Sharon Osbourne Opens Up About Three Suicide Attempts: 'I Was Joking About This But I Shouldn't'

Sharon Osbourne got serious for a moment during Tuesday's episode of "The Talk" to discuss her own struggles with depression, including three separate suicide attempts.

"I was joking about this but I shouldn't, talking about my depression," Osbourne said. "And it's like, you know saying, 'Oh, the first time I tried to kill myself was okay, the second, all right, the third time, oi!"

The co-host has talked about her depression before on the show, revealing in November 2014 that she'd been taking medication to battle the mental illness for more than 15 years. Then, in 2016, she experienced a frightening mental episode that sidelined her from the show for five weeks.

"I had a complete and utter breakdown," she explained to her co-hosts upon her return, as reported by People. "For probably three days I knew nothing. I couldn't think, I couldn't talk, I could do nothing. My brain just shut down on me."

She told "Access Hollywood" that it was a "very low point" in her life. "I was very frightened about what was going on with me mentally and the thoughts that were going into my head constantly," she said at the time.

Osbourne did not give specifics about her suicide attempts during Tuesday's broadcast, but she has said on multiple occasionns that her mental health is an ongoing journey and she will always be a work in progress.

It's important to see figures like Osbourne speaking so candidly and openly about their own struggles as it normalizes mental illness in a way that is very healthy. People need to see that it is a legitimate illness, it is not a sign of weakness and is not just all in their head.

"Some days are better than others, and some days you feel like you just want to pull the sheets over your head and just stay in that bed and not do a damn thing ... except rot," Osbourne said in 2014 of what happens when she is in the depths of her depression.

Osbourne admitted on Tuesday that it's an ongoing struggle. "I wish everybody could think flowers and daisies and princesses, but you can't," she said. "And we lived happily ever after. No we don't!"

Sometimes it just helps to know that you're not alone. Osbourne said that she found real solace during her 2016 absence from the show in the mental health facility's group therapy sessions. "I found for me that the group therapy was the best thing that I could do because there were several people suffering with what I was suffering," she explained.

That's what people need to hear, and why it's so important and powerful that Osbourne continues to share her story. Yes, each person's struggles are their own, but that doesn't mean they're the only ones hurting or that it's all in their head or they just need to get over it. It's very real and they're not alone.

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