In a deeply emotional interview, Sharon Osbourne exclusively reveals to HELLO! magazine that she has undergone a double mastectomy to reduce the risk of contracting breast cancer. The former X Factor judge – who battled colon cancer ten years ago - recently discovered that she carried a gene that made her predisposed to developing the disease. So, she decided to have both breasts removed.
"As soon as I found out I had the breast cancer gene, I thought: 'The odds are not in my favour'," Sharon tells HELLO! "I've had cancer before and I didn't want to live under that cloud: I decided to just take everything off, and had a double mastectomy." The matriarch of the Osbourne clan – who recently became a grandmother for the first time after the birth of son Jack's daughter Pearl - underwent a 13-hour operation, but she refuses to feel sorry for herself. "For me, it wasn't a big decision, it was a no-brainer," she reveals. "I didn't want to live the rest of my life with that shadow hanging over me. I want to be around for a long time and be a grandmother to Pearl. I didn't even think of my breasts in a nostalgic way, I just wanted to be able to live my life without that fear all the time. "It's not 'pity me', it’s a decision I made that's got rid of this weight that I was carrying around."
And she says the whole experience – including finding out that her breast implants had leaked into her stomach wall, prior to undergoing the mastectomy – had put her off any future plastic surgery. "Sometimes I'll see a photo and I'll think, 'My face looks plastic'; it can look so unnatural from certain angles," Sharon says. "Now I am definitely, definitely done. You can't buy your youth back, no matter how much money you've got I won't be going under the knife again." To read more of the interview with Sharon, including how Ozzy reacted to her decision, how the couple celebrated their recent 30th wedding anniversary and the biggest regret of her life, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! magazine.