Who is Ozzy Osbourne's first wife Thelma Riley? What we know about the Black Sabbath rocker's marriage before Sharon
The Prince of Darkness had a whole family before he met Sharon and became the infamous Osbourne family everyone knows today.
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While Sharon has become an industry mogul and tele personality in her own right, a lot less is known about the life of Ozzy's first wife.
And so, since the announcement of the Black Sabbath frontman's death on July 22 2025, many have been wondering about the details of his first marriage.
Who is Thelma Riley?
Thelma Riley was Ozzy Osbourne's first wife.
The pair met in the 1960s while on a night out, and at the time, Osbourne was still establishing his career in music, while Riley was a teacher.
They eventually tied the knot in 1971, amid the rise in prominence of Black Sabbath in the music scene.
Osbourne met Sharon Arden, whom he would eventually fall head over heels for, while her father was Black Sabbath's agent in 1979.
Ozzy admitted in interviews that he was not the perfect husband or father during his marriage to Riley.
His skyrocketing fame, coupled with heavy drinking and drug use, resulted in a tumultuous and unstable home life.
The couple were married for 11 years before they split in 1982.
Ozzy Osbourne top five greatest moments
In his autobiography, Ozzy referred to their marriage as a 'mistake', confessing he wasn't present and was consumed by his addictions.
Since their divorce, the now 71-year-old has stayed relatively out of the limelight.
How many children did Ozzy Osbourne and Thelma have?
Despite allegedly contributing to a tumultuous home life, Osbourne and Riley shared three children together, who now live on as a memory of the Prince of Darkness.
Before meeting Osbourne, Riley already had a son.
Riley had a five-year-old son when she met Osbourne, called Elliot, from a previous relationship, whom Osbourne later adopted.
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Jessica Osbourne was born in 1972, one year after the couple tied the knot.
They then had a son called Louis, who was born in 1975.
Jessica has carved out her career in the entertainment industry, reportedly as a Broadway performer in New York.
She has three children, and so was the first of Osbourne's six children (including the three he had with Sharon) to give him a grandchild.
Jessica has two daughters, Isabelle and Kitty, and a son called Harry.
Louis now works as a DJ and married actress Louise Lennon in 2004.
Osbourne was unable to attend his first son's wedding, following a major quad bike accident which left him suffering from major injuries.
Not much is known about Elliot Kingsley as he tends to keep out of the spotlight with no public social media accounts.
In the 2011 documentary film God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, produced by his son Jack, Ozzy revealed that he could not even remember when Louis and Jessica were born, reported MailOnline.
Louis has since opened up about what life was like growing up with a father with addictions.
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To get rid of them, Osbourne blew out the flames and sang Happy Birthday. Still, Sabbath leaned into their reputation, writing darker material and gaining a reputation as hellraisers as the 70s wore the music was never as basic or one-note as their image second album, Paranoid, marked a seismic leap in songcraft, from the visceral anti-war anthem War Pigs, to the creeping intensity of the title track, via the sci-fi horror of Iron Man, and the ghostly balladry of Planet kept up the pace on 1971's Master of Reality, with Osbourne describing Children Of The Grave as "the most kick-ass song we'd ever recorded".Vol 4, released in 1972, is sometimes overlooked because of its lack of a big radio single, but it also contains some of the band's best and most varied documents their descent into drug abuse with a depth-charge guitar riff; while St Vitus' Dance is a surprisingly tender piece of advice to a heartbroken friend, and Laguna Sunrise is a bucolic instrumental. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, meanwhile, was written as a furious critique of a music industry that had written them off."The people who have crippled you / You want to see them burn."After 55 years, and hundreds of imitators, the revelatory shock of Sabbath's sound has dimmed. How else do you explain Osbourne and Iommi performing Paranoid at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002?But the power of those songs, from Iommi's brainsplitting riffs to Osbourne's insistent vocal wail, is he inducted Black Sabbath to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Lars Ulrich of Metallica said, "if there was no Black Sabbath, hard rock and heavy metal would be shaped very differently"."When it comes to defining a genre within the world of heavy music," he said, "Sabbath stand alone."Writing after the band's penultimate farewell show in 2017, Osbourne said he was humbled by the acclaim."I never dreamed we would be here 49 years later," he said."But when I think about all of it, the best thing about being in Black Sabbath after all these years is that the music has held up." Five essential Ozzy Osbourne songs 1) ParanoidWritten as a last-minute "filler" for Black Sabbath's second album, the group accidentally created their biggest hit: The story of a man battling his inner voices, set to one of rock's most powerful riffs."Every now and then you get a song from nowhere," said Osbourne. "It's a gift." 2) Crazy TrainThe song that launched Osbourne's solo career, it's almost atypically upbeat - shrugging off Cold War paranoia and declaring: "Maybe it's not too late to learn how to love." It's only the maniacal laughter in the fading bars that suggests this outlook is the purview of a madman. 3) Sabbath Bloody SabbathSabbath's reputation for darkness means their melodic capabilities were often overlooked. But Osbourne was a passionate admirer of the Beatles, and you can hear their influence on the pastoral chorus of this song, before Tony Iommi powers in with a growling guitar line. John Lennon would undoubtedly have approved of Osbourne's seething critique of the music industry, summed up in the line: "Bog blast all of you." 4) ChangesSabbath revealed their soft underbelly on this 1972 piano ballad, written about a break-up that drummer Bill Ward was experiencing. "I thought the song was brilliant from the moment we first recorded it," said Osbourne, who later reworked it as a duet with his daughter, Kelly, and scored a UK number one the week before Christmas 2003. 5) Mr CrowleyInspired by notorious occultist Aleister Crowley, this track from 1980's Blizzard of Ozz allowed Osbourne to play up to his mock-satanic image. But is also helped him escape from the shadow of Black Sabbath, with a swirling, heavy-psychedelic sound, capped off by a blistering solo from his new foil, guitar virtuoso Randy listening: War Pigs and Iron Man are all-time classics; while Diary of a Madman and Suicide Solution are crucial chapters in Osbourne's solo songbook. Also check out Patient Number 9, the title track of his final album, which ended his career on a high.
