Jack Osbourne told his I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! co-stars that he grew up believing his mum, Sharon’s dad, Don Arden, had died before they first met
21:32, 28 Nov 2025
Jack Osbourne was told his granddad, Don, was dead before they finally met(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
Jack Osbourne was told his maternal grandfather “was dead” years before they met. The reality star and son of Sharon and the late Ozzy Osbourne first met his maternal grandfather, Don Arden, when he was around 16.
Don, who died in 2007 aged 81, gained a reputation for his aggressive business tactics and was often called the “Al Capone of Pop”. But his business methods saw him become estranged from his family, including Sharon.
READ MORE: I’m A Celebrity LIVE updates: Fans demand Vogue be ‘disqualified’ ahead of evictionREAD MORE: Desk chair that supports ‘for eight hours’ cut by £120 from Which? Best Buy brandJack first met his maternal grandfather, Don, when he was around 16(Image: Daily Mirror)
In 1979, Sabbath sacked Ozzy shortly before he and Sharon struck up a relationship, and she took over as his manager. Sharon and Don had no contact for two decades.
Model Kelly Brook told Jack that she’d heard that Don had dangled bands out of the window unless they agreed to sign with him as their manager. Confirming it was true, Jack nodded before saying: “He pulled guns on people, everything.”
Jack also explained that Don “certainly tried” to dangle Sharon out of the window after she took management of Ozzy. Shedding light on Sharon and Don’s fallout after she took over as Ozzy’s manager, Jack explained: “He sent hitmen after them. Mobsters would show up with guns at gigs… She was his protégé, he taught her everything, and he did all sorts of screwed up things
“Had my mum sign all these documents and everything was in her name, so he would never get in trouble, crazy s**t…. They would firebomb other record companies. That’s why my grandfather knew the Krays. It would be more like ‘who can help us out?'”
After falling out with her dad, Sharon told her children that Don was dead(Image: REX/Shutterstock)Jack shed light on the rumours about Don(Image: James Gourley/ITV/Shutterstock)
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Jack revealed that Sharon later discovered all about Don’s activities, which included stealing cash from bands. He told his campmates: “After she left and took management of my dad, they took them to court; they had to essentially pay him a million dollars to break the contract.”
Jack never met his grandad until he was 17, and he revealed why. “My mum actually told me he was dead, until I was about 15 or 16.” But Sharon explained to her children that Don wasn’t dead after they witnessed her and Don arguing in Beverly Hills.
He added: “He got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and my dad was like ‘, You need to deal with this, or you’ll have regrets.” Speaking in 2001, Sharon revealed that she had no intentions of reconciling with her dad or introducing her children to him. “My father’s never even seen any of my three kids and, as far as I’m concerned, he never will,” she said.
But later in the same year, Sharon and Don reconciled as per Ozzy’s wishes. The year after, he appeared on the reality show The Osbournes, where he met Jack and Kelly Osbourne, but he met his granddaughter Aimée off-screen as she refused to appear on the show.
Don sadly died on July 21, 2007, in Los Angeles after battling Alexheimer’s disease. Sharon had paid for his care in the later years of his life. Just days later, he was buried at a Jewish Cemetery in Salford, close to where he grew up in Cheetham, Manchester. Sharon, however, didn’t attend his funeral as she was “too traumatised to attend.”
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! airs daily from 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX
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