Sharon Osbourne opened up about the complicated relationship she shared with her late husband Ozzy Osbourne’s ex-wife, Thelma Riley, whom he was married to from 1971 to 1982.
The reality TV star explained on the Dumb Blonde podcast that she had a vastly different personality from Thelma, who tended to be studious and quiet as she navigated her husband’s sudden rise to fame with Black Sabbath in the ’70s.
“Ozzy’s wife was married very early,” Sharon began. “She got pregnant very early, and she was married and had a child with somebody before she met Ozzy. So when Ozzy and – her name is Thelma – got together, she had a five-year-old child, and they married.”
“Ozzy was already in Black Sabbath, and they were just starting to break, and she was a student, and they were young,” she continued. “The pair of them were babies. And there’s this young girl who had a baby, and she’s a baby, and their lives just went in opposite directions.”
“He was constantly on the road, and when he was home, he was drunk and acting…I can only imagine, and it fell apart. It couldn’t stay together.” During their marriage, Ozzy adopted Thelma’s son, Elliott, and welcomed kids Jessica and Louis with her.
“They were two totally different people that had two great kids,” Sharon said. “That was their connection, the kids, and I knew her, but we were so different. I was a big-mouthed flash kid, and she was a student.”
© Instagram“So I would come in a room and…you know, and she would look at me like, ‘She’s crazy. She’s crazy.’ And I get it. So we had nothing in common other than I was always respectful to her because she was Ozzy’s wife and they had their children together.”
See Louis at Ozzy’s funeral procession below…
Sharon first met the rocker in 1970 through her father, who worked for Black Sabbath, and she later became Ozzy’s manager in 1979 after he was kicked out of the band. They married in 1982, just months after Ozzy and Thelma finalized their divorce.
Together, Ozzy and Sharon welcomed kids Aimee, Kelly and Jack, and the TV personality developed a close bond with her husband’s son, Louis.
© Instagram“I’m very close with Ozzy’s son,” Sharon said on the podcast. “And you know, it’s always the way the girls go with the moms, the guys, you know. And we have a great relationship, and I adore him and my kids adore him. It’s a unit, you know.” Louis was by Sharon’s side at Ozzy’s funeral procession in Birmingham, UK, following his death in July 2025.
© AFP via Getty ImagesOzzy’s marriage to Sharon was far more publicized than his romance with Thelma, as his first wife reportedly wished to stay out of the spotlight. They first met at a bar, with Ozzy spotting Thelma across the room and asking her to dance.
© RedfernsThe “Crazy Train” singer later admitted to the Daily Mail that he regretted his actions in both of his marriages. “The way I treated both my wives…I was a bad father, an abusive husband, and I had an ego the size of India,” he said.
“I spent decades of my life being an absolute idiot. I’ve got so many regrets I can’t even remember half of them. But wives and kids are right at the top. It’s pointless even saying sorry. I couldn’t say it enough times. All I can do is stay sober.”
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