Sharon Osbourne Monday night revealed she had a preventive double mastectomy last summer after she learned she carries the gene associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.
Osbourne, a survivor of colon cancer, said the mastectomy was preventative and it “wasn’t a big decision; it was a no-brainer.”
As soon as I found out I had the breast cancer gene, I thought: ‘The odds are not in my favor. I’ve had cancer before and I didn’t want to live under that cloud: I decided to just take everything off, and had a double mastectomy.
The Talk co-host and former “America’s Got Talent” judge told Britain’s Hello! magazine about the procedure in its new issue.
Osbourne, 60, who is the wife of heavy-metal musician Ozzy Osbourne, had surgery for colon cancer after being diagnosed in 2002, and her recovery was shown on the second season of her MTV reality show “The Osbournes.” She established the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 2004.
She said she “didn’t want to live the rest of my life with that shadow hanging over me. I want to be around for a long time and be a grandmother to Pearl,” the 6-month-old daughter of son Jack Osbourne and his new wife Lisa Stelly.
I didn’t even think of my breasts in a nostalgic way. I just wanted to be able to live my life without that fear all the time. It’s not ‘pity me.’ It’s a decision I made that’s got rid of this weight that I was carrying around.