Donny Osmond shares truth behind huge family dynamic after heartbreak of losing two brothers

Back in the Seventies, Donny Osmond was the ultimate teen idol. Fresh-faced, with a dazzling smile and voice to match, the singer won hearts all over the world as part of the global pop phenomenon The Osmonds.

More than 50 years later, Donny has lost none of his sparkle as he prepares for a new UK solo tour, which will begin in January. He might not have quite so many hysterical girls screaming his name these days, but there are still a few.

“I do still get some screamers, but it’s milder than it was,” Donny tells HELLO! as we sit down to chat at a London hotel.

At 68, the boyish good looks which made him a pop pin-up are still evident, as is the youthful energy which has enabled him to perform at his Las Vegas residency for the past five years. The show features him singing with a hologram of his 14-year-old self.

“My shows are energetic – I think that's what keeps me young and keeps me in shape,” he says. “Some people call it a stage; I call it my gym.”

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No doubt clean living plays a part too. In keeping with his strong Christian faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Donny has never touched alcohol, tobacco or drugs. And, despite all the female attention, there has only ever been one woman in his life – his wife, Debbie, whom he met at an Elton John concert when he was 16 and she was on a date with his older brother Jay.

Wife Debbie is the 'sweetest person on the planet'

“I remember sitting next to my date, and looking over at Debbie and thinking, ‘I'm going to marry that girl someday.’ And I did,” he says. “But she made me chase her for three and a half years. When I told Elton that story, he thought it was funny.”

What did Jay think about his younger brother stealing his date? “We haven't spoken since!” he says, before adding with a chuckle: “No, no, it's fine.”

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Donny married Debbie when he was 20, despite his father warning it would damage his career. “Getting married took me out of the eligible bachelor category, but it was something I needed at the time,” he says. “The teen-idol image was going to dissolve anyway, and when you are going through such adulation, and it disappears, that's tough. But when you have your personal life together, you have that foundation, and Debbie provided that for me.

“Now that we’re empty nesters, it’s like we’re newlyweds again. We got to Hawaii every year, where we got engaged, and we have date nights all the time at our special little restaurants in Vegas.”

Family group chat - and 55 grandchildren between them 

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The couple, who celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary in May,  live between homes in Utah and Las Vegas. Their five adult sons and 16 grandchildren aged between one and 21 are all regular visitors. 

“There’s lots of swimming and partying, and we have this orchard full of fruit trees. I plant one every time we have a grandchild,” he says.

Only one of his sons, Christopher, has followed Donny into the music industry, while the others work in marketing, media and health.

“I think they saw how volatile this business is, and so they said, no, let's go get a regular job,” he says.

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The seventh of nine children, Donny and brothers Alan, Merrill, Jay, Wayne and Jimmy enjoyed worldwide fame with hits like 1974's "Love Me for a Reason" and 1972’s "Crazy Horses", while Donny’s solo hits included "Puppy Love" in 1972. He went on to find TV success in Donny & Marie alongside the only Osmond sister, reviving the concept of the Seventies variety show in 2008 with a joint Las Vegas residency, which ran for 11 years.

After a lull in the Eighties, Donny made a successful comeback in 1989 with a self-titled album, recorded at the British singer Peter Gabriel’s studios in Bath, and his single "Soldier of Love" reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that same year. In 1999, he appeared in the film version of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and more recently, there have been appearances on Dancing with the Stars in 2009, where he won the competition, and The Masked Singer in 2019. 

Donny is in regular touch with his siblings via a family group chat, but with at least 55 grandchildren between them all, reunions are a thing of the past.

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“People think that, at Christmas time, we all get together round a campfire and sing songs, but everyone has their own families and it’s too big to bring everyone together. We cover the whole state of Utah! But we’re still a very close family,” he says.

In the past two years, he has sadly lost his older brothers Wayne and Alan, but his faith has helped him deal with his grief.

Preparing to embark on a UK tour 

Donny will pay a musical tribute to his late brothers in his UK tour, which will visit cities including London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff in January and February. It promises to be a high-tech performance, which will include a new twist on "Crazy Horses" and a ten-minute rap. Fans will even have an opportunity, via the interactive Donny Osmond App, to be pulled out of the audience and serenaded with "Puppy Love".

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“It’s the culmination of six decades in showbusiness and I'm getting a whole new audience who know nothing about my past,” he says of the tour. “They are primarily what I call the Puppy Lovers, but there are a lot of people that now know me for other things. When you’re a teenybopper, you have to keep reinventing yourself, otherwise it will fade away.”

With so much fun still to be had, will Donny ever retire?

“I want to do it in a very classy way,” he says. “I'm not going to do my eighth farewell tour. I'm going to do it in a way where you'll wake up someday and say, ‘Whatever happened to Donny Osmond?’ And I'll be enjoying the good life with my wife, the kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. And nobody will know.”

* For tickets to Donny Osmond's UK tour in January and February 2027 visit www.myticket.co.uk