Jack Osbourne opened up about feeling like a “fraud” in his 14-year multiple sclerosis journey during a candid podcast appearance this week.
The TV personality, 40, sat down with Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler for Tuesday’s episode of their “MeSsy” podcast, where he discussed the complicated relationship between his identity and his autoimmune disease diagnosis.
Osbourne explained there was a period when he actively “hated” receiving sympathy from others.
“Don’t f–king give me your pity,” he said on the podcast. “Sure, maybe there are moments where I need a bit of a hug. But I didn’t like that feeling, and I didn’t like someone telling me I was a disease.”
The “Osbournes” alum described the ongoing tension of being a visible figure within the MS community while privately questioning whether his experience warranted that platform.
“I just got so frustrated with aspects of what that meant, by being kind of a big flag waver in that sphere,” he added.
That frustration, Osbourne continued, stems from comparing his own trajectory to others with more severe symptoms.
“If I’m being honest, like a part of me feels like a bit of a fraud in a sense,” he said. “I was diagnosed with this condition 14 years ago and I’ll see people diagnosed a year ago, and they’re in much worse position. They’re having a much harder time, and I’m kind of like, it does affect me [but] it hasn’t stopped me, and it hasn’t slowed me down.”
Applegate, who revealed in 2021 that she had been misdiagnosed with MS, couldn’t resist a wry interjection.
“Talk about being a fraud. I don’t even have it anymore,” she teased, drawing laughter from Sigler and Osbourne. “Jeez!”
Beyond the psychological dimensions of his condition, Osbourne disclosed that he is currently not taking medication to manage his MS. He explained that he unintentionally tapered off during his 2019 divorce from Lisa Stelly, when his medical insurance lapsed.
“I’m not on a medication right now,” he said. “And I went, ‘I wonder how long I can go without meds,’ just cause I was feeling stupid. I went about eight years, and it wasn’t until kind of last year did I start having some things [happen].”
Despite his medication-free approach, Osbourne emphasized that he has maintained regular doctor visits and MRI scans. He described his primary physical symptom as a sensation of “road rash” covering his body.
“So it’s very uncomfortable to wear clothes,” he claimed, characterizing MS as an “ever-evolving kind of journey with how to manage it.”
The conversation also touched on how his perspective shifted away from the frictionless success of his early fame. Osbourne acknowledged that he spent a “huge amount of [his] life just f–king winning” beginning at age 16, when MTV cameras arrived at his family home.
“I’ll admit it, 16 years old, cameras turn up at my house, I don’t do s–t, and I get paid millions of dollars. F–king winning. For no reason. For no effort. But what did I learn from that? Nothing,” he said, referencing the early 2000s reality show that starred his late father Ozzy Osbourne, mother Sharon Osbourne, and sister Kelly Osbourne.
Osbourne traced his real personal growth to moments of breakdown rather than triumph.
“The lessons for me really began when s–t started breaking because that’s when I had to pause and go, ‘OK, how come this isn’t working now? What do I have to change? It forces a deeper look. So with MS, it shifted so many for me, mentally, physically, emotionally,” he continued. “I just started taking things a little more seriously.”
Osbourne married Aree Gearhart in 2023, and the couple share Maple Artemis, 4, and Ozzy Matilda, 7 months, whose name honors his late father. He also has three older children with ex-wife Stelly: Pearl Clementine, 14, Andy Rose, 11, and Minnie Theodora, 8.