The Truth About Ozzy Osbourne's First Marriage

Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon have one of the most long-lasting and well-known marriages in rock and roll history. Married since 1982, Sharon has been Ozzy's partner and manager since 1979; their ups and downs have been well documented throughout their entire relationship, thanks in no small part to the popular and ground-breaking reality show The Osbournes, which brought the world into their home and lives, for better and for worse. But before his current, notorious marriage, Ozzy had a first marriage, which seemingly started, proceeded, and ended on very shaky ground. 

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Per Heavy, quoting A & E's recent special Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, Osbourne met Thelma Riley in 1971 at a nightclub just as his band, Black Sabbath, was really taking off. They soon married and, according to Osbourne, "we had two children, Jessica and Louis. We bought a house for 20,000 pounds, I thought, 'I have arrived.' Not realizing it was a giant mirage. Something ain't feeling right." Despite soon fathering two children and even adopting Elliot, Riley's son from a previous relationship, Ozzy wasn't prepared for family life.

'I was a very selfish, self-centered, egotistical guy'

Heavy further quotes Osbourne: "I thought money would buy everything, would fix everything ... but money would buy the alcohol and the drugs and I behaved ... badly. The way I treated Thelma, it was wrong ... I was a very selfish, self-centered, egotistical guy" who cheated on her from the beginning, "and that ain't cool.In a 2009 interview with BirminghamLive, Osbourne recounted one particular night: "So we're in this Holiday Inn and I've just finished talking to Thelma on the phone when there's a knock at the door ... I open it and there's this beautiful chick standing there in a little dress ... In she comes, pulls off her dress. Bob's your uncle," and she leaves "before I can even ask her name." This reportedly happened twice more with two different "chicks" that same evening.

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In the midst of all of this, Ozzy met his future second wife, Sharon Arden, whose father Don Arden was then Black Sabbath's manager. "I was still married to my ex-wife, but I fell in love with Sharon," Ozzy told Heavy, with Sharon following up: "We were just having the time of our lives, meanwhile Ozzy had a wife and kids back home, so it was a lot." Ozzy and Thelma divorced in 1982; Ozzy and Sharon married on July 4 of that year. And the rest is rock and roll history. 

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