The Osmonds have suffered an unimaginable loss. Wayne Osmond died in Salt Lake City on New Year’s Day at the age of 73 according to Fox 40. But amidst the tragedy, his 71-year-old brother Merrill Osmond revealed a sliver of good news, posting on Facebook that after Wayne had a massive stroke, he fell to his knees to pray for him and then, “immediately drove to the hospital in SLC to see him.” Merrill then revealed that he was luckily able to say his goodbyes to his brother, former bandmate, and someone who he called, “a saint before he came into this world, and he will leave as an even greater saint than he came in.”

As older brother to Donny and Marie Osmond, Wayne reportedly suffered from a number of health problems over the years. In 1997, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor that was successfully treated, though it left the former-musician partly deaf. Then, in 2012, he had a stroke and cancer which left him unable to play guitar. Merrill wrote in the Facebook post, “My brother Wayne endured much. He gave it his all. His legacy will go down as someone who was not only a genius in his ability to write music, but was able to capture the hearts of millions of people and bring them closer to God. I will miss him tremendously.” 

Before the loss of Wayne, the entire story of the Osmond family has been steeped in tragedy. Beginning with the children’s father, George Osmond was known to be a hard-nosed disciplinarian, which Donny Osmond told the Guardian came from a combination of his time in the army and the fact that he was raised by an abusive stepfather. But despite his strict nature, Donny praised the Osmond’s patriarch given their family’s rise to stardom, saying, “When you look at his background, the man is a hero. Especially keeping nine children together in the world of show business. He really did it right, in my opinion.”

But even despite their father’s best efforts, many of the siblings of the Osmond family all have tragic stories to tell. Marie Osmond was a victim of sexual abuse, revealing the truth in a Larry King Live interview. “And you know… You think you are over them, but it is the long-term effects of those types of things that you don’t even see,” she admitted. She also shared the tragic trait of having an eating disorder with Merrill Osmond, who also revealed to the Mirror in 2019 that he struggled with a bipolar disorder and almost took his own life when he was 16. 

Merrill gave some reflecting words in the interview that hopefully give him some solace after losing his brother, saying, “Then, after it’s all over, you start thinking worst-case scenarios, doom and gloom. But these days I don’t look for the magical pill. I try to understand it and I can process it a lot better than when I was young.”