Kelly Osbourne Says Rehab Taught Her ‘How to Be a Better Drug Addict’
Osbourne previously revealed that she became addicted to Percocet at 13 years old.
Kelly Osbourne says that rehab helped her further enable her addiction.
The 39-year-old media personality and daughter of Ozzy Osbourne made the explosive revelation on TMZ’s new documentary TMZ Investigates Matthew Perry and the Secret Celebrity Drug Ring that aired on Monday.
As explained by the outlet, the doc was created to expose how an alleged ring of doctors, enablers, and rehabilitation centers “fuel the addiction” of celebrities who apparently pay a hefty price for services that further fuel their vices.
“First rehab I went to was like university on how to be a better drug addict,” said Osbourne. “I learned so many tricks. So many things that I never even thought of from my fellow addicts that were in there.”
She continued, “But I'd also seen people threaten to leave until they got given what they wanted. Whether it be Ambien for sleep or Valium for nerves, they would somehow end up getting it.”
“Body brokers and they'll sit outside of AA meetings looking for weak and vulnerable people that they encourage to go and relapse so that they can then pick you up again,” she added before calling it “heartbreaking.”
On an 2021 episode of Red Table Talk, Osbourne said that her relationship with alcohol and her admitted drug of choice, began when she had “a really bad case of tonsillitis.”
“They ended up having to give me some crazy surgery and then after that, they gave me Vicodin and that was all I needed,” Osbourne said of her 13-year-old self.
“I went from having every voice in my head being like ‘You're fat, you're ugly, you're not good enough, no one likes you, you don't deserve this, people don't like you because your parents are.’ and then all of a sudden every single voice was silenced and it felt like life gave me a hug,” she continued.
Elsewhere in the episode, Kelly revealed that she moved to Percocet and then eventually heroin. She first entered rehab at age 19 and has gone “in and out of those places” ever since.
The former reality TV star also told Extra in 2021 that she experienced a “nervous breakdown” that led her to relapse after nearly four years of sobriety.
TMZ’s Matthew Perry documentary arrives nearly a year after the Friends actor was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home. It was eventually confirmed that the 54-year-old died from the “acute effects of ketamine.”
A criminal investigation into Perry’s untimely death was opened, leading to the arrest of at least one doctor and several dealers in August. Five people, including the actor’s live-in personal assistant Kenneth Iwasama, 59, were charged in connection to his death.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California revealed in a press release that Iwasama administered multiple ketamine injections on the day Perry was found dead. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death at the time and faces up to 15 years in prison.
TMZ Investigates Matthew Perry and the Secret Celebrity Drug Ring is streaming now on Hulu.
