Marie Osmond, 59, is opening up about her late son’s suicide almost a decade after he passed away. Marie, who joined The Talk for Season 10 after co-host and show creator Sara Gilbert, 44, exited the show in August, got candid about the topic of shaming during the show’s premiere on Sept. 9. “I’ve been shamed before,” she started. “If you take the topic of shame, you can say what you want about me, but when they start attacking your children, or your family, or these types of things…I think this world is into too much of this shaming thing.”
Speaking to her new co-hosts Sharon Osbourne, 66, and Eve, 40, the former Donny and Marie star elaborated, saying, “If, for example, when my son died — I chose to go to work a week after his funeral. And the people were so cruel, because of me choosing to show my children they had to keep living. And you know, the things that they said…it hurt my children more than anything, that they would go through that.” Marie’s son, Michael Bryan Blosil, died by suicide nearly 10 years ago. He was 18-years-old.
Sadly, being in the public eye often results in being an easy target for scrutiny for outsiders looking in — something that Marie is all too familiar with. The “Paper Roses” singer revealed that she was also shamed for attending her daughter Jessica’s wedding. “Another thing, recently, is, my daughter is gay, and I went to her wedding. She just got married, and people were shaming me — because of supporting my daughter. And you know, the thing is that, you should never shame anyone…especially for loving your child.”
If you are in a crisis, please call 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433) or reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, which you can call at any time, 24 hours a day, at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You can also text the crisis line, text “START” TO 741-741.