Jack Osbourne shares his honest approach to parenting as teen daughter attends high school parties – exclusive

Jack Osbourne is a dad to five girls – and loving every minute of it. “Man, I love being a girl dad!” he tells HELLO! 

“When I found out Aree was pregnant with Oz and we were having another girl, it was awesome, and I was stoked.”

The only son of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, Jack shares Pearl, 14, Andy, 11, and Minnie, eight, with ex-wife Lisa Stelly, as well as Maple, four, and baby Ozzy – born earlier this year – with his wife Aree Gearhart.

“I am totally content being a girl dad, and I think, for me, what it’s taught me is to be a little more gentle,” he shares. “There’s a lot of feelings in my household, and they come in all shapes and sizes, so I think it’s taught me to have that patience.”

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Jack was just 16 when he found global fame on the hit MTV reality series The Osbournes. One of the first celebrity-focused reality shows, it invited viewers into the chaotic yet loving home of Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy – whose battle with alcohol and drug addiction began in the 1970s – his wife and manager Sharon, and two of their three children, Kelly, then 18, and Jack.

Cameras captured the family bickering and celebrating each other’s wins, but also documented Jack and Kelly’s slide into addiction.

By the time he turned 17, Jack had become known for his partying behaviour. 

Following his mother’s cancer diagnosis, his drug use escalated, and he attempted suicide.

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On 21 April 2003, he was admitted to rehab for depression and an addiction to prescription medication. Earlier this year, Jack proudly celebrated 23 years of sobriety.

With eldest daughter Pearl now a teenager, Jack says he is navigating “a whole new way of parenting” as she begins attending high school parties and entering what he describes as that “deep experimental teenage phase.”

Jack and Aree are raising their girls in Los Angeles, surrounded by a close-knit community that includes Jack’s older sister Aimee – who never appeared on the family’s reality show – as well as Marcus Kowal, whose son Liam was killed by a drink driver in 2015 and who now campaigns to lower the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit from 0.08 to 0.05.

While Jack and Aree do not allow alcohol in their home, they are raising Pearl and her sisters with full honesty about Jack’s past addiction so they always feel safe to ask questions.

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“I know, with having addiction run in my family, that addiction loves secrets,” Jack explains. “It lives in secrets, and I don’t want my daughter to feel scared or ashamed or uncomfortable when it comes to having these conversations about it.”

Jack describes his own childhood as “perfectly happy and contented”, though largely spent on the road following his dad Ozzy on world tours.

His daughters have a far more structured routine – “we have to abide by the school calendar,” he quips – yet there is one key lesson from Ozzy and Sharon that he is determined to pass on.

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“Exposing my kids to a variety of things is something that I very much have taken from my parents: we travel and try to show them the world,” says Jack, joking that “that’s pretty expensive” and no small feat for a blended family of seven.

“But I think that’s something that my parents did really well, exposing us to the real world as much as they could.”