Jack Osbourne Says Ozzy Osbourne Was Misdiagnosed With MS, Causing Him to Doubt Jack's Diagnosis
Jack Osbourne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis with he was 26, but in a new interview he shared that his father Ozzy Osbourne initially doubted his son’s diagnosis.
Osbourne, now 33, spoke to Yahoo Lifestyle for an interview published on Wednesday, where he revealed that his dad, now 70, was misdiagnosed with MS in the ’90s.
“My dad was very much of the mindset of like, ‘No, that’s wrong,'” Osbourne said about his father’s reaction after he told him his diagnosis. “His inkling is, it’s still the 1990s and they’re still not good at diagnosing it.”
Of his mother Sharon Osbourne‘s reaction, he said, “my mom does not deal with bad news very well.”
In a 2012 interview with PEOPLE, Sharon, 66, shared her initial response to her son’s diagnosis.
“The first thing Ozzy and I asked ourselves was, ‘What did we do wrong?’ ” she said.
“I was very sad and totally in shock,” Ozzy added to PEOPLE. “[But] I’ve got to tell you, he’s handled it much better than I would have. He’s a very strong kid.”
In the Yahoo interview, Osbourne revealed that he’s struggled with depression ever since his diagnosis.
“Depression has definitely been prevalent for me,” he shared. “At least a couple nights a week, I’ll go to sleep thinking, ‘Ugh. I hope tomorrow is not one of those days.’ ”
“The mental component [of MS] is something that’s the least talked about,” the television star added.
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In June 2018, Osbourne opened up to PEOPLE about about how his kids help him through those “bouts” of depression. (Osbourne shares three children with his ex-wife Lisa Stelly, Pearl Clementine, 6, Andy Rose, 3, and Minnie Theodora, 13 months.)
“I get these little bouts of, just, ‘Woe is me’ for a bit, and then I snap out of it,” he said. “Kids are really great to focus that, because it’s like — ‘Hey, there’s a crying baby,’ ‘Hey, I have to go do a school run’… it’s a good way to pull me out of myself.”
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Osbourne told Yahoo that he’s “made it my full-time job to get out in front of this as much as possible and to be as active as possible.”
“I’ve been able to live a very high-functioning life and most of my friends forget that I have [MS],” he said.
Osbourne also hopes that his health journey has inspired others, no matter what it means for his life.
“If it gets bad and I can’t go on, well, I can’t go on,” he shared. “At least I’ve tried and had this experience. And hopefully I encourage people who have MS who think they can’t do something to get out there and do it.”
