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Donny Osmond speaks candidly about facing potential paralysis in a new interview with the Mirror.
The 63-year-old explains how he knew something was seriously wrong while finishing up the final song of the last Las Vegas show in his 11-year residency with his sister Marie in November 2019.
Osmond tells the publication, “I couldn’t feel my arms, then suddenly my legs, too. I didn’t tell anyone what was happening to me… I just kept dancing and finished the show.”
The singer, who shot to fame as a teen idol in the family band the Osmonds, explains how this started a 12-month nightmare.
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The paper states that doctors found that his spine had shifted due in part to previous dancing injuries, including one he suffered when he won “Dancing with the Stars” back in 2009.
Despite undergoing successful back and neck surgery, Osmond shares: “I thought everything was going to be fine but it couldn’t have been worse. I got a secondary infection, which meant I wasn’t able to move.”
He endured months of rehab and needed a walking frame to hobble around. When asked whether he was worried he’d never be able to walk again, he answered, “Oh sure, absolutely. It absolutely crossed my mind. But I just didn’t take no for an answer.”
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Osmond says he had a team of “great professionals” trying to reanimate his body but also credited his strong Mormon faith for his recovery.
“It was my faith, a lot of hard work and positive thinking,” he says.
Osmond also had the support of his wife Debbie, whom he married in 1978.
“She knows exactly the sort of determination that I have and she knew I would be fine,” he gushes.
Over the course of several months he managed to walk again, joking it was a “blessing in disguise” in some ways because it kept him in his home studio.
“It enabled me to focus on my lyrics and focus on a new record,” he says.
Osmond is now back and has landed a new solo Vegas residency at Harrahs where he performs several times a week.
“Last night’s show was wild… the amount of dancing and singing and everything,” he tells the paper.
“I started from below ground zero but it feels like coming back from the dead. I’m pain-free now, maybe even stronger than I was before.”
ET Canada has contacted Osmond’s rep for comment.