‘Far too skinny’ Sharon Osbourne’s weight battle after taking Ozempic. Friends inform KATIE HIND of fears it could have ruined her metabolism – and the way what’s occurred now has been a ‘onerous lesson’
It was during a shopping trip to an upmarket fashion boutique in Beverly Hills two days ago that Sharon Osbourne’s startling appearance sparked fresh concerns among her fans.
Clutching a brown designer bag, she appeared to be very thin as she browsed the department store less than two miles from her Los Angeles home with a stern, unsmiling expression.
Today the Mail can reveal it’s not just online observers who are worried by her tiny frame: those close to her are also expressing fears for her health. Friends say that since deciding to take the weight-loss jab Ozempic last year – something Sharon’s been very open about – she looks a shadow of her former self.
Though she was initially thrilled with the results – losing 3st in a matter of months – the 72-year-old mother of three now fears she has gone too far.
One notable element of her outfit choice was her long-sleeved cream blouse, worn with a brown woollen jumper tied loosely around her shoulders.
One friend of the music mogul tells me: ‘She covers her arms because they’re so painfully thin and it is actually making her quite unhappy.’
Her face, too, she regards as being ‘far too thin’, say those close to her.
Her husband Ozzy, the former Black Sabbath singer, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, has told friends that Sharon has been eating many of her favourite high-calorie foods – roasts, burgers and club sandwiches – in an effort to put on weight. She is still, apparently, enjoying her favourite tipple – a glass of champagne.
A very thin Sharon Osbourne seen in Beverly Hills, less than two miles from her Los Angeles home, two days ago
Friends say that since deciding to take the weight-loss jab Ozempic Sharon, pictured this year, looks a shadow of her former self
The star at a charity event in 2022 before she started using Ozempic
Yet she has not regained any of the weight she lost while on Ozempic, which she stopped taking in March. ‘Sharon has been eating – she and Ozzy have a chef who will cook them whatever they want,’ said one friend. ‘She is trying to bulk up but she’s finding it isn’t working and it is pretty frustrating for her now. She knows how thin she looks and is eagerly trying to put on weight but it just isn’t happening.’
Indeed, when she took part in ITV reality show Celebrity Big Brother earlier this year, she was said to be ‘super paranoid’ about her tiny frame and relieved that the camera would add ‘a few pounds’.
Some close to Sharon are now asking whether Ozempic could possibly have done something more long term to her metabolism.
She decided to use the jab at the beginning of 2023 and has been far from secretive about her decision. Last year she told American broadcaster Howard Stern: ‘It’s not a sin to use Ozempic if you have a weight problem, so why not talk about it?’
A grandmother of five, Sharon revealed that she spent months on the drug, in addition to watching her diet and exercising. Ozempic, alongside fellow semaglutide medication Wegovy, is licensed to treat type 2 diabetes in the US but can be prescribed by doctors ‘off-label’ for weight management or sourced online.
Yet when Sharon started taking it, says one friend of the star, she didn’t expect to end up looking this slender.
‘Sharon simply didn’t think it would turn out like this. Those around her point out that there is no magic pill, there is no such thing as a free lunch and Sharon knows that now.
‘It has been a lesson for her, a hard one.’
In fact, Sharon has had such a tricky journey on Ozempic that she now feels it should not be given to young people or teenagers in case they become addicted to it. She believes that it is potentially ‘very dangerous’.
While Sharon’s fans feared for her weight, there was also speculation following her shopping trip that she’d had yet another facelift.
It’s believed that the TV personality – mum to Aimee, 41, Kelly, 40, and Jack, 39 – has undergone four so far, with the first in 1987, another in 2002, a lower facelift in 2019 and the most recent one in 2021. Her spokesman would not confirm whether or not she had gone under the knife recently, but friends say she has often, at different points of her life, been unhappy with her appearance.
Sharon, already a hugely successful music manager, was catapulted to wider fame on the ITV talent show X Factor back in 2004 when she was 52. Since then she has been surprisingly candid about embracing anti-ageing treatments.
Only last year, she said: ‘I’ve never really cared what people say about the way I look because I know I’ve paid a fortune to try to look attractive… I was never a beauty. I was never blessed that way.’ It is precisely the kind of robust, honest opinion for which Sharon Osbourne is known – and loved.
Her legions of fans hope she can return to fighting fit form, soon.
