Sharon Osbourne: I Had a Double Mastectomy

Sharon Osbourne has had a double mastectomy as a precaution against breast cancer, she reveals in today's issue of Hello! magazine. The 60-year-old had the procedure after learning she has a gene upping her risk of getting the disease. "I didn't want to live the rest of my life with that shadow hanging over me," says Osbourne, who survived colon cancer 10 years ago. "The odds are not in my favor."

"It's not 'pity me,' it's a decision I made that's got rid of this weight that I was carrying around," she adds. "For me, it wasn't a big decision, it was a no-brainer. … I didn't even think of my breasts in a nostalgic way, I just wanted to be able to live my life without that fear all the time." But the experience put her off plastic surgery for good, she notes, since she found out before the surgery that her breast implants had leaked into her stomach wall. (More Sharon Osbourne stories.)