I was a very angry person

Aug 18 2007 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

helping transform the lives of other troubled young adults

Former wayward teen Jack Osbourne has helped a Warrington woman set her life back on track. Emma Johnson reports

HAVING grown up under the gaze of the MTV generation, few were surprised when Jack Osbourne followed his father down a well-trodden path into drug addiction. His sister Kelly soon followed.

But these days the world’s best-loved dysfunctional family seem to be functioning just fine, mum Sharon’s carving a glittering TV career, Ozzy’s rocking out and Kelly’s performing in the West End. Jack found an outlet in the form of extreme sports.

In his autobiography, Twenty One Years Gone, which was released last year, he was brutally frank about his life so far; the highs, the lows, his descent into addiction and how he got his life back on track with his new-found passion for extreme sports.

While the first two series of Adrenaline Junkie saw Jack taking on the physical challenges with his own mentors, this time around Jack decided the time was right for him to become the one doing the mentoring.

However, the 21-year-old admits he did have some concerns about the trip.

Says Jack: “It was such a daunting task and I had never done anything like this before. It was strange to take five young adults under my wing and teach them how I coped with growing up, getting a sense of purpose in life and beating my demons. It’s something I have not long come to terms with and to teach it to other people was quite a strange, but necessary task.

“My mum advised me not to kill myself by getting the kids to change too dramatically and I suppose she was right. There was only so much I could do at the end of the day.”

For Jack, the high point of this series was the trip to Hawaii. He says: “It was the last shoot and it was summer. We went surfing in the waves and although it was still really hard work we had lots of fun. Just before we got to Hawaii we had two weeks of filming left and I was not happy with the progression the recruits had made. I made them eat better and train harder and when we got to Hawaii everything seemed to click into place and we seemed to be getting somewhere.”

But, as viewers will see, it didn’t always go swimmingly and tempers did fray.

“The arguing really got me down, especially between the girls. I am not used to being in a negative environment. The arguing between the girls just became very nauseating.

“The audience will be able to relate to the show and the people in it, plus the challenges are amazing,” Jack adds. “I hope people enjoy the series and they gain something positive from it.”

helping transform the lives of other troubled young adults

GIVEN his much- publicised drug addiction, Jack Osbourne is not the most obvious role model material. After all, he went into rehab when he was just 17, after confessing to being hooked on alcohol and oxycontin, known as “hillbilly heroin”, and had looked destined to be yet another Hollywood casualty.

But now, four years later, clean of drugs, slimmed down and fighting fit, Ozzy’s youngest son is helping transform the lives of other troubled young adults, including one from Warrington who was heading nowhere fast.

Unemployed and a self-confessed angry young woman, 24-year-old Becky Hawley joins Jack for the third instalment of his extreme sports series, Adrenaline Junkie.

In the series, which begins on ITV2 tonight, Becky, along with the other recruits, Barnsley-born Antony Levitt, 19; 19-year-old Lisa Carey, from Burton-upon-Trent; 18-year-old Georgie Rowley, from Lichfield; and Londoner Kayode Lewis, 20, undertake the challenge of a lifetime.

The first two series saw Jack scale California’s El Capitan and go whitewater rafting in New Zealand, as well as take part in the world’s biggest bungee jump and a 150-mile marathon across the Sahara Desert.

This time around, he takes his team to seven different locations worldwide to complete mind- blowing and breathtaking challenges such as learning to surf in Hawaii, bungee jumping from a helicopter and trekking through the Borneo jungle.

For Becky, who admits she had never even held down a job for more than a couple of days before taking part in the show, it was a truly life-changing experience.

“Before the show I basically didn’t do anything for myself and lived off other people,” she says. “All I used to do was socialise with friends. I wanted to gain some independence. Also, I wanted to grow up. I was 24 and still a little kid. Before I went on the show I was a very angry person and I wanted to change that.”

Being away from home and seeing how Jack had turned his own life around, Becky says changed her outlook completely.

“Everything about me has changed,” Becky reveals. “I have totally opened my eyes to everything. I don’t get angry any more and I’ve not lost my temper since being home.”

She has even been inspired to work towards a career in the airline industry.

“I really want to be an air traffic controller, so I have applied for that since getting back. I am just doing everything for myself now, even down to really small things like making my own cups of tea, which may sound pathetic, but it is a vast improvement for me! My mum and dad can not believe how much I have changed.”

While Becky says she enjoyed the whole experience of taking part in the show, she admits she did have to overcome a lot of her fears during the challenges.

“All of the tasks on the show were scary to overcome,” she says. “But for me it was definitely eating things. I am 24 and I have never had anything I don’t like put in front of me. If I don’t like it, it’s been taken away. For me to sit there and eat goat’s testicles is definitely an improvement!

“I absolutely hated the jungle – I hated every minute of it; from drinking dirty water to sleeping in a hammock and trekking knee-deep in mud.”

She may have hated the jungle but what did she make of Jack, who shot to stardom in 2001 when he starred with infamous dad Ozzy, mum Sharon and wild child sister Kelly, in MTV’s smash hit series The Osbournes?

“Before I met Jack I didn’t know an awful lot and I didn’t want to form an impression of him,” she says. “I just thought he would be a little spoilt and that he wouldn’t give a s---.

“He’s so down to earth, I mean I could bring him home with me and he’d fit in.

“I thought that he was a good mentor, considering we were all the same age and it’s the first time he’s done it. It must have been hard for him to try and implement rules and help improve our lives.

“To be honest, I think he did an absolutely amazing job, as no one has been able to change me before.”

* ADRENALINE Junkie 3 is on ITV2 tonight at 9pm.

emmajohnson@dailypost.co.uk