Ozzy Osbourne's death was announced by his wife Sharon Osbourne and their children. The Prince of Darkness passed away on the morning of Tuesday July 22 after battling Parkinson's disease, with the news coming just weeks after his final Black Sabbath gig at Villa Park. The news of his tragic death was confirmed in a statement which read: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis."

The Birmingham-born performer rose to fame as the frontman of the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath in the late 1960s. Tributes have flooded in from music stars across the world who honoured the legendary rocker. Ozzy, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2019, was known for energetic and controversial live shows - while many fans also got to know him through reality TV show The Osbournes.

Outside of music and reality television, the performer has had his fair share of ups and downs from his recent health woes, his marriage struggles to the devastating loss of a beloved friend.

With fast-paced success in Black Sabbath also came drug and alcohol abuse—which eventually got Osbourne kicked out of the group in 1979.

Ozzy decided to launch a solo career but tragedy struck when one of his closest friends and collaborators died in a plane crash.

The singer met guitarist Randy Rhoads who he described as a "gift from God". With Sharon as his manager and her father financing his solo start, Ozzy was back creating music. He was finally back on the road alongside Rhoads.

“I remember we did a gig in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we were driving from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Orlando, Florida, to do a gig with Foreigner,” Osbourne recalled.

They were staying at a mansion on March 19, 1982, before their concert in Leesburg, Florida, when tragedy struck around noon.

“Ozzy and I were sleeping in the back of the bus, and we got woken up by this huge, huge blast,” Sharon remembered. She recalled bassist Rudy Sarzo shouting, “Get off the bus!” while Sarzo added, “We all get out of the bus and we had no idea what was going on.”

When Sharon got out of the bus, she saw the tour manager on his knees crying. She turned and saw an airplane sticking up through a house. Inside the plane was 25-year-old Rhoads, 36-year-old pilot Andrew Aycock, and 58-year-old hairdresser Rachel Youngblood.

“They had been on a plane and the plane had crashed,” Sarzo said. “One or two inches lower, it would have crashed into the bus, and we would have blown up right there.” The cause of the accident was never fully determined.

The impact of the crash deeply impacted Ozzy who lost his beloved friend and musical partner.

“I lost a dear friend in my life—I miss him terribly.” Osbourne admitted. “I just bathed my wounds with alcohol and drugs.”

He previously shared: “The day that Randy Rhoads died was the day a part of me died." In 1987, Ozzy released a tribute album, Randy Rhoads Live, in the musician’s honour. “Ozzy still to this day feels guilty. ‘If only I was awake, I would never have let him get on that plane.’ And, you know, it’s something that Ozzy lives with,” Sharon said in 2020.

Elsewhere, Ozzy has previously been candid about his marriages.

He was married to his first wife, Thelma Riley, from 1971 to 1982. They shared three children together, including Thelma's son from a previous relationship. Ozzy and Thelma were married for 11 years, eventually divorcing in 1982. He married Sharon — who was his manager — that same year. But the couple, who also welcomed three children, had their ups and downs throughout their decades long marriage.

The 72-year-old music manager previously admitted she was left feeling like a “fool” after the Black Sabbath frontman said he’d engaged in extramarital affairs and been a “bad boy”.

She went on to tell Hello! back in 2016: “It was as though everyone else had known about it and everybody was laughing at me.”

The former The View panellist added: “ I felt very humiliated and belittled.”

Sharon later elaborated to Loose Women: "Yes it’s happened a lot with my husband and I feel if he had an emotional attachment to another woman that’s when there is no saving a marriage.

“But if it’s just whatever she did, whatever you did to her, next, don’t even know the name… see you, bye.”

At the time of their separation Sharon revealed she kicked Ozzy out of their family home.

The mum-of-three opened up about the couple's marriage struggles and revealed she told Ozzy to get the "f*** out of my house" at the height of their relationship woes and he was forced to move in with their daughter Kelly.

Sharon commented: "The last time he did it I had left him. I wouldn't talk to him for three months. My son was like, 'See ya dad.' My girls, of course, are daddy's girls and they shouldn't interfere because it's not their business but they're adults."

"The three months I told him to stay away he missed his family. He actually moved in Kelly," she recalled.

"He missed me. He missed his family unit. He then decided to stop drinking. He has been clean and sober for ten years."

The married couple would later reunite and have remained together until his death on July 22.