Behind the glass of a mahogany cabinet, hundreds of framed photos tell the life story of the Osbournes - self-professed Prince Of Darkness, Ozzy, 61, Sharon, 57, Kelly, 25, Jack, 24, and the lesser-known elder sister Aimee, 26. But beneath the smiles, cuddles and studio snaps lies a darker side to family life - Sharon's bulimia, dad Ozzy's alcoholism and Kelly and Jack's battles with prescription drugs. Theirs is a family that has had more than its fair share of heartache. But, like every good story, it seems the Osbournes are finally heading for a happy ending - and Fabulous has a ringside seat. We've travelled to the family's palatial home in Hollywood for a photo shoot with Kelly and Sharon and to witness the two alpha females interrogate each other for our Mother's Day special. It wouldn't have happened four years ago. Then, Kelly admits she was drinking too much, partying too hard and was a super-brat. Now she couldn't be in a better place - or in better shape. Teetotal and cured of her addiction to prescription painkiller Vicodin after completing her third stint in rehab a year ago, she's also looking incredible. Three stone lighter after coming third on Dancing With The Stars - the US version of Strictly Come Dancing - the 5ft 3in star now weighs just over 8st and has a teeny 25-inch waist. But it's the makeover she's had on the inside that really matters. Kelly is confident, happy and healthy and ready to go head-to-head with Sharon, who glides down the staircase in a black silk gown finished off with a pair of Alexander McQueen heels. Mum and daughter give each other a hug, before preparing themselves for the interrogation of their lives. Kelly: What one story sums me up? Sharon: You used to bring home the strangest assortment of friends from school - kids that were either 6ft tall or 6ft wide. You befriended anyone who was picked on. Kelly: I can be a bitch, but I'm not mean. Thinking of something to say to hurt somebody's feelings is mean. I was picked on so much in school. Kids would follow me round saying: "Kelly Smelly, with the big belly, whose dad's always on telly." Sharon: What's your best memory of me? Kelly: I was 14 a boy I liked at school stopped talking to me because his friends said I was fat. You drove to school at lunch, went up to him, and said: "If you don't leave my daughter alone, I'll chop your d*** off." All the kids were cheering: "Sharon!" From that day on, nobody picked on me again. Sharon: Have you ever felt I'm too protective? Kelly: Yes, but I understand it now. You've always said that family and close friends are the most important because they'll never be erased. They're worth protecting. Sharon: Do you like remembering the old days? Kelly: Yes, when we were babies, but my teen years were so difficult with your cancer [Sharon was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002], everything Dad was going through [Ozzy has been treated for addiction to both drugs and alcohol], and my drug use. It's not a time in my life I like to be nostalgic about. Sharon:How did Daddy's alcoholism affect you as a child? Kelly: It didn't affect me until my teens, when I started to see it. I'd come home from school and Dad was drunk, asleep on the sofa every single day. I didn't have a dad who took me to do things. Then again, he's taken all his mistakes and tried to teach me from them. That's very admirable. Sharon: Who wears the trousers in the family? Kelly: Daddy's still the boss, even if he pretends that you are. Sharon: Hmm. When he puts his foot down it's down and nothing's going to change it. Kelly: Like when he asked our opinions about his new album and we told him things that needed changing. He shouted: "What the f*** do you know?" and was unhappy all weekend! Sharon: This next question is a hard one. Do you feel... Kelly: Closest to you or Dad? Sharon: (Nods) You're extremely close to your dad. Kelly: But you know more about me than Dad because I go to you with personal stuff. Sharon: You go to Dad for cuddles. Kelly: When I was a kid, Dad would say: "How much did your mother really spend?" and I'd tell him the truth. Sharon: You were the spy in the camp! Kelly: You once said: "You learn by your mistakes." What's been your biggest mistake as a mum? Sharon: Not being strict enough. I should have given you more guidelines. Once you'd reached 16, it was too late. Kelly: I don't agree. Aimee was mature for her age, while me and Jack were total kids. I used to manipulate you by saying you'd let Aimee do whatever it was I wanted to do. Sharon: I'd send you upstairs to your room, saying: "I don't want to see you." Kelly: That was the worst thing. I'd sit on the stairs crying. Sharon: Reverse roles. If you could ground me for anything I've done, what would it be for? Kelly: When you had lots of plastic surgery at the same time in 2000. You looked like you'd been hit by a car. I could tell you were in pain, but there was nothing I could do. It was scary. Sharon: I'm an all-or-nothing person and I did that because I thought: "I can't be doing all this again." Kelly: You're proof that if you do it right, it can be great. You had it for a reason and became the woman you always wanted to be. Surgery is good for confidence. I've never had any, but if I had your old nose, I'd have had a nose job too! Sharon: It's no secret I've suffered from bulimia. How has my attitude towards my body shaped your attitude to yours? Kelly: I have the same insecurities as you, but don't have it in me to put my fingers down my throat. I sat there with you after you'd made yourself throw up after dinner. You were hiccupping and had tears in your eyes from heaving so hard. I felt more sympathy than anything. Sharon: That makes me feel so relieved. Kelly: Did you compare yourself to other mums? Sharon: All the time. When you went to the school in the UK, on bake day I'd rush to Marks & Spencer, buy cakes, take off the wrappers, and pretend I'd baked them. Kelly: You looked the part in floral dresses with big, permed hair - the perfect cake-bake mum, only you weren't! Sharon: Oh goodness, I'm a hopeless cook. Kelly: The last time you made a roast dinner everyone gagged because the mashed potatoes tasted like glue! Kelly: What part of yourself do you see most in me? Sharon: You're a mini-me - feisty. I was staring into your eyes doing these photos and it was like looking at myself. Kelly: It's weird. We have the same eyes and, like Dad, I've only got one dimple. I'm a mixture of you and Dad. Kelly: When did you realise I'd turned into a woman? Sharon: Four months ago, when you were on Dancing With The Stars. It was the way you conducted yourself and all the hard work you put in. Kelly: I don't think I'm a woman. By age I am, but that's about it. Girls mature later these days. Sharon: You've got a young spirit. Aimee has an old soul. Sharon: What one thing would you change about the way you were raised? Kelly: Can I be honest? Sharon: Is it that bad? Kelly: When I was a kid it was really hard and, to a certain extent it still is, to watch your relationship with Aimee because it was so different to ours. You let Aimee get away with things when she was younger because she acted so much older. Sharon: How dare you! You and Aimee are different. Kelly: When we were younger you should have treated us the same. Sharon: We'll talk about this later! Kelly: If you had the chance to start motherhood again, would you do it differently? Sharon: I'd love to have never used a nanny. I detest nannies. I always had such bad luck with them. They were the plague of my life. I should write a book on that. Sharon: Am I getting the work and home balance right now? Kelly: Mum, I get frustrated because you deserve to spend more time on yourself. You should be going to dinners with your girlfriends and having a laugh. You've worked your arse off for it but you never give back to yourself. Except when you fell in the bush at the Beverly Hills Hotel! Sharon: Oh God! Over Christmas I had dinner with a school friend and Simon Cowell's ex-girlfriend Terri Seymour. We were drinking white wine, then champagne. I don't remember anything else other than falling into the bushes. The hotel security guy had to lift me out because I couldn't get up! Kelly: When you walked in, I've never seen you laugh so hard. Sharon: In the morning there were twigs and leaves in the bed. Kelly: We should see if the hotel has CCTV footage! I'd pay good money for that! Sharon: When did I most embarrass you? Kelly: Two words: school bus. It was outside, so Jack and I rushed out, looked back, and you were on the balcony, pulling up your top and flashing your boobs. What were you doing? Sharon: Getting dressed. Kelly: Everyone thought it was funny but I cringed, like the time you waxed my upper lip and the wax was so hot it turned my skin into a scab. I had to go to school with a red moustache. Kelly: When did you last cry? Sharon: I can't even remember. I remember when you, me and your dad were all sick in New York and watched The Notebook in bed together. We cried for half an hour solid. That movie bonded us. It was such a sweet moment. Kelly: When have I most been there for you? Sharon: When I had cancer. You took really good care of me. The first person I'd see at the end of my hospital bed was you with a bag of food and my dog Minnie who you sneaked in. Kelly: I learned how to give you injections, I bathed you and helped you go to the bathroom when you were so sick from chemotherapy you couldn't go alone. Sharon: This makes me feel emotional. You were incredible. Kelly: It makes me emotional too. For so long I pushed it all away with drugs and when I stopped doing drugs that was one of the issues I had to deal with. Sharon: What have you never told me? Kelly: I never want to talk to you about sex, that's just weird. There's talking about sex and the other side of it and I'll never go there with you. Sharon: When are you planning on making me a grandma? Kelly: Do you want to be a grandma? Sharon: Very much. It's one of the bonuses of growing old. Kelly: I want kids, I'm just not ready yet. I have to live my life and have fun so I won't have regrets. And I need more patience. I'll have kids with Luke [Worrall, her 19-year-old British model fiancé] and they'll be beautiful. Kelly: Do you think I'll make a good mum? Sharon: A fantastic mum. You'll have six kids. You'll sing with them, play with them, you'll be so hands on. Kelly: When have you been most worried about me? Sharon: When you were 21 and moved back to England alone. Kelly: I'd had a realisation that you were right about the way I lived my life - I was never home on time, I was always drunk, I was rude to people and I had no respect for myself. I was ashamed that you were right but I didn't want to admit it. I went to England to do what I wanted - it didn't get me anywhere. Sharon: Gosh, that was really hard. Every day there was another picture and comment in the papers about you. Kelly: I painted a picture of myself as a drunk, spoiled brat. Nobody saw that I was f****** dying inside. I hated myself. Sharon: You had low self-esteem. Kelly: When did I make you most angry? Sharon: Not angry, just hurt. When you were in England you wouldn't call or you'd say: "I'll call you right back" and never would. I'd call and call and my heart would be breaking. Kelly: Do you regret signing our family up to a reality show because, in hindsight, it was wrong for me and Jack to bein the spotlight so young [Aimee chose not to be part of the show]? Sharon: No. I've gone over and over it and I'm happy that we did the show. I don't think that you and Jack went on the wrong path because of it. Kelly: I was a full-blown drug addict before we even started filming when I was 16. I was using from 13. I had my tonsils taken out and they gave me liquid Vicodin to dull the pain - a s*** load of the stuff, bottles of it. I didn't know I was addicted to it. I just knew that when I took it I felt happy. Sharon: I had no idea! I was the idiot that didn't see a thing. Kelly: I was drinking with my friends and smoking pot. I felt so insecure. I was the chubby English girl in a culture I didn't understand. I was out at a club one night and a friend offered me prescription drugs. I didn't think it would do any harm. Sharon: When was your lowest point? Kelly: When I woke up in rehab for the third time [January 2009]. I went in after probably the shortest binge I've ever had, but before rehab it was the darkest, most miserable time of my life. I was praying for death. I was taking extra hoping that I wouldn't wake up. I was showing up for work on our Osbournes: Reloaded TV show and passing out in my seat. I'd given up trying to hide it. I wasn't brushing my teeth, showering or getting dressed. I was just doing drugs in my room by myself. Sharon: I knew what was going on, but not how bad it was. I was so worried. I tried to talk to you. Kelly: But I was putrid, nasty, attacking. Sharon: When you went to rehab you were over 21 so I had no information because you didn't want to talk to me. I didn't know how you were getting on. I was grasping in the dark. When you called you only spoke to Dad. It was horrendous. Kelly: I didn't speak to you for two weeks because I thought I didn't need to be there. Addicts will blame anything to justify their actions and I blamed you for everything. Then one day I thought: "I've been the biggest nightmare to my mum and none of this is her fault." I was embarrassed and had to say sorry. Sharon: When did I support you most? Kelly: Now. Until you have respect for yourself you can't ask or expect someone to be there for you. Now I'm in that place. Sharon: It's so nice you're in that place. I've always felt proud of you, but I respect you for what you've done. You've got your whole life ahead of you, you're settled and happy with yourself. Now you can enjoy every day and I can breathe. I know now that if anything were to happen to me tomorrow, you'd be fine. Kelly: Luke doesn't want to be around me should anything happen to you or Dad. I'll end up in a mental institution for sure. Sharon: Kelly, as Elton would say, it's the circle of life. Kelly: Oh shut up, Ma! Revenge by Sharon Osbourne (Sphere, £12.99) is out now.A few home truths
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment