Sharon Osbourne

Sharon Osbourne (born 9.10.1952)

Sharon Osbourne is married to rock singer Ozzy Osbourne. Though Sharon was known in the music industry as Ozzy's manager, she rose to prominence in the public eye when The Osbournes was shown on MTV: a reality show that tracked her family's lives.

Sharon Osbourne: Childhood & Parents

Sharon Osbourne was raised in Brixton, London. Her father, Don Arden, was a music promoter. Don was Jewish and Sharon's mother, Hope Arden, was a Roman Catholic.

Sharon Osbourne's relationships with both her mother and father have both been fraught. Sharon has publicly stated that her father was a violent man and that she regularly saw him brandishing weapons and firearms as a means to intimidate people. When Don managed Black Sabbath, he sacked Ozzy from the group. Resenting his daughter's relationship with Ozzy, he set dogs on her when she was pregnant and she suffered a miscarriage as a result. Sharon did not speak to Don for 20 years. They were reunited in 2001 and Don appeared in The Osbournes.

Hope Arden was involved in a serious car accident, which Sharon believes changed her mother's personality and she was apparently unaffected by her mother's death.

Sharon Osbourne: Ozzy & The Kids

Sharon met Ozzy when she was 17 and working for her father, who managed Ozzy's band at the time. When Don fired Ozzy from Black Sabbath, Sharon became both his partner and his manager, launching a successful solo career for him.

Sharon and Ozzy married in Hawaii in 1982. The turbulent nature of their early years together has been widely reported. Sharon was once arrested for drink-driving and the pair were physically violent, with Ozzy once knocking out Sharon's front teeth, whilst she has thrown a full bottle of drink at his head. In 1989, Ozzy was arrested for her attempted murder. He tried to strangle her whilst under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Sharon and Ozzy have had three children together, Aimee, Kelly and Jack. In 2002, they adopted Robert Marcato, a friend of Aimee and Kelly's, after his mother died of cancer.

In 2002, Sharon herself was diagnosed with cancer, which spread to her lymph nodes. She battled a 33% chance of survival and beat the disease and has since donated much time and money to cancer treatment and research.

Sharon Osbourne: Music Management Career

Sharon Osbourne is widely credited for the success of Ozzfest, the summer touring festival, featuring Ozzy Osbourne. The festival celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2006 and is recognized for helping to launch the careers of the likes of Slipknot, Marilyn Manson and Limp Bizkit.

Sharon has also managed Coal Chamber and, briefly, Smashing Pumpkins. She resigned from that role, claiming that Billy Corgan was making her sick. She has reportedly turned down requests for career guidance from Courtney Love and Guns N' Roses.

Sharon Osbourne: TV Work

The Osbournes, the MTV reality show, brought a huge amount of media attention to Sharon and her family and is credited for bringing Ozzy out of the shadows of heavy metal music and into mainstream culture's consciousness. The show began airing in 2002 and ended in 2005 and earned MTV its highest viewings figures in Britain and the US.

Following the success of the Osbournes, Sharon hosted her own talk show, The Sharon Osbourne Show, shown in the States and the UK. In the show, she tried to recreate the homely atmosphere of the reality show and conducted interviews on a giant bed. The show lasted for one season, following bad reviews and low ratings.

Sharon Osbourne was chosen by Simon Cowell to appear as a judge on the talent contest show The X-Factor between 2004-7. She also appeared on the spin-off show The X-Factor: Battle of the Stars. Appearing on the show was Rebecca Loos, who had recently claimed to have had an affair with footballer David Beckham. Being good friends with Beckham's wife, Victoria, Sharon publicly humiliated Rebecca Loos, who took a great deal of convincing to stay in the show. She has also appeared alongside David Hasselhoff and Piers Morgan as a judge on America's Got Talent.

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, Sharon Osbourne was ranked 44th in the list of the richest women in Britain.