Kelly Osbourne Has the 'Cancer Gene' Too, Plans to Have Preventative Surgery

As the daughter of a cancer survivor, Kelly Osbourne has seen firsthand the kind of turmoil that diagnosis can unleash on a family. So of course she has been tested for the BRCA gene mutation which heightens a woman's risk of developing cancer. And, as she revealed on The Talk, she found she is a carrier and plans to take a similar course of action to Angelina Jolie.

"I actually do have the cancer gene," Osbourne said on the show. "My mom made all of us get tested after she found out that she had it and got her double mastectomy."

The panelists were discussing Angelina Jolie's New York Times op-ed in which she wrote about making the choice to remove her ovaries after a blood test revealed she might be in the early stages of cancer.

Kelly's mother Sharon — who was not present despite being a regular host on The Talk — was diagnosed with colon cancer which spread to her lymph nodes in 2002. Osbourne was given only a 33 percent chance of survival and her treatment was documented on the second season of the family's reality show, The Osbournes. Jack Osbourne, Kelly's younger brother, has revealed that he attempted suicide around that time due to the depression stemming from his mother's illness.

"I agree with this 100 percent," Osbourne said of Jolie's medical decision. "I know that one day I will eventually have to do it too because if I have children, I want to be there to bring them up. I want to be there to support them in every way I can."

Osbourne, at 30, is nearly 10 years younger than Jolie and so she's likely not in any huge rush to have the procedure done. As Jolie wrote in her op-ed, her doctors advised her to get preventative surgery a decade before the earliest onset on cancer in her female relatives. Sharon Osbourne was 50 in 2002 when she was diagnosed with cancer.

“It’s something I applaud Angelina for because she’s bringing attention to this,” Osbourne said. “People are now going to go out and get tested for it.”