Sharon Osbourne has confirmed that she has had her breasts removed in order to limit her chances of getting cancer.

The former X Factor judge suffered from colon cancer in 2002 and she has now revealed to Hello! magazine that she has a gene that means her chances of developing breast cancer are high.

As a result, the 60-year-old has undergone a double mastectomy to remove the threat - a decision that she calls a "no-brainer". Osbourne said:

"As soon as I found out I had the breast cancer gene, I thought: 'The odds are not in my favour'. I've had cancer before and I didn't want to live under that cloud: I decided to just take everything off, and had a double mastectomy."

She continued: "For me, it wasn't a big decision, it was a no-brainer. I didn't want to live the rest of my life with that shadow hanging over me. I want to be around for a long time and be a grandmother to Pearl. I didn't even think of my breasts in a nostalgic way, I just wanted to be able to live my life without that fear all the time. It's not 'pity me', it's a decision I made that's got rid of this weight that I was carrying around."

As previously reported, Liberty X singer Michelle Heaton recently revealed that she was due to have a mastectomy after discovering she had a similar gene which greatly increased her chances of developing breast cancer.