Sharon Osbourne took the huge decision to have a double mastectomy following her discovery that she was carrying the gene that caused 50 to 80 per cent of carriers to develop breast cancer. 

The American Idol judge and wife of Black Sabbath rocker Ozzy Osbourne has already suffered from colon cancer that spread to her lymph nodes; a diagnosis that was given in 2002 and was subsequently beaten despite being given only a 33% chance of survival. 'I've had cancer before and I didn't want to live under that cloud [of breast cancer]: I decided to just take everything off, and had a double mastectomy', she revealed to Hello! Magazine in a tell-all interview. It's a 13-hour operation that can take several weeks to recover from but Sharon refuses to feel sorry for herself. 'It's not 'pity me': it's a decision I made that's got rid of this weight that I was carrying around', she said. 'For me, it wasn't a big decision, it was a no-brainer.' She insisted that the decision was easy having just welcomed her first granddaughter Pearl into the family: 'I want to be around for a long time and be a grandmother to Pearl. I didn't even think of my breasts in a nostalgic way.'

The once plastic surgery obsessed star who has spent £300,000 on surgical enhancements could possibly thank her recent family traumas for being less concerned with her physical appearance; it has only been a matter of months since her son Jack was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and Sharon has freely and emotionally admitted it has not been easy to cope with.