Ozzy Osbourne Revealed He Put His First Wife ‘Through Hell’ Before Marrying Sharon
Most of what we know about Ozzy Osbourne’s life is either through his singing career or his 2000s MTV reality show The Osbournes. That means that we are mostly familiar with the legendary Black Sabbath singer and his wife, Sharon Osbourne, as well as the three kids they had together, Aimee, Kelly, and Jack. But Osbourne was married before marrying Sharon, and had three other kids too.
This is not so uncommon; a lot of big-name celebrities are married before they jump to fame, and if those relationships end as they’re becoming famous or have already ended before, we end up not knowing so much about that part of their life. Who was Ozzy Osbourne’s first wife, Thelma Riley, and how many kids did the two have together?
Related: Who are Ozzy Osbourne’s kids?
Who was Ozzy Osbourne’s first wife, Thelma Riley?
We know a fair bit about their relationship, thanks to Osbourne’s memoir, I Am Ozzy. In it, he recounts that the two met during a night out with his friends. “She was beautiful and I wanted to talk to her,” he wrote of Riley, who was a teacher at the time. “I pulled her on the dance floor.”
He added, “A year or so later, in 1971, we got married in a registry office. I thought it was what you did: get some dough, find a chick, get married, settle down, go to the pub.”
The couple went on to welcome two kids together: a daughter, Jessica, in 1972, and a son, Louis, in 1975. Osbourne also adopted Elliot, Thelma’s son from another marriage. The two were married for 11 years, divorcing in 1982. Osbourne married Sharon, who was his manager, that same year.
About the split, Sharon Osbourne recounted Ozzy’s reaction to his son Jack’s own divorce. “When Jack said that he was getting divorced, Ozzy cried. He said, ‘I’m crying for you because I know how painful it’s going to be, because I’ve been through it and I don’t want you to experience that pain,’” she recounted Ozzy saying.
Ozzy Osbourne himself had spoken about how he was far from the perfect husband or father during his marriage to Thelma, who does not have a public presence these days. In his memoir, he refers to their marriage as a “mistake” and explains that he wasn’t present and was consumed by his addictions, adding that he “put her through hell.”
Osbourne’s family life continued to be hectic for years. In 2016, Osbourne and his second wife, Sharon, briefly split, and Osbourne entered rehab for sex addiction after it was revealed he had a four-year affair. His wife, Sharon, struggled to cope with the news and overdosed.
Last year, while speaking to Loose Women’s Jane Moore, Sharon said: “He always, always had groupies and I was so used to that. But when he knows the name of the person, where they live, and where they work… it is a whole different thing as you are emotionally invested.”
About her overdose, she said, “I took, I don’t know how many pills. I just thought, ‘My kids are older, they are fine and can take care of themselves. ’ So I took an overdose and locked myself in the bedroom. The maid tried to come in to clean the room and saw me.”
