A woman has revealed how strangers mistake her for her husband's mother because of their 23-year age gap.

Sharon Osborne, 50, from Lincolnshire has even been branded a cougar by her friends, while strangers often stare at the couple.

Despite receiving daily taunts, the A&E nurse says she is not ashamed of their relationship and insists her husband Mark, 27, a removals man, is the love of her life.

Mark, who has been nicknamed Ozzie due to being married to Sharon Osborne, was desperate to have children, but their age gap means it's not possible.

Sharon said: The only way age affects our relationship is that I can no longer have children, and Ozzie really wanted them.

But he has accepted it now and he said he'd rather one of me than a thousand of his own kids.

I'm looking forward to our future together regardless. He may be 23 years younger than me, but he's my perfect man.

Sharon said: 'My husband is half my age, and I honestly don't care what people think.

I get teased about being a cougar but, at the end of the day, I go home to a handsome young man. So the joke's on everyone else.

Sharon and Mark - who his friends call Ozzie in a nod to being married to Sharon Osborne - met on Christmas day in 2014 at her local pub through mutual friends.

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The pair started chatting and Sharon couldn't believe their instant connection.

Sharon said: 'Our friends thought it was great, they could tell how happy we both were.

I introduced Ozzie to Katy, and she really liked him.

I then met Ozzie's parents, and they were surprisingly lovely to me. They were close to my age.

But we did receive some comments about how we'd never last and how I was old enough to be Ozzie's mum.

It hurt at first but we just laughed it off. Friends at work started calling me a cougar.

It was annoying and ridiculous at first, but now I can appreciate the joke.

'He stepped up as a stepfather to Katy, and really doted on her.

'People in shops ask if I'm Ozzie's mum all the time, especially when we're food shopping.

'It's become a regular occurrence.

'And when we hold hands on the streets, we get stared at.

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'I hate that we have to justify being together, we're just two people in love and age shouldn't matter.'

Credits: Daily Mail