Sharon Osbourne is more famous for not being famous than anything else. She became the wife of 70s rocker and former Black Sabbath front man, Ozzy Osbourne, in 1982 after being his manager for three years. Nowadays she’s a TV presenter, pundit and advocate of weight loss.
The couple built a good life together, having three children and a somewhat regular normal life given the circumstances but when MTV cam knocking and ‘The Osbournes’ hit the airwaves, the families ‘normal’ life was exposed to the world and the bawdy family became the staple for many TV viewers.
It was Sharon spoke to MTV and invited them along to talk about reality show that would capture the everyday minutiae of an otherwise quite ordinary family.
MTV aired the first episode of ‘The Osbournes’ on March 5, 2002 and on the back of it the whole family catapulted to fame; the public ultimately having to endure four years of family disputes, teenage tantrums and enormous egos.
Among the more dramatic highlights of the show came jus a few months into the first season when Sharon was diagnosed with colon cancer (also called ‘colorectal cancer’)which had spread to her lymph nodes.
She was given a 33 percent chance of survival by doctors but despite the grim prognosis, Sharon was insistent that MTV cameras continue to document the family’s daily life and capture her journey through the illness and subsequent treatment.
She eventually underwent surgery to remove the cancer and that was followed by a course of chemotherapy. As a result she suffered hair loss and donned a wig to keep up appearances.
The whole cancer episode took a huge toll on the family and Ozzy admitted that he nearly fell apart during her treatment. Their son Jack suffered from deep depression which led to a suicide attempt.
Since being declared cancer free, Sharon has been back in front of cameras, hosting a myriad of shows including ‘The Sharon Osbourne Show’, ‘The X Factor’ and ‘Rock of Love: Charm School’. In March of 2009 a new variety show called ‘Osbournes: Reloaded’ was launched and aired in the United States.
Sharon is no stranger to the surgeon’s knife and she freely admits to undergoing extensive cosmetic surgery. Among her remodelling she has had rhytidectomy (a type of cosmetic surgery that involves removing wrinkles for a more youthful appearance), abdominoplasty (a procedure to give the abdomen a firmer appearance by removing excess skin and fat), as well as mastopexy, which is a breast augmentation. Her procedures totalled a whopping $500,000.
The list does not end there: in 1999 also underwent lap-band surgery, in which an adjustable band was wrapped around her stomach. This method – also called an ‘Adjustable Gastric Band’ – is used in obese people to shrink the size and volume of their stomachs, causing them to eat much less. Sharon lost 100 pounds through the procedure, but her weight troubles didn’t end there.
Always a little on the heavy side, she has attempted to countless weight loss ventures which led to yo-yo dieting and fluctuating weight. Despite the success of her lap-band surgery, she admitted she still suffered with eating disorders – namely bulimia.
Bulimics binge on food and induce a method of ridding themselves of food immediately thereafter. The most common type of bulimia involves patients self-inducing vomiting after a binge, but other methods include the use of enemas and laxatives. The ‘binge and purge method’ is extremely harmful to the body.
To say that Sharon Osbourne’s medical record is extensive would be an understatement, yet the witty, well-respected TV personality and matriarch of the kookiest family on television has proven her perseverance when facing pitfalls in regards to her health.
