SHARON OSBOURNE reflects on OZZY's Parkinson's disease diagnosis
'suddenly, your life just stops - life as you knew it'
17-10-2022
Sharon Osbourne has opened up about husband Ozzy‘s Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
Ozzy was first diagnosed with the neurological disorder back in 2003, but the legendary singer didn’t disclose that he was stricken with the disease until a January 2020 appearance on “Good Morning America”.
Sharon was asked about the effect her husband’s diagnosis had had on her during a candid conversation with broadcaster Jeremy Paxman, who was diagnosed 18 months ago, in his ITV documentary “Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson’s”.
She said: ‘I just think of my husband, who was very energetic, loved to go out for walks, did a two-hour show on stage every night, running around like a crazy man. Suddenly, your life just stops — life as you knew it.”
She added: “When I look at my husband, my heart breaks for him. I’m sad for myself to see him that way, but what he goes through is worse. When I look at him and he doesn’t know, I’m, like, crying.’
When asked about the positives about the disease, Sharon responded: “The positive thing is we spend much more time together as a family and I love my husband more than I do three years ago.”
Sharon also revealed that Ozzy uses cannabidiol, known as CBD, a cannabinoid derived from the hemp plant that has no psychoactive effects, because he experiences unsettling dreams as a result of Parkinson’s,
She said: “(Ozzy) was always on something, he always loved to dabble with the old drugs. But now he takes this stuff at night. What’s this stuff that everybody smokes? Marijuana. It is something from that — cannabidiol.”
“Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson’s” follows Jeremy‘s story of living with the degenerative disease, which affects one in 500 people and causes the brain to become damaged over the years.
Seventeen years ago, Ozzy said that he had been diagnosed with Parkin syndrome, a genetic condition which has symptoms similar to that of Parkinson’s disease, such as body shakes. At the time, he said that he was relieved his debilitating body tremors were from Parkin and not his lifetime of drug abuse.
In January 2020, Ozzy told U.K.’s Kerrang! magazine that he thinks about death a lot, but he doesn’t worry about it. “I won’t be here in another 15 years or whatever, not that much longer, but I don’t dwell on it,” he explained. “It’s gonna happen to us all.
“Am I happy now? No. I haven’t got my health,” he continued. “That thing knocked the shit out of me, man, but I’m still here. In fact, I worried about (death) more when I was younger than I do now. I just try to enjoy things as much as possible, even though that’s so fucking hard sometimes.”
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