Sharon Osbourne was estranged from her father Don Arden for a number of years during the late 20th century; Arden died at 81 in 2007
Jack Osbourne is recalling why he did not meet his grandfather Don Arden until he was nearly an adult. Jack, the second-youngest of Sharon Osbourne and the late Ozzy Osbourne’s children, currently stars on the British reality series I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!. During the show’s Friday, Nov. 28, Jack, 40, discussed some of his memories of his grandfather Arden, whom his mother Sharon, 73, was estranged from for decades after a conflict in the family over management of Ozzy’s music career. When fellow cast member Kelly Brook asked Jack whether rumors that Arden — a music manager who managed Osbourne’s band Black Sabbath until he left the group — used to physically accost people, Jack said, “He pulled guns on people, everything.” According to Jack, Arden “sent hitmen” after his parents after Sharon took control of managing Ozzy’s solo career following his break from Black Sabbath in the late 1970s. “Mobsters would shop up with guns at gigs,” he recalled. Jack said that Sharon “actually told me [Arden] was dead” until he was nearly 18 years old due to her estrangement from her own father.
According to a 2006 interview Sharon conducted with The Guardian, she finally introduced Jack and her younger daughter Kelly Osbourne to Arden when they bumped into him in Los Angeles and got into an argument. Arden died at age 81 in 2007; as the BBC reported at the time, he and Sharon reconciled in 2002 after he developed Alzheimer’s disease. Per The Guardian, Sharon and Ozzy’s older daughter Aimee did not want to meet Arden because he was already suffering from Alzheimer’s and did not want to grow attached to someone who would not live much longer.
“They were interested, especially Jack, because he had read all the books on my dad and was terribly interested in all the artists my dad used to manage,” Sharon said at the time. “And Kelly just likes all the gossip; to be able to give her version of what he was like, if ever she was asked.”
During the Nov. 28 episode of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Jack told his castmates that Sharon was his grandfather’s “protégé.” “He taught her everything and he did all sorts of screwed up things. Had my mum sign all these documents and everything was in her name so he would never get in trouble,” he added, even claiming that Arden “would firebomb other record companies.” I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! airs each night on the U.K.’s ITV1, STV, ITVX and STV Player.
