Jack Osbourne - Early Life

Early Life

Osbourne was born in St John's Wood, London. He has two elder sisters, Aimee and Kelly Osbourne, as well as two paternal half-siblings, Louis John Osbourne and Jessica Hobbs, from his father's previous marriage. Osbourne has stated that his childhood was "perfectly happy and contented". For the first six years of his life, he lived in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire. When he was six, Sharon and Ozzy decided to move the family to Los Angeles, but a year later the family moved back to Buckinghamshire. When Osbourne was eleven, the family moved back to Southern California, but this time to Beverly Hills. In spite of moving so many times at a young age, Osbourne did not find it disruptive.

The only aspect of his life that constant moving did affect was his school life, and Osbourne soon despised going to school, which was not helped by the fact that he was diagnosed with a form of dyslexia at the age of eight, and ADD at the age of 10. At the time, he was studying at a Christian school in Los Angeles. He returned to England for a year before returning to Los Angeles, where he was enrolled into the special needs Park Century School and was prescribed Ritalin to combat his ADD. At 14 he was offered an internship at Virgin Records, where his mother was managing the band the Smashing Pumpkins. After Sharon Osbourne stopped managing that band, Osbourne started A&R scouting for Epic Records, where his father Ozzy had been on for many years. Osbourne also helped his mother in managing his father's annual touring festival, Ozzfest, advising her about up-and-coming bands.

On his 13th birthday, Osbourne got drunk for the first time on whisky; by the time he was 14, he was drinking regularly and had started smoking marijuana. He started partying heavily, and made headlines on 21 April 2003 when he was admitted to a child psychiatric ward for an addiction to OxyContin. Osbourne's drug addiction escalated after mother Sharon Osbourne was diagnosed with cancer; he was as well battling with his own depression. His self-destructive behavior came to a head when he attempted suicide by taking a cocktail of prescription pills and cutting his hands with shards of glass after hearing his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend pick up her phone when he called her. He woke up 12 hours later. Osbourne continued with his drug use until he realised that he "never wants to feel this way ever again" and admitted himself into an adolescent psych ward. He spent 10 days detoxing and was moved to an adolescent rehabilitation centre in Malibu, where he enrolled in a Twelve-Step Program.