She didn’t think she would ever smile again following the death of her husband, Ozzy Osbourne.
But at her first public appearance since the Black Sabbath legend’s death four months ago, widow Sharon attempted to put on a brave face, standing beside her beloved daughter Kelly—whose hand she clasped as they posed for the cameras.
For Sharon, 73, her dazzling appearance at the London restaurant Aki on Wednesday was an incredible show of strength for both mother and daughter, 41.
It was a star-studded night, with model Amber Le Bon, royal equestrian Zara Tindall, and singer Holly Valance attending the cocktail event hosted by their friend, Australian fashion designer Rebecca Vallance.
Yet despite the glitzy exterior of Sharon’s night out, the evening was tinged with sadness. Sharon is still reluctant to stray far from her beloved Ozzy’s side since he died in July from heart failure at the family’s sprawling Buckinghamshire home.
Ozzy is buried in the grounds of the private family estate, Welders House, a Grade II-listed Georgian mansion in the village of Jordans. Following his death, the couple’s three children—Aimee, Jack, and Kelly—moved back to Los Angeles.
“It’s a toss-up between staying in the UK and being in the US where her children and grandchildren are. Sharon has opted for the former,” a source close to the former X Factor judge told me. “The whole thing is devastating, but Kelly has been there for her. She flew back to see her and get her mum back ‘out there.’ That’s all she wants now, to keep Sharon going.”
Sharon is so determined not to “let Ozzy down,” as she sees it, that she won’t fly to Australia, where son Jack is appearing on the ITV show I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.
“At the moment there is no family member due to meet Jack,” a source said. “Sharon can’t go, she can’t leave Ozzy. She has been supporting Jack all she can but she just can’t be there to meet him. It is just so sad for her; she adores her children. But she is absolutely determined to keep Ozzy’s wish.”
Long before his death, Ozzy asked Sharon and his children to bury him under a crabapple tree on the family’s estate. They agreed, wanting a place where they could remember him. In his 2010 autobiography I Am Ozzy, he wrote that he wanted to be buried there “so the kids can make wine out of me and get p**sed out of their heads.”
Following his death after a long battle with Parkinson’s, Sharon dutifully followed his instructions. She recalled Ozzy saying, “I’ve said to Sharon: Don’t cremate me, whatever you do. I want to be put in the ground, in a nice garden somewhere, with a tree planted over my head. A crabapple tree, preferably.”
Until Wednesday, Sharon had stayed dutifully at home. Kelly was thrilled to see her mother finally enjoy herself after months of grieving. Taking to Instagram after Sharon’s first red carpet event as a widow, Kelly wrote: “I thought my mum looked beautiful and it was so nice to see her have a little fun! Thank you thank you thank you Rebecca [Vallance], we love you soooo much!”