Jack Osbourne has lived with multiple sclerosis for 14 years, and he is done with being treated as a diagnosis. In a rare and candid health update, the 40-year-old TV personality said he has never wanted sympathy for his condition, and admitted he sometimes struggles with how he fits into the MS community.
“I didn’t like someone telling me I was a disease”
Osbourne made the comments on the latest episode of MeSsy, the podcast hosted by Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Asked whether MS had become his identity, he said there was a period when he hated people feeling sorry for him. He accepted there are days when he could use a hug, but said he resented being defined by the illness.
He also confessed to feeling like “a bit of a fraud” at times. Osbourne explained that he meets people who were diagnosed only a year ago and are already far more affected than he is. MS does affect him, he said, but it hasn’t stopped him or slowed him down.
Applegate, who has said she was misdiagnosed with MS in 2021, lightened the moment with a joke about being the real “fraud” at the table, leaving her co-host and guest in fits of laughter.
Years without medication
In one of the more surprising moments of the chat, Osbourne revealed he is not currently taking medication for MS. He said he stopped by accident around his 2019 divorce from Lisa Stelly, when a gap in his health insurance cut off his treatment. Once his coverage was restored, he decided to see how long he could manage without it.
That stretch lasted roughly eight years, he said, and it was only in the past year that new symptoms began to appear. He still sees his doctors and has regular MRI scans. The main issue so far, he explained, is a sensation like “road rash” across his body that makes wearing clothes uncomfortable. He described living with MS as a journey that keeps changing.
According to the Mayo Clinic, MS damages the protective covering of the nerves and can lead to numbness, weakness, difficulty walking and vision problems.
Finding purpose in the struggle
Looking back on his teenage years on MTV’s The Osbournes alongside his late father Ozzy, mum Sharon and sister Kelly, Jack said fame arrived with little effort and taught him very little. His real lessons, he said, came when things started to go wrong, and his diagnosis pushed him to take life more seriously, mentally, physically and emotionally.
Osbourne married Aree Gearhart in 2023, and the couple share daughters Maple, 4, and seven-month-old Ozzy Matilda, named after his father. He is also dad to Pearl, 14, Andy, 11, and Minnie, 8, from his marriage to Stelly.
Source: Page Six, citing Osbourne’s appearance on the MeSsy podcast.
