Many of us watched Kelly Osbourne go through her teenage years on MTV’s The Osbournes. But since then, Osbourne spent a few years as part of the E! Fashion Police team, and she also recently wrote a memoir called There Is No F*cking Secret: Letters From a Badass Bitch. In her book, Osbourne writes letters to various aspects of her life — from her beloved lavender hair to the Lyme disease and drug and alcohol addictions she’s struggled to overcome. The Cut chatted with Osbourne about her book, her hair, and her go-to ten-minute workout.
How I start my mornings: My morning routine is, oddly enough, almost exactly like my father’s. Depending on work — if I’m taping or recording — it can start anywhere from 4 a.m. on, but if I have a later start in the day or if I’m working from home, I have the most incredible view from my apartment. So the first thing I do every morning is open my curtains and take a minute to breathe and look at green and collect myself, and then I start thinking about the day. It’s really unhealthy to wake up, unless you’re excited about something, thinking about the day — you have to take the first few minutes of the day to think about you to get yourself in a good place because then you can go about your day to the best of your abilities. It makes a difference to just sit and breathe for a minute. Then I put Abbey Road on, brush my teeth, put on workout clothes, and then I go to the gym — and it’s the exact same thing my dad does in the morning.
How I sweat: I do a ten-minute workout every single day that gets everything in your body moving. It’s also a great warm-up to do before my actual workout — I do half an hour of cardio and then 20 minutes of yoga. I found the ten-minute workout online, and I’m kind of obsessed with this woman, Anna Renderer. I found it looking for a ten-minute warm-up, but when I researched more, I found it was also a great way to maintain, if you only have a few minutes. You can do it anywhere if you have a yoga mat, or at a hotel you could just use a towel. Honestly, I’ve worked with some of the world’s most incredible personal trainers, but this ten-minute warm-up is the best for me and my body that I have found.
Wellness, to me, is: Mental, before anything. You have be in a good headspace. You have to know your emotions, know when to ask for help. If you’re not in a good headspace and you go on a diet, you may lose weight but as soon as you stop the diet, you’re going to go right back to where you were. You need to make a positive life change. People have this delusion that if you lose weight, you’ll get happy. But if you’re not happy, you won’t lose weight. You won’t become fully mind, body, and soul healthy unless you find a way to at least be content with yourself.
On my lavender hair: I wish I could put the feeling in a bottle and sell it to the world — I’d just give it away, I don’t even want the money — of how I felt the first time I looked in the mirror with lavender hair. It was before anybody did it — people wore wigs of course, but they didn’t dye it in this color. I got told I should kill myself, that I looked like an old lady, Dame Edna’s ugly child she didn’t want, all sorts of stuff, but I loved it. A wonderful thing happened in the process of writing my book. My mum’s been at me since I dyed my hair to go back to having blonde hair, because the color of my natural hair is golden. I was having this conversation with my mum and she was saying I should get a makeover before the book comes out, and I looked at her and I said, “But what’s wrong with me?” And then all of the sudden, she looked shocked. She turned around, looked at me and said, “You know what, Kelly, I’m so sorry. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you. You’re beautiful. All I care is if you feel good and you like the way you look. I’ll never say anything about it again.” It was like a therapeutic breakthrough, and she would never have said that to me unless she read my book. It’s weird seeing all of these things that I couldn’t necessarily tell my mum or my dad or my brother, but in the book I can, and it’s making our relationship stronger.
On growing up on TV: So many people saw me grow up, through my most awkward, fugly phases. I know fugly when I see fugly — I know I was fugly. Those are the gifts that keep on giving, and I look back on it and I do laugh about it. I also get proud of myself because I guess you could say I’m a modern-day Bridget Jones–slash-ugly-duckling.
How I became healthier: It was a commitment to a life change. Diets do not work, unless people are trying to get skinny for a movie role. You go on a diet, you break it, and then you go back to doing what you’re doing. It’s knowledge. It’s teaching yourself what’s good for yourself food-wise. Figuring out a healthier diet plan. Find something that’s healthy that you do like eating. Because we live in a world of convenience, and things are so prepackaged, it’s just easy to not eat well. It’s actually harder to be healthy now, and it shouldn’t be, because health is actually quite simple. What’s not simple is the process of becoming healthy. I will never say I am a healthy person; I’m healthier. I’ve become way more sensible, which is something I never thought I would say about myself. It’s about growing up more than anything, realizing that the world doesn’t revolve around you but life is worth living and you’ve got to make it count because you only get one shot. I’m more of a prude and I’m more scared of people doing drugs than I ever have in my life. I look at videos of me as a kid, and I think, “Fucking hell, I was fearless. I thought I knew everything.” And now, knowing more than I’ve ever known in my life, I realize I know nothing. Absolutely nothing.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
