Who is Sharon Rachel Osbourne

Who is Sharon Rachel Osbourne ? Mrs Osbourne is an English music manager and promoter, television personality and presenter. She was was born 9 October 1952.

She came into public prominence after appearing in The Osbournes, a reality television show that followed her family's daily life. Osbourne later became a judge on the talent shows The X Factor and America's Got Talent. Her autobiography, Extreme, has sold in excess of two million copies.

After the success of The Osbournes, hosting her own chat shows and securing advertising contracts, Osbourne was ranked as the 60th richest woman in Britain on the 2007 Sunday Times Rich List. Sharon and husband, Ozzy Osbourne, are currently ranked as the 724th richest people in Britain with an estimated joint wealth of £110 million. Sharon Osbourne previously revived Ozzy's metal career and she stands as the founder of Ozzfest.

Sharon met future husband Ozzy Osbourne at the age of 17 while working for her father, Don Arden, who managed Black Sabbath and was often accused of using violent tactics by his artists. When Ozzy was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, Sharon Osbourne took over his management from the Arden organization and then started to date Ozzy. Proving to be as hardworking and ruthless as her father, Osbourne coordinated the recruitment of a technically gifted backing band, these members were Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley, and Lee Kerslake for the recording of The Blizzard of Ozz and, by engaging proven songwriters, helped Ozzy launch what became a highly successful solo career. It was rumoured that Osbourne employed some of her father's tactics where one promoter was kneed in the groin after failing to produce due payments, and Osbourne single-handedly ruined a company's computer system after they sold illegal merchandise.

Sharon Osbourne (then Arden) met husband Ozzy Osbourne at the age of 17 while working for her father. When Ozzy was sacked from Black Sabbath by Sharon's father Don Arden, Sharon started to date him and took over his management. Ozzy and Sharon were married in Maui, Hawaii on 4 July 1982. Their marriage has not been without its trouble or violence. During the early stages of their marriage, they were both fueled by alcohol and drugs and Sharon Osbourne was once arrested for drunk-driving.

The couple used to physically fight regularly and according to Sharon Osbourne they would "beat the shit out of each other". She has described herself as "a beaten woman" when she was at the hands of husband Ozzy where he once knocked out her front teeth. She once retaliated by throwing a full bottle of scotch at his head. The most notorious incident arose in August 1989 when Ozzy was arrested for attempted murder after he had returned from a peace festival in Moscow and tried to strangle Sharon in a haze of alcohol and drugs. After the incident, he spent three months in rehabilitation as a result of his actions, after which time, Sharon Osbourne said she regained her strength in their relationship and did not press charges.

In 1999 Osbourne lost 100 pounds (45 kg) after lap-band surgery (Adjustable Gastric Band). Osbourne commented that being large was an essential part of her persona when she worked for her father and that being larger made a more dramatic entrance. On 26 October 2006, she went on the Howard Stern Show and revealed that she gained 15 pounds in the last year, and that she will be having her plastic band removed.

In July 2002 Osbourne was diagnosed with colon cancer. Later, she announced her cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and was more serious than originally thought. She survived the disease against a 33% survival prognosis. Despite battling cancer, she insisted that the MTV cameras document her illness during the filming of the second season of The Osbournes. When Osbourne's hair fell out during her subsequent treatment, her wigs were custom made by Cher's wigmaker. Ozzy Osbourne admitted that he "fell apart" during her treatment and recovery, and it was revealed that her son, Jack Osbourne, tried to commit suicide because of his depression stemming from his mother's condition.

A series of high selling albums and world tours followed through the 1980s, eventually making Ozzy one of the world's most popular metal acts. In 1996 she created the successful Ozzfest summer touring festival. It went on to become a prime rock occasion and celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2006. In 2007, she took the decision to make Ozzfest tickets free, as she wanted everyone to have an equal opportunity to attend a concert. The tickets had previously reached prices of £76 ($150). Ozzfest grossed $20 million each year and is credited with launching the careers of Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. Prior to the founding of Ozzfest, Osbourne approached Lollapalooza, another rock festival, to request that Ozzy play at that year's festival, only to be rejected and told that Ozzy was "uncool". It was then that she decided to launch her own festival.In light of Osbourne's success managing Ozzy, she branched out into managing other acts by creating Sharon Osbourne Management. The new company, with Osbourne as its sole employee, managed artists such as Coal Chamber, The Smashing Pumpkins, Motörhead, and Gary Moore. Osbourne also claimed to have worked briefly with Queen before being fired by Freddie Mercury. In the late 1990s Osbourne co-managed a band called Cube, with Cud guitarist Mike Dunphy. Cube were signed to Polydor Records but had limited success. Never one to mince words, in 2000 she made news by severing her relationship with The Smashing Pumpkins and then announcing in a statement: "...I must resign due to medical reasons... Billy Corgan was making me sick!" She has also turned down career guidance requests from Fred Durst, Guns N' Roses and Courtney Love.Osbourne gained celebrity status as one of the stars of MTV's reality show,

The Osbournes, which was known nationwide and followed her family's daily life. As the person who negotiated with MTV to screen the show, she is often credited with bringing about her husband's emergence from heavy metal icon into mainstream celebrity. The show began airing in early 2002, and when, in July 2002, Osbourne was diagnosed with cancer, she insisted that filming should continue. The final episode of the show aired in the US on 21 March 2005. MTV's British affiliate has been airing the show since 2003. The show brought MTV its highest ever ratings in both America and Britain.The Osbornes' Beverly Hills home (made famous on the show) has since been sold and the Osbournes have taken up residence in another home in Beverly Hills.

Her Beverly Hills home was later seen in The X Factor during series two. The show saw that Osbourne was responsible for the livelihood of 12 dogs and employs a dog walker named Cherie. From the mid 1990s until the end of The Osbournes in 2005, she was primarily based in Los Angeles with the rest of her family. Osbourne earned an estimated £11.5 million from The Osbournes. In 2003 Osbourne became the host of 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. The show was meant to be a reflection of her personality and home life – similar to her reality show but with the inclusion of guest interviews and performances. During the episodes, she conducted some of her interviews on a giant bed. However, it was never very successful in the ratings and critics panned her inability to perform the basic tasks required of a talk show host, such as reading cue cards and conducting interviews. The show was canceled in early 2004 after one season.

Osbourne was a judge and mentor on the UK reality TV talent show The X Factor every year, from 2004 through to 2007. In the first series she mentored the 16–24s and chose Roberta Howett, Cassie Compton and Tabby Callaghan to represent her in the live rounds of the show. The best placed of these was Tabby, who finished third overall. The final was contested between Simon Cowell's act Steve Brookstein and Louis Walsh's act G4, with Steve winning. Osbourne's outburst against Steve on the night of the final is widely credited with helping him to win, although according to her autobiography he was well ahead at all stages of the voting. In the second series she mentored the 25-and-overs, and selected Andy Abraham, Brenda Edwards, Chico Slimani and Maria Lawson to contest the final rounds. Andy Abraham finished in second place to Louis Walsh's act Shayne Ward. During this series, the judges were again required to bring the selected candidates to their homes. Osbourne chose her Beverly Hills home as a suitable location, which saw Osbourne inviting her neighbours and husband Ozzy Osbourne to attend live performances by the candidates. During Chico's performance, he jumped into her functioning fountain with a live microphone, and proceeded to splash water. Osbourne also appeared in the spin-off show The X Factor: Battle of the Stars. She was not required to choose her celebrity singing contestants but was selected to manage the 16–24s which were made up of Nikki Sanderson, Matt Stevens and Michelle Marsh. During the show, with Osbourne being a close friend of Victoria Beckham, she engaged in a feud with contestant Rebecca Loos, due to her recent claim of having an affair with David Beckham. Osbourne insulted Loos after one of her performances saying, "You should try doing tomorrow's performance with your knickers on because it will help warm up your voice. You have a very bad vibe that comes from you." After the incident, it took a lot of persuading to convince Loos to stay in the competition after being publicly humiliated. In series three of The X Factor in 2006, she was mentoring the 25-and-overs, and selected Ben Mills, Dionne Mitchell, Robert Allen and Kerry McGregor. Kerry and Dionne were voted out in a double elimination on 28 October, Robert was voted out on 18 November and Ben was voted out on 9 December, sending Osbourne out of the competition. During the filming of the third series, Osbourne lived at the Dorchester Hotel in central London.

Osbourne was criticised for her outbursts on the show, where before a live show in series three she reportedly spoke out against Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter Chris Tarrant, who was in the show's audience prior to filming. Tarrant had made a joke about Ozzy Osbourne to which Sharon Osbourne took offence, but most of her outburst focused on criticising Tarrant's recent infidelity to his wife Ingrid from whom he was in the process of separating. It was rumoured that Simon Cowell, fellow judge and creator of the show, was displeased with her performance in series three, and was thinking of replacing her and Louis Walsh for the next series. However, it was confirmed that Osbourne had been contracted to return for the fourth series of the show.She then appeared in the fourth series as of 18 August 2007 along with judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and the new judge, Dannii Minogue. She mentored the girls category during the show and subsequently chose Alisha Bennett, Emily Nakanda and Kimberley Southwick to represent her in the live rounds of the competition. In the first week of the live finals on 20 October, two of Osbourne's acts were in the bottom two. Osbourne responded by saying "What I did was no good - and I think I'm going home now." and she refused to play a role in the decision about which act should be eliminated. Kimberley Southwick was then voted out by the other three judges, while Osbourne claimed that she was quitting the show.

However on The Paul O'Grady Show aired on 23 October 2007 Osbourne confirmed she would return on the next episode and stated that it is part of her personality to say things in the heat of the moment and not to contrive anything that she says. Two weeks into the live shows, a number of happy slapping videos of Emily Nakanda appeared in the media, apparently showing her beating another teenage girl. This led to Nakanda being withdrawn from The X Factor due to the media attention the videos brought. On 17 November Alisha Bennett was voted out of the competition, leaving Osbourne with no acts half way through the competition.On 6 June 2008 it was announced in a statement on behalf of Osbourne that she has decided to step down as an X Factor judge after four series on the show. The statement read "Sharon would like to thank the wonderful British public for their enormous support during what's been an exciting ride. She would also like to take this opportunity to thank Simon Cowell and ITV while wishing them all the best for the next series." A spokesman from ITV commented "She has been a tremendous judge and mentor on the programme, but we respect her wish to leave and wish her the very best." Osbourne was replaced by Cheryl Cole. In 2006, UK TV network ITV commissioned a new Sharon Osbourne chat show, initially to be called Mrs Osbourne Presents, but eventually just named The Sharon Osbourne Show. Osbourne signed a deal with ITV for a reputed £2 million.The show began on Tuesday 29 August 2006, and was scheduled to run for six weeks in the 5 pm weekday timeslot. The premiere episode proved a close competition as the show received 1.9 million viewers with 17% share – 400,000 viewers (and 3% share) ahead of Richard & Judy on Channel 4. Her second show attracted 2.1 million viewers. However, ratings appeared to decrease after Channel 4 moved its game show Deal Or No Deal, hosted by Noel Edmonds, into the timeslot, with Sharon managing 1.2m viewers compared to Deal Or No Deal's 2.9m.[28] Channel 4's The New Paul O'Grady Show returned on Monday 25 September 2006 with 2.3 million viewers compared to Osbourne's 1.6 million.

Osbourne joined the judging panel on the second series of America's Got Talent, along with Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff, replacing the singer Brandy.The season premiered in the United States on 5 June 2007. In her first episode, Osbourne came into a conflict with Piers Morgan when she felt he judged a child contestant too harshly. She threatened to leave the show in the middle of filming, saying "I didn’t sign up for this", but was talked out of it. The incident was shown on air.Osbourne then returned for the third season.

Sharon is currently hosting the second season of Rock of Love: Charm School with co-hosts Riki Rachtman and Daniella Clarke on VH1. Sharon had a physical altercation on 13 December 2008 with contestant Megan Hauserman on the reunion special for the show after Megan allegedly made rude statements about Sharon's husband, Ozzy. Hauserman filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department.On January 2003, Osbourne and the rest of her family hosted the 30th Annual American Music Awards. The night was marked with constant "bleeping" due to some of the lewd and raunchy remarks made by both Ozzy and Sharon. Additionally, the night was met with some controversy, as critics panned their hosting and presenter Patricia Heaton walked out midway in disgust. Sharon later joked about the incident on her talk show, saying that she and Ozzy were banned from ABC ever since. Osbourne has appeared as a guest star in an episode of the NBC comedy Will & Grace where she played a bartender in the spring episode "No Sex N' in the City" in 2004. In October 2004, Osbourne announced that she and husband Ozzy would be teaming up for yet another MTV show entitled Battle for Ozzfest, in which a group of unsigned bands battle it out for a spot on the 2005 Ozzfest tour. In January 2005 she was contracted to feature in a television advertising campaign for Wal-Mart's UK supermarket chain, ASDA and later in 2007, Osbourne became the new face of Galabingo when she was featured in television advertisements promoting the gambling website. She has co-hosted one of the Royal Variety Performances with Jonathan Ross. Osbourne appeared in Days of our Lives, It's a Boy Girl Thing and has also provided a voice for a character in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. On Friday 15 June 2007, Osbourne guest hosted The Friday Night Project with Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr. Osbourne also made a cameo appearance on 23 June 2007 in an episode of the science fiction series Doctor Who. The episode "The Sound of Drums" saw her appearing in a spoof party political broadcast, which featured testimonials from British celebrities such as Osbourne and the band McFly showing their support for Mr Saxon to become Prime Minister.
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