Born: 10/27/84 In: London, U.K. Is: TV personality/Singer
Back in the early 2000's -- before the Jonas Brothers and a mess of other Disney dreamboats descended upon Hollywood in a wholesome poof -- the most famous teenagers in America were... different. They cursed like sailors and berated their parents on-camera. They invited wild-haired, homeless pro skaters to live at their house. They were Jack and Kelly Osbourne and millions of people spent a few years watching them keep it real in their Beverly Hills mansion, on MTV's The Osbournes.
The show was a hit -- the biggest hit MTV had ever had at that point -- and Ozzy and his brood earned up to $20 million a season. But the fame and the cash didn't lead to happiness. "When that show was on the air, I was constantly being judged by the whole world," Kelly recalls. "The scrutiny continued even when it wasn't on television anymore. Wherever I went, people called me names, cruel names, and I was miserable." Miserable... and really, really busy. In between stints in rehab (she struggled with alcohol and pill addictions), Kelly released two disco-tinged pop albums -- the second of which, Sleeping in the Nothing, was kind of great -- dipped a toe into scripted television in a short-lived ABC sitcom, and helped design a line of clothes sold at Hot Topic. It was a lot to handle. And by age 19, Kelly, who'd lived with her family on a farm in rural England before moving to America, traded in Tinseltown for the familiar thrum of London.
"L.A. didn't work for me. It just didn't feel right," she says. Back in the U.K., things turned around. She hosted a radio show called "The Surgery" on Radio 1 and wrote a column for the U.K.'s biggest paper, the Sun. She met her fiancé -- model Luke Worrall -- at a MisShapes party and fell in love, and she's about to release a memoir/advice book in England. "People had been asking me to do an autobiography for years, since I was sixteen," Kelly says. "But then I'd watch Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton do them, and it just seemed very, 'Look how rich I am, look at my designer clothes, I don't have to wait in line to get into a club and here's twenty pictures of famous people I know,' which I hated the idea of. I knew I couldn't give advice to other girls unless I talked honestly about what I've done. So in this book, I talk about all the important things that have happened in my life." Which includes her mother's battle with colon cancer, what it was like growing up with an alcoholic in her family, problems dealing with her own addictions, boys and falling in love.
These days, Kelly says she'd rather watch movies at home with Luke
than rage at the clubs. That said, we suspect Kelly will never turn into
a full-on shut-in. She is obsessed with fashion (and we're talking
fashion-fashion -- as in Balmain after-party rock-chick major-shoulder
jacket fashion). And her reverence for nightlife -- like, say, the
Blitz Kids, the fabu-goths who faithfully dressed up to party in London
-- remains intact. "Even when I was unhappy and out at clubs, I loved
watching everybody else. These people who got dressed up to the nines,
with the hair and this insane makeup, and these outfits. I would look at
them and think, 'You are so brave. You walked out your door, you boarded
public transportation, either a bus or a train, and walked here looking
like that?' You are my hero, and you are amazing. That's where it all
starts."
Veronica Cooper
Wears: a blazer by Balmain, tops by Topshop, jeans by Genetic Denim, shoes by YSL and gloves by Lanvin