When Melbourne artist Jessie Breakwell was 26 years old, backpacking and almost broke in London, she landed a special gig: working as a nanny for Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.
It was 1996, and Breakwell had applied for work with a nannying agency to fund her travels after studying fine arts at RMIT.
Jessie Breakwell with Ozzy Osbourne in the 1990s.
The next week, a limousine arrived where she was temping as a receptionist and she was taken to meet the family. She was interviewed by Ozzy and Sharon – together with their children, Jack, Kelly and Aimee, then aged 13, 14 and 15 – and thinks she got the job because they wanted someone relaxed.
For the next 18 months, Breakwell lived and worked with the Osbournes, travelling between their home in Buckinghamshire and Beverley Hills. This was several years before the MTV reality show The Osbournes launched them to global fame; they asked her to stay ahead of the show’s launch, but she was keen to get back to Australia.
With news of Ozzy Osbourne’s death on Wednesday, she has been remembering her time with the family.
“I spent more time with Ozzy than probably any of them, to be honest, when he was home between tours. He was the funniest guy. Because he spoke slowly people didn’t realise how switched on he actually was.”
Jessie Breakwell (second from left) in her days as a nanny with the Osbourne family.
Breakwell, a Melbourne-based artist, said Ozzy was funny, down-to-earth, and had no airs or graces. “He was always kind, he had time for everybody and made you feel really welcome,” she said.
“Because he didn’t drive, he used to do things like get in the car, open the sunroof, turn his own music on and stand up and sing out the roof. At times he could be a little obsessive compulsive. For a week he’d just be drawing all week, the next he’d have a cycling obsession, so he’d put the bike in the loungeroom and be cycling for days, or he’d decide he would only eat steak and he’d have 50 steaks a day.”
Reflecting on her time there, Breakwell said she was treated like part of the family. “If they were flying first-class or business, you’d go with them. We lived in the Beverley Hills Hotel for four or five months and I had my own bungalow. Jodi Foster would be sitting next to you having your eggs and bacon…” she said.
“They were quite close with Tommy Lee and Pam Anderson, they came over a bit. But they weren’t hugely social, they were very family oriented. It wasn’t like they were having parties all the time.”
Melbourne-based artist Jessie Breakwell with a painting she did of the Osbourne’s dogs. Credit: jessiebreakwellstudio
Breakwell also spent time creating art with the late rocker. “He was a very good drawer, he was brilliant; he was just a very creative mind. I think he used it as like a mindfulness, pre-mindfulness: he’d have thousands of coloured markers there and draw and draw and draw.”
In contrast to his “Prince of Darkness” on-stage moniker, she said Osbourne would draw “really colourful stuff, rainbows and unicorns, honestly”.
With his children, he was terrific, a real family man. “I have nothing bad to say. He loved them and he loved Sharon, he was obsessed with her,” she says.
“Even when no one was around, they’d chat and giggle and make jokes. It was genuine love.”
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