Jock Zonfrillo's widow Lauren parties with Michael Clarke in Paris
MasterChef Australia star Jock was found dead in a Melbourne hotel room in May 2023, after police were called to conduct a welfare check on the 46-year-old.
After two years of dealing with the grief of Jock's passing, Lauren was all smiles this week when she was seen partying with cricket legend Michael Clarke in Paris.
The former Australian captain took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a photo that showed him enjoying some downtime with pals in a Parisian bar.
Michael looked chuffed to be in good company that included pals Nick and Amy Campbell and partner Arabella Sherborne.
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Cuddling up close to Arabella at the edge of the group, Lauren was positively beaming as she posed for the happy snap.
Lauren showed off her svelte frame in a sleeveless white playsuit that flaunted her trim and toned arms and shoulders.
Arabella was seen clutching Lauren's arm as the five pals took time out to document the soiree.
It comes after Lauren recently shared the harrowing final moments she spent with her MasterChef Australia star husband as she said goodbye to his lifeless body.
Lauren raced home to Australia from Italy with the couple's two young children, where she was faced with seeing his body in a Melbourne morgue.
She told 7NEWS Spotlight's Liz Hayes in May that she was full of fear – but needed to see her husband, and speak to him.
'I was scared of it, but it was just what I needed. It was just a very strange feeling' she said while tears rolled down her face.
'Jock was in his pyjamas. I could smell his aftershave. I could smell his hair product. It was just like Jock was sleeping.
'I went up to him, and I wanted to touch him but I was quite scared. And so I started with his hair, and then I could touch his face, then I was kind of, was okay with it. But it was really my time to say goodbye to Jock' she continued.
'He was still there. I really felt he was there. I told him that it will be okay, that I've got this. That I will make sure the kids live big lives. And that, no matter what, we would be a family.'
Lauren said that she begged her husband to tell her what happened to him, and wished that he would reply.
'I asked him what the f*** happened, and I just wanted the words from him. He just looked completely normal to me.
'I could not undo what was in front of me. Like, I am broken now. That's it. There's no fixing me. This is the person I love that much, who cannot be there.'
When asked to disclose Jock's cause of death, which has never been revealed, Lauren remained protective of her husband.
'A lot of people want to know the answer to that, I'm really aware of that. I've had a lot of experiences with people coming up to me, all strangers, and asking how Jock died, and it's very unsettling' she said.
'Jock was very open in what he was willing to talk about. And I now don't want to make those decisions, because I don't know what he does and doesn't want to talk about.'
A fortnight after Zonfrillo's death his wife led about 200 mourners who gathered for a funeral at Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium at North Ryde on May 13.
Among those who attended the service were celebrity chefs George Calombaris, Matt Moran, Colin Fassnidge, Manu Feildel and Shannon Bennett as well as Zonfrillo's co-stars Allen and Melissa Leong.
Lauren delivered a eulogy before Zonfrillo's friend and fellow Scotsman, Jimmy Barnes, sang Amazing Grace with his daughter Mahalia.
Before his death, Zonfrillo had been preparing for the launch of MasterChef's 15th season, which was set to premiere the night his body was found.
He was also in the early stages of planning a new restaurant and had started working on a cookbook prior to his death.
Zonfrillo and his wife, who married in 2017, had put their four-bedroom Carlton terrace up for rent ahead of a potential permanent move to Italy, where his father was born.
Lauren also candidly opened up about life after Jock in her 2025 memoir Till Death Do Us Part.
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The Guardian
25 minutes ago
- The Guardian
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The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Inside Ozzy & Sharon's wild marriage – drugs, fights, affairs… and what she told him after he attempted to murder her
IT was the craziest start to a love affair that survived against the odds for more than 40 years. Superstar rocker Ozzy Osbourne had been given an envelope stuffed with cash to hand over to Sharon Arden, daughter of his band Black Sabbath's manager. 6 Instead, Ozzy blew the money on cocaine — which he was working his way through when Sharon arrived at his hotel. Despite being completely off his head, Ozzy, who died on Tuesday age 76, never forgot that first meeting when Sharon asked, 'Do you have anything for me?'. He recalled: ''No, I don't think so', I said, all innocent. 'But it didn't take Einstein to work out what had happened. 'There was a massive bag of coke on the table next to a ripped-up envelope with 'Sharon' written on it in felt-tip pen. 'Sharon gave me a monumental bollocking when she saw it, shouting and cursing and telling me I was a f***ing disaster. 'Drunkest and loudest' 'I guess I won't be shagging her any time soon, then, I thought. 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In his 2009 biography, I Am Ozzy, he revealed: 'I'd never come across a girl who was like me. 'Wherever we went, we were always the drunkest and the loudest. 'I learned that when Sharon is on a mission, she'll throw herself at it, lock, stock and barrel, and not stop fighting until well after the bell's rung. 'I trusted Sharon like I'd never trusted anyone before on the business side of things.' Me and Sharon were bonking all over the place. We couldn't stop. Some nights Sharon would go out of one door and [first wife] Thelma would come in the other Sharon When Sharon was relaunching Ozzy as a solo star with a new album, Blizzard Of Ozz, and a tour following his firing from Black Sabbath in 1979, the star's private life was falling apart. He was married to Thelma Riley, had adopted her son Elliot from an earlier marriage and they had two kids of their own, Jessica and Louis. After months of trying, Ozzy finally bedded Sharon after leaping into her bath at a hotel near Shepperton Studios. He recalled: 'Me and Sharon were bonking all over the place. 'We couldn't stop. 'Some nights, Sharon would go out of one door and Thelma would come in the other. 'I was knackered all the time, having two women on the go. 'I don't know how those French blokes do it. 'When I was with Sharon, I'd end up calling her 'Tharon', which earned me more than a few black eyes. 'I'd never known what it was like to fall in love before I met Sharon. 'We were inseparable. 'I realised that when you're in love, it's not just about the messing around in the sack, it's about how empty you feel when they're gone. And I couldn't stand it when Sharon was gone.' But when he split up with Thelma in 1981, Sharon bore the brunt of Ozzy's anger. He said: 'I was a wreck. 'I was in love with Sharon, but at the same time I was cut to pieces by losing my family. 'I'd get drunk and try to hit her, and she'd throw things at me. 'Wine bottles, gold discs, TVs — you name it, it would all come flying across the room. 'I ain't proud to admit that a few of my punches reached their target.' 6 But the following year, Ozzy and Sharon married in Hawaii on the way to a gig. The rocker didn't make it back to their hotel room after the ceremony. Sharon recalled: 'The manager called and said, 'Your husband is lying in the hall, will you come and get him' and I said, 'No I won't'.' While Sharon managed Ozzy's soaring solo career, the couple welcomed their three children Aimee, 41, Kelly, 40, and Jack, 39. But she could not curb her husband's appetite for booze, illegal drugs and prescription pills. 'Slumped in corridor' When he got violent, Sharon would take her revenge like the time she took a hammer to all his gold records. But seven years after their wedding, Ozzy tried to strangle Sharon while high on drugs and Russian vodka, at their 17th Century home in Little Chalfont, Bucks. The family had gone to their bedrooms after returning from a local Chinese restaurant to celebrate Aimee's sixth birthday. Before lunging at Sharon, Ozzy stripped naked and told her: 'We've had a little talk and it's clear that you have to die.' She pressed the panic button, alerting the police. Ozzy woke up in a cell the next morning with no recollection of the attack, to find he had been charged with attempted murder. Three months later, ahead of his court case, Sharon visited the rehab centre where Ozzy had been sent to dry out. In his autobiography, Ozzy recalled how she told him: 'I'm going to drop the charges. 'I don't believe you're capable of attempted murder, Ozzy. People keep asking, 'How come you and Sharon have stayed together all this time?' Ozzy 'You're a sweet, gentle man. 'But when you get drunk, Ozzy Osbourne disappears and someone else takes over. 'I want that other person to go away. 'I don't want to see him again.' But Ozzy instead developed a prescription pill addiction. Sharon almost died from colon cancer during the making of their Noughties fly-on-the-wall MTV show, The Osbournes. While she was still undergoing chemo, the couple retook their vows on New Year's Eve 2002. Ozzy revealed: 'People keep asking, 'How come you and Sharon have stayed together all this time?'. 'My answer was the same then as it is now. 'I've never stopped telling my wife that I love her; I've never stopped taking her out for dinner; I've never stopped surprising her with little gifts'. 6 'Unfortunately, I'd never stopped drinking and taking drugs, so the ceremony ended much the same as our original wedding — with me slumped in a corridor, p*ssed out of my brains.' A year later, Ozzy had a near-fatal quad bike accident on their estate that required multiple surgeries and affected his long-term mobility. In the aftermath of the crash, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, only going public with the condition in 2020. Meanwhile, Sharon — who described their life together as 'a Shakespeare play' — slipped Ozzy extra sleeping pills in 2016 to extract a confession that he had been having an affair with his hairdresser. It was also revealed that there were more mistresses. Devastated, Sharon tried to kill herself but was found by a cleaner. Jessie Breakwell, who worked as their nanny, said: 'Ozzy was obsessed with her. 'They'd giggle and make jokes. 'It was genuine love.' After Ozzy went to rehab for sex addiction, the couple reconciled and renewed their vows in Las Vegas in 2017. Sharon admitted: 'I love him. 'I can leave if I want, take half of everything and go. I don't want to.' 6 6 Wild and hilarious Ozzy stories 1. Ozzy once told Sharon: 'Don't cremate me, whatever you do. 'I want to be put in the ground, in a nice garden somewhere, with a tree over my head. 'A crabapple tree, preferably, so the kids can make wine out of me and get pissed out of their heads. 'As for what they'll put on my headstone, I ain't under any illusions. 'If I close my eyes, I can already see it: 'Ozzy Osbourne, born 1948 'Died, whenever. 'He bit the head off a bat.' 2. Ozzy decided to stop using acid while recording Black Sabbath album Vol 4. He said: 'I took ten tabs of acid then went for a walk in a field. 'I ended up standing there talking to this horse for about an hour. 'In the end, the horse turned around and told me to f**k off. 'That was it for me.' 3. The rocker began tattooing himself as a teenager while growing up in Birmingham. He said: 'I even put a smiley face on each of my knees to cheer myself up when I was sitting on the bog in the morning.' Decades later he had 'thanks' tattooed on his right palm. He said: 'It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. 'How many times do you say 'thanks' to people during your lifetime? 'Tens of thousands, probably. 'Now all I had to do was raise my right hand.' 4. The Osbournes had a donkey called Sally, who used to sit in the living room with Ozzy and watch Match Of The Day. 5. Former slaughterhouse worker Ozzy claimed to have killed his family's cats while high. He recalled: 'I was taking drugs so much I was a f***ed. 'The final straw came when I shot all our cats. 'We had about 17, and I went crazy and shot them all. 'My wife found me under the piano in a white suit – a shotgun in one hand and a knife in the other.' 6. The Prince of Darkness was interested in the Bible. He said: 'I've tried to read it several times. 'But I've only ever got as far as the bit about Moses being 720 years old, and I'm like, 'What were these people smoking back then?'' 7. Ozzy met the late Queen at the Royal Variety Performance. He recalled: 'I was standing next to Cliff Richard. 'She took one look at the two of us, and said, 'Oh, so this is what they call variety, is it?' then cracked up laughing. 'I honestly thought Sharon must have slipped some acid into my cornflakes that morning.' 8. Ozzy loved putting hidden messages in songs. He said: 'On No Rest For The Wicked, if you play Bloodbath In Paradise backwards, you can clearly hear me saying, 'Your mother sells whelks in Hull'.'
Daily Mail
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- Daily Mail
Mabel, 29, hits back at nepo baby claims as she admits 'I work hard every day' in candid interview about growing up with her famous parents
She's the daughter of eighties pop star Neneh Cherry and legendary producer Cameron McVey. Mabel, in recent years, has insisted she's made a successful career in music without the help of her famous parents. And in a new interview with Michael Dapaah on Comfortably Speaking, the singer has doubled down on nepo baby claims as she declared 'I work hard every day'. Mabel, 29, said: 'It was like a play on everything really, the expectations I've always had on myself. 'I'm still so hard on myself and I work really hard at it every day, I try to be kinder to myself, but it was definitely initially about the things that I felt about myself and yeah the expectations I had set for myself from a super young age. 'And then also about like coming from a family of musicians, maybe the expectations that people had of me, good for bad, do you know what I mean. 'Like people either set the bar here or they set the bar here, because they're like "oh well you're a nepo baby so like you're s*** basically", do you know what I mean?' The singer, full name Mabel Alabama-Pearl McVey has long been surrounded by musical royalty. Her mother Neneh, 61, rose to fame with her 1989 album Raw Like Sushi and hits Buffalo Stance and Manchild. Mabel's father Cameron, 68, is a legendary producer behind acts like Massive Attack and All Saints. Mabel also opened up about nearly ending her music career entirely as she struggled navigating her twenties. She said: 'It wasn't possible (to keep up with the pace), I mean it nearly like ended the relationship with what I loved the most, music, because it was impossible. 'It is impossible to deliver, in my opinion, an authentic creative product, because that's what it is when you're in the business. 'And also be okay and have enough life to live to be able to create the authentic product if you're having to do it every eight weeks. 'And you're also in your early 20s and you're trying to figure things out because who knows who they are or what they're doing.' Mabel first made waves in 2017 with her breakout hit Finders Keepers, and went on to release her platinum-selling debut album High Expectations in 2019. In 2020, she won the Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist. In 2018, Neneh spoke about nurturing her daughter Mabel in the music industry, revealing she is in awe of her. The songstress spoke of the then 21-year-old's success and reflected on motherhood, in an interview with the Evening Standard Magazine admitting she wasn't always 'emotionally accessible'. She said: 'Mabel is unbelievable and so focused and it's hard out there. 'She gets up sometimes and she's doing two or three sessions a day. I'm in awe of her and so I try to support her with basic mum things, like making her a take-out lunch.' Mabel previously insisted she doesn't want her parents' help when it comes to her own music career. 'When I was in my teens, and was like, 'I really want to do music',' she told the publication. I felt quite embarrassed by being my mum and dad's daughter. I thought, 'People will never take me seriously".'
