Kelly Osbourne has compared rehab to a “university on how to be a better drug addict”.
Osbourne, who was first admitted to rehab aged 19, made the claims in an episode of TMZ Investigates: Matthew Perry & The Secret Celebrity Drug Ring. The daughter of Ozzy and Sharon first began to experience addiction at 13 after being prescribed opioid medication after a standard tonsil removal procedure.
Speaking in the episode, Osbourne shared: “First rehab I went to was like university on how to be a better drug addict.”
“I’d learned so many tricks, so many things that I never even thought of from my fellow addicts that were in there.”
She went on to add that “I’d also seen people threaten to leave until they got given what they wanted, whether it be Ambien for sleep or Valium for nerves — they’d end up getting it.”
Osbourne also described seeing “body brokers”, claiming: “They’ll sit outside of AA meetings looking for weak and vulnerable people that they encourage to relapse so they can then pick you up again.
“I swear on everything that it is true, and it is heartbreaking.”
The media personality has previously opened up about her first rehab attempt, once recalling a “kind” gesture from the late Matthew Perry.
Perry was found dead in his hot tub last November aged 54, where an autopsy revealed he died from the acute effects of ketamine and from contributing factors like drowning.
Speaking on The Osbournes podcast, she recounted: “One time I was at a really, really horrible place, I was 19 years old and it was the first time I had ever been in treatment,” she said.
“It was the very first AA meeting I ever went to and it was the one in the Palisades on Sunday in the morning.
“I was shitting myself about being in there and there were so many people, and I hated it,” she continued. “I didn’t think that I belonged, and I felt worthless, everything. I just wanted to run because I knew where I was, and I knew how to get home from there.
“He [Matthew Perry] came up to me, because I guess I was visibly struggling. He handed me a 60-second chip and he was like, ’Just hold this for 60 seconds. If you can get through that, you can get through the next 60 seconds.′”
In other news, Kelly Osbourne has admitted she “regrets” quitting music.
