During an appearance on Jeremy Paxman's ITV documentary Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson's, Sharon Osbourne opened up about her husband, Ozzy, and his experience of Parkinson's disease.
In conversation with Paxman on the programme, which explores his story of living with the neurological disorder, Sharon Osbourne discussed how Parkinson's disease - with which Ozzy was diagnosed in 2003 - has changed the singer's life.
"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 explains [transcribed by Blabbermouth].
"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 Paxman asks Sharon if there's any positive side to the illness, she replies: "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."
Of how Ozzy's been coping with it, Sharon reveals that the former Black Sabbath frontman has been using cannabis oil, an oleoresin obtained by the extraction of cannabis.
"[Ozzy] was always on something," she says, "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."
Watch the show below:
Over the last few years, Ozzy has been struggling with a myriad of health issues, on top of his ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease. Since making his diagnosis public two years ago, he has been plagued with neck and spine issues following a severe fall in 2019, endured a life-threatening staph infection in his thumb, was diagnosed with Covid, and was hospitalised with the flu.
Due to the vocalist's numerous ailments, he's been unable to perform and has inevitably been forced to postpone tour dates multiple times.
Ozzy currently faces a prolonged programme of physical therapy, five days every week, before he can entertain the idea of taking to the stage once more to begin his much rearranged and seemingly cursed No More Tears II tour, which at present is set to continue until June 2023.
“I’m getting there,” he promises Classic Rock, “It’s been really tough going at times over the past few years, and I’ve never been laid up for this long in my life, but it’ll just take time. One of the reasons I made this record is so that people don’t forget me, and by hook or by crook I’ll be on stage again one day to say thank you to the fans. If I can’t, I can’t, but my desire is strong. There’s nothing like a good gig. This recovery is hard work, but right now I’m in a great place in my head, despite all the negative energy in the world.”
