Libel win: Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne has accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages over a newspaper claim that he threw the Brit Awards into chaos after he suffered a health scare.

The damages will be donated to his wife's charity - the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program.

The 59-year-old Black Sabbath frontman did not attend London's High Court today for the settlement.

Express Newspapers apologised for the contested story which was published in the Daily Star this February.

Solicitor John Kelly told Mr Justice Eady that the article appeared after the couple, along with two of their children, Jack and Kelly, hosted the awards at Earl's Court in front of 6.1 million TV viewers.

Headlined "Ozzy's Freak Show", it falsely alleged that he had toppled over twice just before the ceremony was about to begin, prompting organisers to hold emergency talks about whether they should withdraw him with his family and send him to hospital.

It also claimed that he had to be ferried around the awards in an electric buggy, and that the singer and his wife sat on thrones when they were not speaking as Ozzy insisted on having a place to sit in case he got too tired.

Mr Kelly said that the newspaper now accepted that the allegations were 'completely untrue'.