Marie Osmond, the 60-year-old performer and famous for her song Paper Roses, revealed that she is not leaving any of her lifetime’s fortune to her children. This statement sparked a debate on CBS daytime talk show The Talk last March.
During the segment, the women talked about the multimillion-dollar fortune of Kirk Douglas, who died in February last year at the age of 103. According to reports, most of his money was left to charity.
In 1983, Marie Osmond and Steve Craig welcomed their first child named Stephen, but two years later, the couple divorced. Osmond then married Brian Blosil in 1986, and they had two biological children Matthew and the late Michael, who died in 2010 at the age of 18. Marie Osmond and her husband Brian Blosil also decided to adopt five children named Jessica, Rachael, Brandon, Brianna, and Abigail. The couple divorced after 20 years of marriage and now Marie Osmond’s husband Steve Craig remarried her.
Now, Marie Osmond’s children are not going to get any of her money as Osmond explained that she and her husband decided that it was a great disservice to them. She added that handing children a fortune will take away one of the most important gifts you can give your children, which is the ability to work.
She also continued to say that kids who grew up in rich families don’t know what to do so they get in trouble. For Osmond, she just lets them be proud of what they make and she would donate all of her fortune to charity. But she clarified that this does not mean that she wouldn’t help her children in terms of purchasing a home or a car.
Co-host Sheryl Underwood disagreed with Osmond saying that kids who come from a family of money are raised to value and understand money. Thus, children born into wealth should have a healthy respect for money. She also added that she would love some money left for her from somebody else to give her a leg up.
Sharon Osbourne, co-host on the show and wife of award-winning rocker Ozzy Osbourne, also disagreed with Marie. She said that everybody is different but for her, her husband’s body of work kept them in the lifestyle that they love, which also goes for their children. And so his name and likeness should go to their children. It should stay in the Osbourne family.
On the other hand, guest host Carnie Wilson weighed in on the middle. She noted that she loved the idea of teaching children to work as she herself hailed from a successful, hardworking family. But she preferred leaving a bit of money to her children whilst instilling a work ethic.
Marie Osmond said that her decision not to leave anything to the children came from a personal experience. When her uncle and aunt passed away, the family fought over a mirror and a table. That was when her mother said that it would never happen.
The singer and host recently left The Talk before the season eleven premiere. She originally became a co-host on the show as a replacement for Sara Gilbert in 2019.