Ozzy Osbourne Reveals Wife Sharon’s Very Practical Reaction to His Affair

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s 43-year love story wasn’t without its rocky patches.

Ozzy opened up about his wife’s level-headed reaction to his infidelity in his posthumous memoir Last Rites, which hit shelves on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

In the book, Ozzy admits that his sex addiction got out of hand around the time of Black Sabbath’s final tour, sarcastically writing that he thought it’d be “a great idea to start seeing a load of women on the side.”

The rocker, who died on July 22 at age 76, admitted that Sharon, whom he married in 1982, had “every right to dump” him when she learned of his indiscretions, which he said had less to do with love or romance and more to do with “filling a void.”

“At some point you get trapped and you can’t stop seeing ‘em, ‘cos you think they’ll go to the press or whatever. Which is pretty much what happened,” he wrote in the book. “Sharon was like, ‘What the f— did you expect, Ozzy? If you’re seeing enough women, one of ‘em’s gonna want more. And that’s the one who’s gonna bring the whole thing crashing down on everyone’s heads.'”

Ozzy wrote that he copped to being the “bad guy” who “f—ed around for a while” but is ultimately grateful that Sharon chose to forgive him.

“I broke my wife’s heart, and I’m lucky she forgave me. I just hope all the people I hurt know how sorry I am — including the kids, who were badly affected,” he wrote. “And that’s all I wanna say about any of that, ‘cos bringing it up just causes more pain.”

Ozzy and Sharon separated in May 2016, and PEOPLE confirmed that August that the rocker had entered rehab for sex addiction. By September, they’d reconciled, and the two (who shared daughters Aimee, 42, and Kelly, 40, and son Jack, 39) went on to renew their vows months later.

Around the same time, hairdresser Michelle Pugh went public with her four-year affair with Ozzy, though he said in a statement at the time that he was “sorry if Ms. Pugh took their sexual relationship out of context.”

“I forgive. It’s going to take a long time to trust, but we’ve been together 36 years, 34 of marriage… I just can’t think of my life without him,” Sharon said on an episode of The Talk in July 2016, adding that her husband had been a “dirty dog.”

In 2017, she told The Telegraph that Ozzy had cheated on her with six different women.

Last Rites covers the last seven or so years of Ozzy’s life, including his growing number of health issues and his fight to get back on stage one last time at the Back to the Beginning farewell concert with Black Sabbath.

In a press release, Jack Osbourne opened up about the book, saying his dad had been “chipping away at it over the last three or four years.”

Jack noted that “not many” of his family members had read Last Rites yet, as the aftermath of losing their patriarch has been a “difficult time for everyone.”

“My father would want people to smile, laugh, and feel love when they read it. He absolutely hated when people felt sorry for him,” Jack said. “I know some fans will get emotional — it’s hard not to — but he couldn’t stand when people cried in front of him or got sad around him. So enjoy his words. Feel his energy. Remember who he will always be. And never stop loving him.”