just really broken in every sense," Sharon told Piers Morgan. "She cut every sleeve off every coat I own," Ozzy said about Sharon's reaction to his affair. Sharon confirmed, "I said to Ozzy, 'If you ever do this to me again, I'm going to cut your hair off or I'm going to cut all your clothes.'"
Morgan asked Ozzy which ultimatum he preferred, and he offered a sincere response: "I wish I hadn't done this stupid thing that I did to get to warrant that admin — and that's the truth. Because you never know what you've had until you've lost it, and I thought I'd lost it big time."