Sharon Osbourne

Sharon Rachel Osbourne (née Levy, later Arden; born 9 October 1952) is a British-American television personality, music manager, and author.

Sharon Rachel Levy was born on 9 October 1952 in London, United Kingdom, as the daughter of Don Arden (born Harry Levy) (1926–2007), who was a music promoter and rock and roll entrepreneur, and his wife, Hope (née Shaw, 1916–1999).

She has a brother, David.

Her mother was of Irish descent and her father was Ashkenazi Jewish.

Osbourne revealed she was surrounded by violence during her childhood and that it was a normal occurrence to see her father threatening someone, or brandishing a firearm.

Osbourne's father managed Black Sabbath and fired Ozzy Osbourne from the group.

Levy subsequently began dating Ozzy, in 1979, and took over his management from the Arden organisation.

Levy coordinated the recruitment of a backing band (Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley, and Lee Kerslake) for the recording of the Blizzard of Ozz album and helped Ozzy launch what became a successful solo career.

Arden resented his daughter for dating Ozzy and managing his career.

In her memoir, Osbourne relates that he had robbed her, once tried to kill her, and once told Ozzy that she had tried to seduce him, to turn Ozzy against her.

She soon lost contact with her father and did not speak to him for 20 years.

A series of high-selling albums and world tours followed through the 1980s, eventually bringing about Ozzy's popularity.

Osbourne is credited with reviving her husband's heavy metal career by founding the summer Ozzfest tour, which was held almost annually between 1996 and 2018.

In light of her success managing her husband, she branched out into managing other acts, such as Gary Moore, Motörhead, Lita Ford, and The Smashing Pumpkins, through her own company Sharon Osbourne Management.

In 1996, Osbourne created the Ozzfest summer touring festival.

In an interview in 2001, she commented that her father has never seen her children and that "he never will".

Osbourne had told her children that their grandfather was dead but they unknowingly saw him for the first time when Osbourne was shouting abuse at him on a street in Los Angeles.

When asked who she was shouting at, she replied Tony Curtis.

They were reunited in 2001 and he then had a role in their reality show, The Osbournes.

She is married to heavy metal singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne and came to prominence while appearing on The Osbournes (2002–2005), a reality television show that aired on MTV, which followed her family's daily life.

From 2003 to 2006, Osbourne hosted her own television talk show The Sharon Osbourne Show, which was syndicated to various US channels and also shown in the UK on Sky One. In 2010, she was a contestant on the NBC reality show The Celebrity Apprentice, and became a co-host on the CBS talk show The Talk, hosting until her termination in 2021.

In 2022, she joined TalkTV, hosting a prime time show also titled The Talk.

In 2024, Osbourne appeared as a celebrity lodger on the twenty-third series of the ITV reality show Celebrity Big Brother.

Osbourne has released three autobiographies and two novels.

Her first autobiography, Extreme, debuted at number one on the Sunday Times best-seller list and went on to become the most successful female autobiography ever in the UK.

Osbourne later became a judge on television talent competition shows, including The X Factor (2004–2007, 2013, 2016–2017) and America's Got Talent (2007–2012).

In August 2004, Osbourne stated her father had Alzheimer's disease and she paid for his care in the last years of his life.

Osbourne's relationship with her mother was also damaged.

At the age of 17, Osbourne lost her virginity and realised two months later that she was pregnant.

By her account, pressure from others, principally her mother, influenced her decision to have an abortion, which Osbourne has described as the biggest mistake in her life.

While visiting her parents on a later occasion, her mother's dogs attacked her and it was some time before her mother appeared to call them off.

She was pregnant at the time and subsequently lost the baby.

It went on to become a regular rock occasion and celebrated a 10th anniversary in 2006.

By 2007, the ticket prices had reached £76 and Osbourne announced that the tickets would be free to allow more people the opportunity to attend the concert.

Prior to the founding of Ozzfest, Osbourne approached Lollapalooza, another rock/pop festival, to request that Ozzy play at that year's festival, only to be rejected and told that Ozzy was "uncool" and too drugged up.

It was then that she decided to launch her own festival.

Controversy ensued when she pulled the plug on Iron Maiden's set three times in one performance.

She also harassed the singer Bruce Dickinson, and threw eggs at the band.

According to a 2009 article in The Guardian, Hope Arden was a cold woman who became even stranger after a serious car accident, something which Osbourne said "unhinged her".

When Osbourne was informed of her mother's death, she said "Oh, what a shame" and simply put the phone down.