Kelly Osbourne is opening up about how taking prescribed painkillers after tonsillitis surgery as a teen led her into a years-long struggle with addiction. The 36-year-old daughter of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne appeared on Red Table Talk Wednesday to talk about her sobriety journey after revealing last month she had relapsed following four years of sobriety.
“They ended up having to give me some crazy surgery, and then after that, they gave me Vicodin, and that was all I needed,” the former Fashion Police star said of her first experience with prescription painkillers at 13 years old. Struggling with self-esteem issues at the time, Osbourne said the medications “silenced” the negative thoughts. “It felt like life gave me a hug,” she recalled.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Very quickly, it went from Vicodin to Percocet, from Percocet to … to heroin, eventually, because it was cheaper,” she continued of her descent into drug addiction. “I got caught buying it, and then the very next day, my mom put me in rehab.” Osbourne has been in and out of rehab over the years before deciding to quit drinking altogether in 2017 and said on Red Table Talk that she was rarely sober at the height of her addiction. “I never went to work sober,” she said. “I never went to dinner sober. I didn’t do anything sober.”
In April, The Osbournes star revealed she had relapsed and gotten “back on track” after four years, and in Wednesday’s show revealed she was drinking full bottles of liquor by herself before getting sober again. Relapsing in front of boyfriend Erik Bragg was especially shameful, Osbourne admitted. “I was at my boyfriend’s house, and I was s—faced on his couch eating pizza,” she recalled. “And he looked over at me, and I felt the way he looked at me. And I was like ‘Oh, no, I never want him to look at me like that again. Ever. Like, that didn’t make me feel good. What am I doing?’”
She called the entire episode “embarrassing” because “for the first time ever I actually care how he feels, and I care how my behavior impacts him.” She continued that she only wants to be the “best version” of herself with her loved ones and “was the furthest thing away from that.” She added, “I’ve never had a boyfriend who’s supportive of me in that area before. And he is very communicative and incredible in that way. And my parents like him, so that’s also nice.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
