Ozzy Osbourne reveals wife Sharon’s very practical reaction to his affair

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s 43-year love story was not without its ups and downs.

Ozzy opened up about his wife’s calm reaction to his infidelity in his posthumous memoir Last Rights, released on Tuesday, October 7th.

In his book, Ozzy admits that his sex addiction got out of control around the time of Black Sabbath’s last tour, and he sarcastically writes that he thought “it would be a great idea to have a bunch of women on the side.”

The rocker, who died on July 22 at the age of 76, admitted that Sharon, whom he married in 1982, had “the right to dump” him when she learned of his indiscretions, but said it had less to do with love or romance and more to do with “filling in the blanks.”

“At some point you fall into the trap and can’t stop seeing them because you think they’re going to go to the press or something, and that’s exactly what happened,” he writes in the book. “Sharon was like, ‘What did you expect, Ozzy? If you meet enough women, one of them is going to want more, and that’s the one who’s going to slam the whole thing into everyone’s heads.'”

Ozzy wrote that he got over being a “bad guy” who “went wild for a while” but was ultimately grateful that Sharon made the choice to forgive him.

“I broke my wife’s heart and I’m lucky she has forgiven me. I hope everyone I hurt knows how sorry I am, including the children who were so badly affected,” he wrote. “All I have to say about it is this: ‘Talking about it will only hurt you more.'”

Ozzy and Sharon separated in May 2016, but PEOPLE confirmed in August that Sharon had checked into rehab for sex addiction. By September, they had reconciled and the pair – who share daughters Amy, 42 and Kelly, 40, and son Jack, 39 – renewed their vows a few months later.

Around the same time, hairdresser Michelle Pugh went public with her four-year affair with Ozzy, saying in a statement at the time: “I am sorry if Ms. Pugh took our sexual relationship out of context.”

“I forgive you. It’s going to take a long time to trust, but we’ve been together for 36 years, married for 34…I can’t imagine life without him,” Sharon said on an episode of The Talk in July 2016, adding that her husband was a “dirty dog.”

In 2017, she told the Telegraph that Ozzy had been cheating on her with six women.

Last Rites covers the last seven years or so of Ozzy’s life, including his increasing health problems and his fight to return to the stage one last time at Back to the Beginning’s farewell concert with Black Sabbath.

In a press release, Jack Osborne revealed the book, saying that his father “has been studying the book little by little over the last three or four years.”

Jack said that “not many” in his family had read The Last Rites yet, as it was a “difficult time for everyone” in the aftermath of losing the family patriarch.

“My father wanted people to smile, laugh and feel love when they read this book. He hated it when people felt sorry for him,” Jack said. “I know some fans get emotional, and it’s hard not to get emotional, but he couldn’t stand it when people cried in front of him and were sad around him. So enjoy his words. Feel his energy. Remember who he is and will always be. And never stop loving him.”