The Osbournes have opened up as a family for the first time about the loss of their patriarch.

In July of this year, Black Sabbath star Ozzy Osbourne died at the age of 76. The heavy metal rocker had been ill for quite some time, and had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Four months on from Ozzy’s passing, his wife Sharon and two of their children, Jack and Kelly, have spoken out about their grief.

Speaking on the first episode of their podcast, The Osbournes, in more than a year, the family admitted that they have been struggling in the wake of Ozzy’s passing.

“I never realized just how horrible grief is. I never knew I was capable of loving somebody so much and missing somebody so much. I just, I never thought there’d be a day where he wouldn’t be here,” Kelly confessed.

Sharon then asked: “But then how blessed are you to have had a dad like him?”

The former X Factor judge also described her own grief as coming in “waves”, noting: “I hate going to bed at night.”

Kelly agreed: “I wake up and for the first three seconds I feel normal, and then I remember everything. Mornings are the hardest for me. What is the morning? Because it happened in the morning. And I used to spend most of my time with Dad in the morning.”

Father-of-four Jack later shared that “having the kids has been a huge help”, as he unpacked his own difficulties with grief.

“It is both horrible and beautiful in the way that it forces you to unpack and examine things. Like, yeah, it sucks that he’s gone, but also, for me, it has led to a huge amount of gratitude and love and like really cherishing moments that at the time you take for granted,” he explained.

In the episode, the Osbournes also thanked the public for their love and support after Ozzy’s death.

“The outpouring of love has been so helpful to us. I never could have even imagined it to be as helpful as it has been to know that we’re not alone in our grief, in our sadness and that the rest of the world loved him as much as we did…I haven’t seen an outpouring like that since Princess Diana died. I didn’t expect it,” Kelly reflected.

Sharon added: “Ozzy, he wouldn’t believe it. He wouldn’t. He didn’t realise how much he was loved and that was his beauty because he never took it for granted from anyone. He never took it for granted I’m this, I’m that. He had no idea.”