Sharon Osbourne reveals 16-year battle with depression: 'Some days you want to just stay in bed and rot'

Osbourne, 62, told her co-presenters on The Talk she had been taking medication to help her cope with the same condition for well over a decade

Sharon Osbourne, the outspoken former X Factor judge, has been privately suffering from mental health issues for over 16 years, she has revealed.

The eccentric manager and wife of Ozzy Osbourne made the admission to her co-presenters on chat show The Talk, during which the panel discussed comedian Wayne Brady’s recent comments about his struggles with depression.

Osbourne, 62, told them she had been taking medication to help her cope with the same condition for well over a decade.

“You never talked about that!” co-host Aisha Tyler exclaimed, to which Osbourne replied: “Nobody ever asked!”

“Some days are better than others, and some days you feel like you just want to pull the sheets over your head and just stay in that bed and not do a damn thing - except rot,” she continued.

Osbourne has battled with ill health for a number of years. In 2002, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent a double mastectomy in 2012.

“When I saw the scans of the colon, I thought, 'No way'. The cancer was so aggressive.

“She had three chemotherapies a month and after nine months the side-effects got worse and worse.

“She was having seizures - she was like The Exorcist, bouncing around the bed. I thought I was going to lose her.”

According to the most recent statistics from the Mental Health Foundation, clinical depression affects 1 in 5 older people in the UK.

Mental symptoms of the disorder include feelings of deep hopelessness, anxiety, guilt, low self-esteem and sometimes suicidal thoughts. Physical symptoms can include disturbed sleep, unexplained pains, changes in weight or moving or speaking slower than usual.

There are also grave social implications for sufferers, whose relationships with their family and friends are often tried and who find it difficult to perform well at work.