Osmond had started his career along with his siblings. When it was 70s, they were shining with their fame, as he was the young idol teenagers had loved.
For all of his life, he was under the spotlight, where he was the center of attention, whenever, and wherever he is showed himself. He stated that you need to recreater yourself, once you had started to gain fame on the beginnings of your career, especially you are young too.
He stated that there will be people that would say yes to you whatever the occasion is, and this might play with your reality where you start to lose yourself.
He added that his family had helped him, when he was experiencing an extraordinary fame on his early ages, by saying, just be yourself.
“Thank goodness I had a great family growing up, a great foundation. But I will say my faith, my parents, my family, all that stuff is very, very important. And I’ll say that until the day I die. But I think the most important ingredient to survive is self-determination, not to fall into that trap,” he stated that his faith in his religion had helped him too, in order to keep himself on the line.
“You’re an island no matter what you do. I think it’s very dangerous to use popularity as your identity in life. So you have to really know who you are inside, the core person, and follow what is true rather than follow what is hype.” Osmond added.
“And that’s so hard when you’re involved in all of this excitement, this screaming, and everything like that. They’re screaming for an image, you know. And then you go home, and you put your pants on just like anybody else. You eat your breakfast just like anybody else. You’re just like anybody else.”
Many people had fallen in love with him, as he was the teenage idol of many young women, when he was a teen fame too. But he only had one love, his wife, Debbie. They are together for more than 40 years.
Donny was 17, while Debbie was 16 when they first met. But even though, many women had loved him, Debbie said no to him in the beginning. Because she was dating with his brother. “She was the hot babe cheerleader in town, and she dated my brother Jay [Osmond] before she dated me,” Donny said.
“It took me 3 whole years to win her heart and convince her to marry me.”
For the 17th birthday of Debbie, he had hired a limousine, for their ride to their romantic dinner that he had planned for the occasion. “Debbie was playing hard to get, and I wanted to plan something really, really special for our first kiss,” he said back in time, in an interview.
“She came back to the limo and read that she could get her final clue from Donny if she gave him a kiss. And it was fireworks, let me tell you!”
They were really young, when they got married. Donny was 20, and Debbie was 19 at that time. They got married at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah, when it was 1978.
In his interview with The Guardian in 2017, he had stated that his father, George, didn’t supported their marriage, and he expressed that he doesn’t want any woman to distract Donny.
“While the world knew me as a teen idol, and the Osmonds’ fame was at its height, I began secretly dating Debbie Glenn,” he said.
“By the time I was 19, I knew I was in love and had to do something right for me. When I told my dad, he said, ‘Well, there goes your career, but this is ushering in your personal life.’”
“My dad was right about my career after I got married. But Debbie is an amazing person to be with. If I hadn’t married her, I’d have been a mess. Now, I had someone who understood me and with whom I could build a future together.”
“I learned a lot from my parents about loving your children, treating them with respect, and allowing them a voice. Our religion teaches that we are bonded together in eternity, so relationships are very respectful. We value kindness and forgiveness.”
“Debbie and I are religious but not over-fanatical so we have a firm respect for deity, which holds true in our home. I based my parenting style on my dad at first, whom I grew very close to over the years. I think I lightened up as a dad as time went on.”
In 1979, the couple had received their first child, Donald Clark Osmond Jr. And later on years, they had welcomed their children, Jeremy (1981), Brandon (1985), Christopher (1990), and Joshua (1998).
“She is the glue that holds us all together” Donny had stated about his wife.
When it was 2020, Donny had celebrated her wife’s Valentine’s Day as, “the absolute love of my life.”
“I want to publicly express my gratitude for the irreplaceable influence Debbie continues to be in my life. She’s not only the love of my life, but she’s also my best friend and greatest confidant.
Between raising our five sons, running the show at home, enjoying time with our grandchildren, and running a business as well, I really don’t know how she manages to do it all,” he stated on the post he shared from Facebook.
“Through the years, Debbie has often had to manage on her own while I’ve toured and performed on the road. That’s a very heavy burden to bear, and I’m deeply grateful for a wife who is my teammate in every sense of the word. She is the glue that holds us all together,”
When they were in Minneapolis, Donny had a panic attack, while he was sleeping. He said about the incident that he was shaking in the bed, and when Debbie saw him, she rushed him to a hospital.
“I collapsed. [I was afraid of] failing, of making a mistake,” he said.
“My brother Jay walked in and said, ‘Donny, what’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I’m lonely,’”
“You just had thousands of girls screaming your name. Why are you lonely?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I just need someone.’”
“It’s like you’re standing in the middle of an intersection, and here comes a massive semi right at you at 90 miles an hour, and you can’t do anything about it,” he explained his experience with anxiety.
“I would walk on stage knowing I was going to die. It was horrible.”
“Debbie said, ‘Why don’t you go out there tonight and do an average show?’ It ended up being the best show I ever did because I gave myself an opportunity to make a mistake.”
“It started the foundation of me being a multifaceted entertainer,”
“I was in such a desperate place that Debbie pulled me out of it,” he added.
“Whenever I make a decision in my life, the first thing I think about is her. How does it affect her? And the second thing I think about is how does it affect my children? The third, now, is how does it affect my grandchildren. And then I’m fourth. If all four of those are a green light, then I’ll do it. I think that is what’s really helped this 43-year marriage is that she comes first. But I love what I do.”
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