Religion Is a Common Chord : Donny, Debbie Osmond Find Harmony in Irvine

The attractive young couple stepped out of the black Chevy Blazer and, huddling under an umbrella, walked briskly through the morning drizzle into a red-brick office building overlooking Coast Highway in Newport Beach.

Forgoing the elevator, they climbed the flight of stairs to the second floor, where they entered an office door cryptically marked D.O.E.C.

D.O.E.C. stands for Donny Osmond Entertainment Corp.

“Morning!” said Donny Osmond, flashing the toothy Osmond grin to members of the office staff.

“Hi! Hi! How are you?” Debbie Osmond said cheerfully as she and her husband headed straight into one of the offices.

Setting down his briefcase and shedding his aviator sunglasses and black jacket, Donny called in a secretary and gave her some papers to type: a script for a children’s Christmas play he and Debbie are in charge of putting on at their church in Irvine.

Why Did They Move?

That done, the Osmonds moved into an unoccupied office for the business at hand--an interview prompted by their move from Provo, Utah, to Irvine three months ago.

The idea was to find out why the Osmonds chose to live in Irvine and what family life is like for Orange County’s newest celebrity couple and their three young sons.

But while they have no qualms about discussing their family life and their Mormon religion-inspired philosophy of child-rearing, the Osmonds balked at being interviewed and photographed at home.

Part of the reason, they explained, is simply because their new house is in no shape to be put on public display: The lawn is not in yet; most of the walls are still bare and, as soft-spoken Debbie Osmond said: “It’s just kind of a mess right now.”

But their main concern is privacy, Donny, 27, said, adding that while half of his life belongs to the public, “50% of my life is my own.”

Seated in high, wing-back chairs, the stylishly dressed couple--he in slacks and a fashionably baggy white short-sleeved shirt, she in black pants and a black-and-blue-checked jacket with the sleeves rolled up--explained that they moved to Irvine for both business and family reasons.

Provo had been their home since they were married seven years ago, but, Donny said, “Los Angeles is the hub of my business, and I was spending most of my time there anyway.

“We just came to the point where I was commuting so much and on tour and in the studio and all that stuff, and I wanted to see my wife and kids once in a while. It (the move) was mainly so I could be with them a little bit more,” he said.

Donny lived in the San Fernando Valley in the ‘70s while making the “Donny and Marie” show (“I used to be a Valley Guy,” he jokes) and said he wouldn’t mind living in the Los Angeles area today.

Calls It ‘Ideal Situation’

“But it’s definitely not a place where I’d like my kids to grow up,” he said. “What we’ve got right now is an ideal situation for them, and that is kids all over the neighborhood, running up and down the streets. They’ve got their school friends, and that’s what I want. Now that I’ve got that I’m satisfied, even though I’ve got to drive an hour up to the city because that’s where I spend all my time.”

“The kids can live a normal life down here,” added Debbie, 26. “We just didn’t want to have to live in a guard-gated area.

“Another thing we checked out closely was schools because with the children in school, I wanted a really good school district, and we found out Orange County had been rated very high in their schools.”

But why Irvine and not Newport Beach or Laguna Beach--Orange County’s more traditional celebrity enclaves?

“We didn’t really say, ‘Let’s go to Irvine,’ ” said Debbie, adding that they looked “everywhere” in Orange County, including Newport Beach, which she feels is more singles oriented. “We came out here, spent a few days, looked around and just fell in love with it (Irvine).”

Few Details of House

Beyond saying they live in a four-bedroom house, Donny is far from effusive in supplying details about their new home.

“It’s very simple,” he said. “It’s not your typical Beverly Hills home; I don’t want a Beverly Hills home.”

Debbie, who studied interior design for a year at Brigham Young University before marrying Donny in 1978, is involved in redecorating the house.

“Yeah,” joked Donny, “we’re putting the turrets on now.”

According to Donny, he and his family are fitting into life in Irvine “as much as we can. Still, people ‘psst, psst’ when you drive by, and that will always happen because of the nature of my business. As much as we can get involved, we do.”

That includes church and school activities (“I go in and help the teacher on a regular basis,” said Debbie) and appearing at occasional social events such as the recent Interior Design Show sponsored by the South Coast County guilds of the Orange County Performing Arts Center. (“I’ll only lend my name to something that is worthwhile to the community,” said Donny.)

Just Like Everybody

Their neighbors apparently have grown accustomed to having a celebrity living next door. “It was kind of different, or maybe special, for them at first,” said Debbie, “but we’re like everybody on the street now.”

Although he notes that some classmates of his son, Donald, have told the 6-year-old, “Your daddy’s a star; your daddy’s on TV,” Donny observed that his children probably “think every daddy does what I do.”

The Osmonds, who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, say their religion plays a major role in how they are raising their children: Donald, 4-year-old Jeremy and 9-month-old Brandon.

“First of all,” Donny said, “I’m glad we’re living in an area where there’s a lot of Christianity. Regardless of whether they’re Mormons or not doesn’t really matter. There happens to be a lot of Mormons in our area, which makes it nice for us because our kids can see them every week at church and play with them during the week.

“Mormonism plays a vital role in raising our children because we teach them the love of God and the reason we’re here on this earth: to perfect our lives and hopefully someday, we believe, to return to our heavenly Father.

Mormonism and Life

“I think that what’s nice about that is that it really puts life itself into a good perspective. You understand what you’re really here for and what your goals are. And you don’t live for one day at a time and live it up each day, and you have long-range goals to work for.”

That’s what he and Debbie are trying to instill in their children, Donny said, “and that’s what I think we’re accomplishing. When, out of the blue, your little 4-year-old hops in bed with you and wakes you up in the morning and says, ‘Daddy, I love you,’ that’s worth it all. You know you’re basically on the right track.”

While acknowledging that there is no guarantee how children are going to turn out because of outside influences, Donny said, “we’re trying to establish a good foundation--a good base--for them. If there is any chance of them straying, the chances of them coming back are much better.”

“Plus,” said Debbie, “I think the family is the most important thing nowadays because many times the kids they (the children) run around with have such a bad influence on them, and if you have a relationship with your children as friends--you can talk to them and relate to them--they’re more apt to come home with their problems instead of going somewhere else.

“And the LDS religion believes in a strong family--a strong unit--and teaching and raising your children properly.”

Family Solidarity

Donny noted that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a “program that really solidifies the family together and that is ‘family night.’

“Every Monday night we get together just as a family. We shut the television off; we shut the phones off and we try to have fun together in the home, just to get together to talk.” It is, he said, a fun time with a spiritual tone.

“We open it up with prayer. We’ll teach a good lesson from the Bible, but it’s not a very serious chastising type of meeting. It’s a party. We laugh, we play games. Whether it’s a 20-minute party or all evening, the kids look forward to that one night a week.”

Added Debbie: “We just know that Monday night is family night, and all business stops.”

Describing Donny as “a great father--he’s able to talk with kids and relate to them really well,” Debbie observed that “the one thing I noticed when we were dating is how much respect Donny had for his parents. And that’s not taught nowadays. Kids get away with murder. He had so much respect for his father and his mother, and because of that he has respect for me as a spouse.”

Respect for Parents

“A lot of people think that’s old-fashioned--that it’s so goody-goody--particularly coming from an Osmond,” said Donny. “But I’ll put up with that goody-goody image if that’s what it means to have respect for your parents. It may be old-fashioned, but it’s a principle that will at least keep your head on straight.”

“Maybe,” observed Debbie, “that’s why they (the Osmond children) didn’t have as many problems; they had problems, but not serious family problems because they respected their parents.”

Donny acknowledges that his was not a normal childhood--not with the Osmond Brothers appearing as the opening act for Andy Williams and Nancy Sinatra in Las Vegas.

“Five- or 7-year-olds don’t normally grow up in Las Vegas where there are showgirls around you all the time,” he said. “With that kind of influence constantly bombarding me at such a young age, without a foundation to fall back on, I’d hate to think where I’d be right now.”

Donny made his professional debut at the age of 5.

“I saw my four brothers on the Andy Williams show and said, ‘I gotta do that.’ And so my father let me know you gotta rehearse, you gotta practice, you gotta be good. I auditioned for Andy Williams and he liked it, but I had no idea what I was getting into. I didn’t really understand the work.”

Child Star’s Life

Looking back, he said, he can’t imagine having to make that kind of adult commitment at the age of 5. There were times over the next few years, he admitted, when he didn’t really want to put up with all the rehearsing, singing and hard work required of him.

“But,” he said, “the ball was rolling and the demand was there because we kept getting a lot of mail that said, ‘Let’s see that little Donny kid some more.’ So there was, I felt, a pressure. I went through quite a few tantrums, and my father put me back in line, thank goodness.”

Donny was 16 and on the verge of co-hosting the hit “Donny and Marie” TV variety show when he met 15-year-old Debbie Glenn in 1975. Debbie and her sister, who was Miss Provo at the time, doubled-dated with Donny and his brother, Jay.

“We did this for about four dates and finally, I don’t know, we’d go out and you know how things just kind of click,” said Debbie. “We just kind of hit it off; our personalities mixed real well. But I was dating a fellow at the time so I was interested, but it wasn’t like I was head over heels. It took a while.”

They were married three years later in the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple. Debbie is quoted as saying at the time that she would like to “stay home and be a wife and raise a family.”

She said she still feels that way.

Why She Stays Home

“I don’t care to have a career right now because Donny is gone so much that if I’m not home, who raises my children?” she said. “I don’t want someone else putting their attitudes or their beliefs into my children. I’d prefer to do it myself. But I enjoy it. Once the kids get going in school I’d love to do something during the day, but I’ve got little ones at home, and the most important years are from birth to about 6 when they go to school.”

Asked his view of marriage, Donny replied: “It’s great. It’s a challenge. It’s nice that we have a lot of the same goals and attitudes about life, particularly religion. That’s something that a family doesn’t need any conflict on.”

Added Debbie: “One thing Donny and I had from the start is we had very good communication. Even while dating, he’d call me and talk on the phone for hours, and we can still do that being married, and solve all our problems.”

Laughed Donny: “We keep AT&T; in business.”

Although Donny is on the road about a third of the year doing concerts (occasionally with Marie), Debbie said his absences of up to four weeks at a time have not created problems in their marriage.

“To tell you the truth,” she said, “it almost creates a better marriage because when you’re with each other every single day you find things to pick at. But when you don’t have each other there you miss each other tremendously, and you look at the wonderful qualities in that person and what it would be like without him. So I think we probably have a better marriage because we appreciate each other.”

Chairman of the Board

In addition to recording and performing, Donny has taken on a new role in the past year and a half--as chairman of the board of the Dallas-headquartered Donny Osmond Entertainment Corp., a publicly held company formed to develop television and movie projects.

Current projects include the development of several TV series ideas, plans to syndicate half-hour versions of the old “Donny and Marie” variety hour and negotiations to obtain the rights to syndicate the monthly boxing matches at the Irvine Marriott.

Although he would be focusing his attention on the corporation for the next two weeks, Donny said he doesn’t spend too much time on corporate business. “I have people that worry about that; I show up when I need to show up,” he said.

Come December he’ll be back on the road doing concerts. The mid-’70s teen heartthrob still generates frenzied screams from teen-aged girls. “You know,” he said with a laugh, “it’s amazing it still happens.”

Describing his music as “pop rock with a rhythm and blues feel,” Donny said his upcoming album, videos and film projects represent a “definite departure” from the young Donny Osmond of old.

It will be, he said, a more mature, sophisticated Donny Osmond.

Wholesome Image

But, he emphasizes, “it’s not going to be a departure to get rid of the ‘goody-goody’ (image). I’m not consciously trying to get rid of that. I think goody-goody is another way of saying wholesome, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

When he’s at home in Irvine, he spends a lot of time in his eight-track recording studio, which also houses his personal computer. “I spend most of my time on my ITT computer,” he said.

But the important thing, Debbie said with a laugh, is that he’s home and “I can bang on the door.”

Asked if they plan to have more children--to raise another large Osmond family, Donny grinned: “No, we’re not going to have nine kids.”

“It’s a little hard nowadays,” said Debbie. “I’d love to have a little girl, but I just had a little baby not long ago, so I think three boys will keep me busy.”

And what about the Osmonds of Irvine? Have they made a long-term commitment to living in Orange County?

“We’re looking at it as long-term right now, but too many things can change,” said Donny. “Nothing is in concrete.”