Sharon Osbourne has publicly defended Marilyn Manson, saying she does not believe the allegations against him.
Sharon Osbourne has said she does not believe most of what has been alleged against Marilyn Manson, in the strongest public defence the singer has received from anyone of her standing since the accusations against him began in 2021.
She made the comments on the latest episode of “The Osbournes Podcast“, in conversation with her son Jack Osbourne. Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, has denied every allegation made against him and has never been charged with a criminal offence.
The subject came up after Jack raised an artist his mother had kept him from listening to as a child, and objected to what he called the darker side of the act’s presentation.
“Manson is a great artist. I don’t care what anybody says and now I’ll get all these complaints, ‘He abuses women.’ Well, women abuse men. And you know what the thing that gets me is? Did Marilyn ever try and be light and breezy, and you know a surfer guy? No. You know what you were getting yourself into,” she said (as transcribed by theprp).
She continued: “You’re begging to get on somebody’s tour bus. You’re begging to get near them and be photographed. And then you know what? What did you expect? And the thing is, I don’t think that he did what they said. You know what I feel about Marilyn. He’s a friend and always will be. And I don’t believe half of it.”
Sharon went on to describe a specific incident she says she witnessed involving one of the women who has sued Manson, identifying her only by her role in the litigation. The account is sexual in nature, unverified, and concerns a person who is an identifiable party in active legal proceedings.
She said: “I can tell you one of the people that was suing him — major part of it — we were sat Soho House one night, and she went on the floor under the table and gave him a bl**job. He never asked for it, she just did it.”
Jack Osbourne‘s immediate response on the podcast was to point out that she could find herself drawn into the proceedings as a result.
“Wow. At Soho House? …Watch, you’re going to get called in now. Now you’re gonna get called into the all the all the proceedings. That’s f**king nuts.”
Evan Rachel Wood, Manson‘s former fiancée, accused him in February 2021 of abusing her during their relationship. More than a dozen women came forward in the weeks that followed, several filing civil suits alleging sexual assault and abuse. Manson denied all of it, and lost his manager, his label and his agents within days.
He sued Wood and others for defamation and eventually withdrew the case after a series of adverse rulings.
Of the civil suits, three are resolved. He settled with the actor Esmé Bianco and with an unnamed woman who had alleged r*pe. A third, brought by Ashley Morgan Smithline, was withdrawn and recanted.
Two remain live. Bianca Allaine Kyne is suing over alleged incidents in the 1990s. Ashley Walters, Manson‘s former personal assistant, is heading to a jury trial over a 2021 complaint alleging sexual harassment, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress relating to 2010 and 2011. Her case had been dismissed on limitation grounds before a change in California law allowed it to be revived.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Division investigated the allegations and declined to bring charges. Nathan J. Hochman, the district attorney, said in early 2025: “We have determined that allegations of domestic violence fall outside of the statute of limitations, and we cannot prove charges of sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt.”
None of the civil allegations has been proven in court.
Sharon has known Manson for more than three decades and has not moved from her position in the five years since the allegations surfaced. Days after Wood went public in 2021, she said on “The Talk” that she had worked with him for many years, would not know what went on in his private life and did not want to.
Manson had been booked to support Ozzy Osbourne on his 2020 North American tour before those dates were cancelled. He shared a video tribute to Ozzy at the “Back To The Beginning” concert in Birmingham in July 2025, and was among those invited to the private funeral. Ozzy died on 22 July 2025.
Manson released One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2 on 14 August through Nuclear Blast and is currently on a North American co-headline tour with Rob Zombie.
More recently, a Los Angeles judge set November 15, 2027 as the trial date in the sexual assault lawsuit brought against Manson by his former personal assistant Ashley Walters. Manson has denied the allegations made against him.
