Kelly Osbourne

Kelly Michelle Lee Osbourne (born 27 October 1984) is an English television personality, singer, actress, and fashion designer. She came to prominence while appearing on the reality show The Osbournes (2002–2005) with her family, which won a 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program. She is the daughter of late heavy-metal musician Ozzy Osbourne and television personality Sharon Osbourne.

Osbourne's television work includes hosting Project Catwalk (2007–2008) and Fashion Police (2010–2015), competing on the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars (2009), and judging on Project Runway Junior (2015–2017) and Australia's Got Talent (2016). She played the voice role of Hildy Gloom in the Disney XD animated series The 7D (2014–2016).

As a singer, Osbourne has released two studio albums: Shut Up (2002) and Sleeping in the Nothing (2005). In 2003, she collaborated with her father Ozzy (Osbourne) on the single "Changes" (a Black Sabbath song) which reached number one on the UK Singles Chart.

Early life

Kelly Michelle Lee Osbourne was born on 27 October 1984 at Portland Hospital in Westminster, London, to Sharon (née Levy) and Ozzy Osbourne. She has an older sister, Aimee, and a younger brother, Jack. From Ozzy's first marriage, she also has two half-siblings: Jessica Hobbs and Louis John Osbourne. She had an unofficially "adopted" brother, Robert Marcato, whom Sharon and Ozzy took in after Marcato's mother died. Kelly grew up travelling with her father on tour. She lived in more than 20 homes in both the US and the UK. Her maternal grandfather was Don Arden (Harry Levy), an English music manager. Her mother is of Irish and Jewish descent.

Osbourne attended private schools in England including Pipers Corner School.

Career

2002–2005: The Osbournes and Shut Up

Osbourne and the rest of her family (minus Aimee) starred on the MTV reality show The Osbournes, which aired from 2002 to 2005. The series chronicled their day-to-day life, portraying a dysfunctional family in which metal music, profanity and other harshness were a daily part of life. Kelly, the middle child, emerged (according to Rolling Stone) as "a wickedly funny, brutally honest, pint-size, potty-mouthed spitfire." The series started when she was seventeen, and ended when she was twenty. Kelly said in an interview for The Osbournes DVD that the crew were only actually supposed to be there for a few weeks but ended up staying for a few months. She found the constant cameras focusing on her and her family stressful. In 2002, during the second season of The Osbournes, Kelly dated The Used lead singer Bert McCracken. The show was filmed in California, United States, where the family has had their residence for several decades.

Both she and her family were parodied in Channel 4 comedy Bo' Selecta in which the rubber-masked Kelly, played by Leigh Francis, has her own show and is always being censored for swearing with bleeps. After her appearance on the reality show, Osbourne quickly began to be noted for her varied and trendy style among fashion commentators like Steven Cojocaru. In 2004, Osbourne launched her own fashion line, Stiletto Killers, with her friend and former sponsor, Ali Barone. Stiletto Killers was a rock-inspired line of tees, knickers, hoodies and sweatpants designed by Osbourne and Barone, emblazoned with cartoonish designs and punk rock phrases. There was also a more sophisticated couture branch, the SK Collection. Stiletto Killers closed in April 2006.

Her debut album, Shut Up, was released by Epic Records in 2002 to moderate US sales, but good European sales. The lead single, a cover of Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach", debuted with Houston rock band Pure Rubbish at the 2002 MTV Film Awards. The album, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, was met with mixed critical reviews and, by May 2003, Osbourne was dropped from Epic Records. By autumn she was on the Sanctuary label, later recording a duet of "Changes" (a Black Sabbath song) with her father. The duet reached No 1 in the UK charts, which resulted in a reissue of Shut Up, titled Changes. "Changes" was one of a few tracks to have fallen down the charts (from 1–3) while selling more copies than the week it reached number 1. Osbourne was the first artists to top all three of the Billboard charts dance surveys in the same week with the "Chris Cox Club Remix" of "One Word". Her second album Sleeping in the Nothing was not without controversy, due to its reportedly heavily altered album cover, in which Osbourne appeared slimmer, despite her previous assertions of being happy with her size.

Osbourne made her debut as an actress with a starring role on 7 October 2004 on the ABC high school teenage drama Life as We Know It, where she played the supporting role of Deborah Beatrice Tynan. During an interview in late 2005, Osbourne denied reports she was ending her music career, saying: "I don't know where the quit rumours came from – I've just recorded a version of 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' with Cyndi Lauper." Despite this, Osbourne's third studio album titled Miss Kelly Kelly: The Osbourne Boombox was shelved in late 2006 ahead of its official release. Reflecting on this period in her career during a 2024 episode of The Osbournes Podcast, Kelly expressed that, "I've definitely thought about it and what life would have been like if I hadn't stopped. It's definitely a regret. Will I do anything about that regret? I don't know."

On 2 April 2004, Osbourne entered the Malibu rehab facility Promises after admitting that she was addicted to painkillers. Over a year later, on 2 June, she checked into Las Encinas Hospital, a drug treatment centre in Pasadena, California, after a relapse. She entered another drug treatment facility in January 2009; she stayed for a month and later acknowledged that she had a relapse of her painkiller addiction. After 30 days, she was released; she has been quoted as saying that this was the first time she really thought rehab had helped her.

2006–2009: Acting, hosting duties, and Dancing with the Stars

In spring 2006, Osbourne modelled for Heatherette in a catwalk show. In June, she played the role of Wendy from Peter Pan in The Queen's Handbag and provided her voice for the animated film Live Freaky Die Freaky. Later that year, she became the face of the high street chain Accessorize. Osbourne co-hosted the 2006 edition of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!, a spin-off show of the main ITV programme. She hosted alongside Jeff Brazier in Australia, and Mark Durden-Smith in the London studio. Her one-off gigs include the 2002 MTV Film Awards, Top of the Pops Saturday, MTV's Isle of MTV, MTV UK and Ireland's red carpet coverage of the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards, Popworld, The Sunday Night Project, the 2005 MTV Australia Video Music Awards and Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show. In spring 2006, Osbourne was one of the judges on Making Your Mind Up. At the September 2006 Electric Picnic festival in Ireland, Osbourne and her boyfriend, Matty Derham of the band Fields, held a wedding ceremony. Her representative later denied that the ceremony was legally binding because it did not meet Irish legal requirements, as at that time in Ireland, a couple couldn't get married in an outdoor venue. She later went on to date Matt Walker, a promoter and tour manager.

In February 2006, Osbourne was a guest judge for the Season One Episode Four of Project Catwalk on Sky1. She went on to host Seasons Two and Three of Project Catwalk in 2007 and 2008 respectively. In July 2007, Osbourne portrayed the role of prison matron Mama Morton in the musical drama Chicago for seven weeks at the Cambridge Theatre. In autumn 2007, Osbourne signed to BBC Radio 1 to host the Sunday night show, The Surgery; and on 7 October 2007, she went on air for the first time with the issue of self-harm. She was scheduled to return to the show in early 2009 and while she was away, Aled Haydn Jones from The Chris Moyles Show presented the show. Aled subsequently became the full-time presenter. In 2008, she featured in the short musical film The Town that Boars Me by photographer Ben Charles Edwards. The film also features Sadie Frost, Jodie Harsh, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Zandra Rhodes, among others. The film debuted in late summer at the Portobello Film Festival. In 2009, she appeared in an episode of Hotel Babylon, a British TV show aired on BBC One. She played Jo, a character very similar to herself.