Sharon Osbourne celebrated her 73rd birthday on Oct. 9, which has renewed conversations about her drastic weight loss over the years.
The British talk show host, who has confessed to using weight loss drugs was seen in photos shared by her son and daughter on Instagram.
Son Jack Osbourne shared a collage of images from his mother’s childhood, including two family photos featuring his parents, his big sister, and all their grandkids.
“Mrs O and your daughter Pearl are identical,” wrote one person in the comments, referring to Jack’s oldest daughter.
Another said, “Absolutely thought this was Pearl. There is no woman in the world built like Sharon Osbourne. Happiest birthday.”
Jack’s sister, Kelly Osbourne also shared a sweet tribute to mom in a video featuring clips of the mother-daughter duo throughout the years. It also includes a touching photo of Sharon and Ozzy in bed with their grandson Sidney.
“HBD Sharon still look like ya did when Kel was in HS!” wrote one observer. Another said, “Happy birthday mom ..so pretty beautiful face.”
While some critics online point to Sharon’s drastic weight loss over the years, it seems that fans are still embracing her. She has openly spoken about the side effects she experienced after using weight loss drugs.
Ozempic, a drug designed for treating Type 2 diabetes, has gained popularity among non-diabetics for rapid weight loss, despite not being approved for that purpose. Osbourne is one of many stars who lost weight using that specific drug, and she’s told the world exactly how the drug made her sick when she was using it.
During a conversation about her weight on “The Talk U.K.” in May 2023, she admitted that she willingly took injections that later made her sick.
“I took it for four months and I lost 30 lbs., but like everything, there’s always no quick recipe. I was very sick for a couple of months,” Sharon explained. “The first couple of months, I just felt nauseous. Every day I felt nauseous, my stomach was upset, whatever.”
This is not the first time that Osbourne has talked about her Ozempic use. In a September 2023, E! News interview, she revealed that her weight had ballooned up to 230 pounds and that using the drug helped her get some control over what she believed was too much weight.
“I’m at the point of losing too much that I have to try and maintain. In my life, the heaviest I was 230 pounds, and I’m now under a hundred,” Sharon stated at the time. “And I want to maintain at about 105 because I’m too skinny. But I’m trying to have a healthy balance.”
She is not the only one that thinks she is too skinny. So does her heavy metal rocker husband of over 42 years, Ozzy Osbourne.
The “Iron Man” rock star, who once bit the head off of a bat during a live performance in 1982, called her “Nancy Reagan,” because of how thin she had become.
In September 2023, she and her family appeared on the “Piers Morgan Uncensored” YouTube show, and she shared that she got off the drug because people “can’t stay on it forever.”
At this time, she stated that she had lost 42 pounds.
“Ozzy’s having a go at me because he says I look like Mrs. Reagan,” the tiny-framed former reality star shared with the host. “He calls me Nancy Reagan all the time.”
When asked why she ended the treatment, Osbourne said, “It’s just time to stop. I didn’t actually want to go this thin but it just happened” before joking that she’ll “probably put [the weight] all on again soon.”
On social media, many agreed that the drug made Sharon too frail looking, and her experience is the perfect deterrent for people thinking about the quick fix.
“Sharon Osbourne should be a poster child for ‘don’t do Ozempic’…she is unrecognizable,” one person tweeted.
“If Sharon Osbourne isn’t enough to put anyone off taking Ozempic I don’t know what would,” another posted on X.
If Sharon Osbourne isn't enough to put anyone off taking Ozempic I don't know what would. pic.twitter.com/1aYSTiuTAx
— Annooma Thumpton (@AnnoomaThumpton) September 1, 2024
A third comment read, “I look at Sharon Osbourne and think no thanks to Ozempic. It’s done her no favours.”
Morgan asked her to describe for his viewers what it was like taking the drug and she gave a graphic depiction of her struggles with the jab.
“At first, I mean, you feel nauseous. You don’t throw up physically, but you’ve got that feeling and it I was about 2-3 weeks where I felt nauseous the whole time,” she explained.
She continued, “You get very thirsty and you don’t want to eat. That’s it, and that’s why I keep saying you’ve got to keep this stuff away from younger people because they will go berserk on it and it’s not right.”
Probably Ozempic. They all look like that. Look at Sharon Osbourne pic.twitter.com/W9Px7bDlcG
— AsLan's Girl (@AsLansGirl808) October 9, 2024
Interestingly enough, her daughter Kelly Osbourne, also on Ozempic, chimed in and said she was glad that her mother used the drug because it gave her the confidence in how “her body” looked.
“I saw what it [Ozempic] did for my mom’s confidence, and how — I can only speak for myself — food is an issue for me. It always has been, it always will be, and to see Mom free of that for a brief amount of time, to where you don’t have to think about it because you don’t think about it and you make smarter choices because when you are hungry you eat what you have to to survive is what I witnessed with what Mum went through,” Kelly said while sitting between her mom and brother Jack.
“But seeing the confidence and seeing how good my mum feels in her body, I think it’s totally worth it.”
Kelly underwent gastric sleeve surgery in 2018 to accomplish her weight loss goals, according to Good Housekeeping.
Morgan seemed to make a connection from Sharon’s Ozempic use to the family’s storied history with addiction. According to Addiction Advocates, “Ozempic is not the type of medication that causes addiction and there are no withdrawal symptoms from it.”
Though it is not addictive, there are many side effects, more than just the nausea that Osbourne mentioned in her multiple interviews. On the brand’s website, it states that the drug semaglutide — the generic name for the active ingredient in Ozempic — can cause vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, among other milder discomforts. However, there are some serious side effects that many people don’t consider.
The drug can cause thyroid tumors that could become cancerous, pancreatitis, kidney failure, and changes in vision.
Despite its popular use, Ozempic should only be taken if prescribed by a medical professional.
