Jack and Kelly Osbourne on 10/21/07. Scroll down to see video of their interview
Jack and Kelly Osbourne were on ABC’s “2020” last night and talked about their battles with addiction. Jack, 22, says he’s been sober for 5 years and that he still struggles with urges to drink. Kelly, 23, wouldn’t specify how long she’s been sober after three stints in rehab, and says that as soon as she starts to count time that’s when the bad thoughts creep in, telling her it’s ok to get high again.
Kelly was the one who did most of the talking and who seems to be still battling her demons. After watching this I have a lot more respect and sympathy for her. She was very candid about what she’s been through.
Kelly’s early start: Vicodin at 13
Kelly said that she first experimented with drugs at 13 and took Vicodin. She said it silenced all the self conscious thoughts in her head telling her she wasn’t good enough. All the negative coverage of her weight in the media fueled her drug use, she said.
Kelly was usually high on “The Osbournes”
Kelly said that a lot of the screaming and fights you saw on “The Osbournes” were due to all the drugs she was on at the time and that they really heightened her emotions. She said it made her bratty and selfish.
Kelly took 100 pills a day; threw up blood
Kelly admitted that her parents did find a bag of pills that she had with 500 pills in it before she went to rehab, and explained that, “my mom would come into my room every single night and I was throwing up blood, because the Tylenol in the Vicodin was wearing away at my stomach lining.”
Kelly’s low point
She said her low point was waking up to her mom pounding on her back trying to resuscitate her because she had stopped breathing. She had peed the bed and said “At 20 years old, to wake up, by your mother trying to resuscitate you in a bed of your own piss. That is mortifying.”
Jack drank and smoked a lot of pot
Jack said he drank to go along with the crowd and that he used to limit pot-smoking to weekends, but that he was doing it more and more and had no boundaries.
Kelly told a story about how she found him throwing up on the floor and that’s when she realized he was “really f’ed up.”
Jack said he had suicidal thoughts on a daily basis before suicide attempt
After their mom Sharon was diagnosed with cancer, Jack said he struggled with depression and had suicidal thoughts “pretty much on a daily basis.”
Jack attempted suicide with booze and prescription drugs, the narrator explains, and he said “I wasn’t happy when I was drunk or high and I wasn’t happy when I was sober.”
Rehab worked for Jack, didn’t work at first for Kelly
Jack went into rehab after his suicide attempt at 17 and it’s safe to say it worked for him as he says he hasn’t had a drink since.
Kelly said that after she went into Promises rehab for the first time in 2004 she got high the day she got out and that it didn’t help her. “All I did there was buy 30 days of time and learn tricks from other addicts. And get a massage, lay by a pool… I was out of there… that night I was high.”
The narrator explains that Kelly’s third stint in rehab worked for her, and she said “It just clicked. You have to have that realization that you’re never going to win.”
Kelly and Jack’s futures
Both Kelly and Jack are living on their own now. Jack is hosting a reality show in Britain called “Adrenaline Junkies” that features people having adventures, and he said he wouldn’t be doing it if he were still drinking, and that “it’s taught me to live life to the fullest.”
Kelly is hosting “Project Catwalk” in England, which is their version of “Project Runway.”
Kelly always came off as a bit of a spoiled brat to me, and if she was taking handfuls of pills throughout the day you can see how it would radically change her personality. Both Jack and Kelly seem to have come to terms with their addictions and to be living a sober lifestyle now. I admire them for talking about it candidly and not glamorizing what they were going through.
Addiction is a lifelong struggle and maybe their story will help others who are facing similar problems realize that they’re not alone.
Here’s the video, thanks to clipper Monkeyboy on Redlasso.
Jack and Kelly Osbourne are shown at the National Television Awards on 10/21/07, thanks to PRPhotos.
RC. Come on, who’s really being more self-righteous here? Who gives a shit if it’s a rich kid with a thousand dollar eight-ball or some poor kid hopped up on home-made crystal meth? Cod had a good point – we shouldn’t idolize people for not being morons.
Really, that’s what you’re doing here when you break it down. Why should they be ‘worthy of admiration’ exactly? Because they did drugs and now don’t do them anymore? Congratulations, you’re now as smart as the majority of the human population. Welcome to mediocrity!
A person that does drugs and gets off them deserves no more accolades than a person who’s never done them. It’s not like I’m anti-drug either, I smoked a lot of green in college – I just didn’t expect a medal when I had a family and hung up the old bong.
If she really took 100 pills a day at the age of 13 then she would be dead long time ago and even so now her organs would be damaged.
not necessarily, depends on which pills she was taking, not everything that causes addiction is harmful to organs or the metabolism.
what makes me wonder is that neither jack nor kelly go into details on WHY they were f*cked up. family issues anyone? daddy is an alcoholic and former drug addict…i know what growing up around someone like that is like. but no word on that. i think it´s very courageous to talk about the addictions themselves, but i wonder if the family even knows which part they played in the problems of their kids.
I know for a fact that even if you take too much capsule vitamins it can damage your liver after awhile.
daddy WAS an alcoholic. Ozzy has been clean for a long time.
And no, 100 pills would not have necessarily killed her. People always talk about percocet, vicodin, and oxycontin in terms of how “many pills” to take. But each drug comes in the form of various miligram dosages, so she could be talking about 100 “5mg” pills, versus “80mg” pills (which surely, after 100 would have her unconcious).
But I will say, at 13, the amount of money to fill a bag with 500 pills (no matter what the dosage) would have been exorbitant. Vicodin goes for about 10 bucks (street value) where I live. Her parents failed there in letting her have unlimited allowance without seeing what she was spending it on.
her parents failed in more than just her allowance.
To whomever wrote this story: Save your admiration for people who cure cancer or dedicate their lives to helping abused children. Not a couple of spoiled turds with unlimited access to Daddy’s stash.
Just noticing that the headline reads “Addition” not “Addiction”
I was confused at first but thats just cause I’m ditzy.
I also wondered what they were adding to
….and why are they wearing poppies on 21st October??
codzilla – do you possess a finite amount of compassion? is your heart that small and wizened? if not, why not feel it for both people who help others, and people who had their own problems and overcame them? both are worthy of admiration, no matter how the problem got started. if this were a “people who do amazing things” blog then yeah, the people you mentioned would be on here. but it ain’t, so they’re not. so take your self-righteous snot, and go elsewhere. if they weren’t born rich, it would have been rotgut booze, floor cleaner, and robotripping, and you would have applauded their efforts, so shut the hell up.
Ozzy IS an alcoholic. It isn’t something you ever get over. Ozzy is a sober alcoholic, mind you but if he were to take a couple drinks he would be right back where he started.
Codzilla i agree. Enough said.