Brothers robbing brothers.
Repossessed dinosaur skulls.
Betrayals and lavish lifestyles brought these celebs down to zero, but then they managed
to claw their way back.
Kevin Bacon has enjoyed a long and illustrious acting career in films like Mystic River and
Apollo 13.
Despite his impressive filmography, he once lost everything seemingly overnight.
In 2008, he and his wife Kyra Sedgwick were among a number of high-profile celebrities
to invest millions of dollars in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
During a 2022 appearance on the SmartLess podcast, Bacon reflected:
"There's obvious life lessons there, you know, if something is too good to be true, it's
too good to be true."
While Bacon was understandably angry, the experience motivated him to work harder than
ever to bring his net worth back up.
He eventually received a payout that covered a percentage of the cash he invested, and
he's also been able to make hefty profits by starring in numerous high-grossing films
like 2011's X-Men: First Class.
The actor has also carved out a nice niche for himself in the U.K. by appearing in commercials
for the mobile network, EE.
The financial travails of Nicolas Cage are the stuff of legend.
At one point in his heyday, he reportedly had a whopping $150 million to his name, but
his extravagant hobbies put a sizable dent in his bank account.
Some of his more garish purchases include a $2.6 million German castle, a $3 million
Caribbean island, shrunken pygmy heads, and a variety of luxury cars and properties.
To cap it all off, Cage also spent $276,000 on a dinosaur skull, which had to be returned
when it turned out to be stolen from Mongolia.
As Cage recalled to The New York Times Magazine in 2022,
"Of course it should be awarded to its country of origin.
But who knew?
Plus, I never got my money back.
So that stank."
In addition to his extravagant spending habit, Variety reports that Cage also owed $6.3 million
in taxes.
For this reason, he took several acting gigs simply for the money.
As he put it,
"Financial mistakes happened with the real estate implosion that occurred, in which the
lion's share of everything I had earned was pretty much eradicated."
During a 2022 chat with GQ, Cage admitted that his reputation as a staple of the direct-to-video
circuit helped him pay off his debts and expand his waning bank balance.
After years of hard work, Cage finally emerged debt-free once he got the paycheck from his
2022 film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
"Nicolas Cage!
Oh my God!
You're so awesome!
I love you!"
"Oh, Thank you."
Hailed by Forbes as the second wealthiest talk show host of 2017, it's hard to believe
that Ellen DeGeneres was once flat broke.
Back in the 90s, she was earning a pretty penny as the star of the hit sitcom Ellen.
However, things quickly went downhill once she came out as gay.
In addition to being mercilessly mocked by the public, her show was canceled soon after.
In a 2016 interview with Out Magazine, the comedian recalled,
"I was the punch line of lots of jokes.
I laughed at some, but I realized there's somebody on the other side of them.
It's cruel."
DeGeneres went on to star on another sitcom, The Ellen Show, in 2001, but it was canceled
after just 18 episodes.
It wasn't until she landed her hit talk show in 2003 that she began raking in millions
of dollars.
She admitted to Out that there was a period where she was unsure she'd ever work again,
but gradually things started falling back into place.
She explained,
"Time is a strange thing.
I was at rock bottom and out of money, with no work in sight, but one step at a time,
it gets better."
Although the talk show ended in 2022 amidst allegations against DeGeneres and her production
team, she probably doesn't need to worry about her finances for the foreseeable future.
By the age of 21, Will Smith was already a millionaire and Grammy winner.
In a 1991 interview on the Arsenio Hall Show, the rapper explained that, like many who suddenly
come into vast wealth, he built a life of luxury, buying swanky cars, designer clothes,
and a big ol' mansion.
Unfortunately, while the young performer was living the high life, he had no idea that
he owed millions in back taxes.
The IRS seized his house and car, and he even wound up in jail, just eight months after
winning his Grammy.
As he recounted during a 2021 interview on The Oprah Conversation:
"I'm laying on the floor in a jail cell and I'm like, 'You've got to be kidding me.'"
Smith told CBS he owed the IRS $2.8 million, which was exactly how much money he had left
after his extravagant spending spree.
However, fortune soon came calling when he was asked to audition for The Fresh Prince
of Bel-Air.
Despite the fact that he had no acting experience, the desire to get out of his dire financial
situation propelled Smith to give it his all.
While the IRS initially took 70 percent of his earnings, his worries were soon behind
him once he landed roles in blockbusters like Independence Day and Men in Black.
Country music legend Willie Nelson once found himself with absolutely nothing.
By 1990, he owed the IRS a whopping $32 million.
Effectively broke, the songwriter had no choice but to auction off his possessions.
As he mused to The Telegraph in 2010,
"When you don't have it, it seems more important than when you do.
And when you do have it you realize it can't buy you happiness or health."
The IRS eventually reduced the debt to $6 million, but Nelson still had nowhere near
that much cash on hand.
So, in an attempt to pay off what he owed, he released the poignantly titled album, The
IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?, and appeared in Taco Bell commercials.
By 1993, the debt was settled for $9 million.
A year later, The New York Times reports that Nelson also settled a lawsuit with accounting
firm Price Waterhouse, who he blamed for misleading him about his taxes in the first place.
Nelson has since bounced back from those days of financial hardship.
In addition to releasing numerous successful albums and continuing to tour into his 80s,
he owns a cannabis company called Willie's Reserve, which is worth an estimated $47.9 million.
"It's worked out so far."
She may be one of the biggest pop stars in the world, but there was once a time when
Lady Gaga was scrambling to make ends meet.
In an interview with the Financial Times, she admitted that money meant so little to
her that she had no idea she'd gone totally broke after a 2009 tour.
As she put it,
"I actually went bankrupt after the first extension of 'The Monster Ball.'
And it was funny because I didn't know!
And I remember I called everybody and said, 'Why is every­one saying I have no money?'"
The hard truth was that Gaga was $3 million in debt.
In the EPIX documentary Who the F*** is Arthur Fogel?, she explained that she invested all
her money into her "Monster Ball" tour, as she wanted the experience to be as spectacular
as possible.
While she was happy with the result of the investment, she also had to explain to her
confused parents that she was flat broke.
However, she managed to catch the eye of Live Nation CEO Arthur Fogel in the process, who
would prove to be her saving grace.
As Gaga recalled,
"I remember he called me and he said, 'We want to do this'.
And he got Live Nation to write me a $40 million check.
And it changed my life and the life of my whole family."
In his boxing heyday, George Foreman was an Olympic gold medalist and the heavyweight
champion of the world.
These victories meant that he could comfortably retire with millions in the bank, or so he thought.
The truth is that Foreman actually found his finances spiraling out of control.
By the late 80s, he'd lost his $5 million fortune and was reportedly facing bankruptcy.
As he recalled to The New York Times in 2006,
"It was frightening.
The most horrible thing that can happen to a man [...] I had a family, people to take
care of [...] It was that scary because you hear about people being homeless and I was
only fractions, fractions from being homeless."
To recoup some of his losses, Foreman decided to get back into the ring and proceeded to
earn millions of dollars.
The experience helped keep him grounded, as he realized the ephemeral nature of wealth
and the importance of investing money wisely.
Foreman has also earned some serious cash with his business ventures.
In 1994, he launched his line of lean, mean grilling machines known as the George Foreman Grill.
To date, the business has earned him hundreds of millions of dollars.
As he confessed to Forbes in 2019,
"I didn't have any idea it would sell.
Next thing you know, I had sold 500.
Then 5,000.
Then we sold 5 million of those things.
If I told you that I could see that coming, I'd be lying."
"I'm real thankful for being an athlete and having a chance to compete in sports, because
without that, I never would have done anything."
Back in the 2000s, rapper 50 Cent was living the dream.
"In Da Club" was a ubiquitous party anthem, and his 2003 debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin'
sold a colossal 12 million copies.
According to Forbes, he was worth a staggering $155 million in 2015, but he soon found himself
in financial turmoil.
That year, he filed for bankruptcy, with his assets and debts estimated to be in the range
of $10 million to $50 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Radar reports that another blow came around the same time, when he was ordered to pay
Sleek Audio $16 million after he was accused of stealing the company's designs.
However, 50 is not one to give up.
In 2018, International Business Times reported that he'd become a millionaire again through
Bitcoin investments.
He'd actually forgotten that he'd invested in Bitcoin back in 2014, when he allowed fans
to purchase his music with the cryptocurrency.
As the price skyrocketed, 50 suddenly found himself raking in upwards of $8.5 million.
He then even made more heaps of cash when he embarked on a career as a TV producer,
which included a $150 million deal.
As he proclaimed to The Guardian in 2020,
"If you don't want nice things in your life, I don't even want to know you.
I. Don't.
Want.
To.
Know.
You."
Before Natasha Lyonne became a Netflix mainstay, she was quite the successful indie actor.
She starred in the 1999 queer classic, But I'm A Cheerleader, and also found fame with
the American Pie franchise.
However, she did not stay in the limelight for long.
In the 2000s, Lyonne was beset by a series of legal issues.
Her landlord, fellow actor Michael Rapaport, evicted her in 2005, and Heeb Magazine reported
rumors that she was homeless.
Her darkest hour came in 2006, when she was accused of threatening to harm her neighbor's dog.
She turned herself into the police and was booked for criminal mischief, harassment,
and trespassing.
Though the charges were eventually dropped, nobody wanted to cast her in anything, and
her finances dried up.
Lucky for Lyonne, British director Mike Leigh saw her potential and cast her in his 2007
play Two Thousand Years.
From there, Lyonne began securing work more consistently.
She went on to have a recurring gig on Orange is the New Black, and then co-created and
starred in Russian Doll.
Things continue to look up for the actor, as she's reportedly set to earn $500,000 per
episode for her role in the Peacock series, Poker Face.
"Gosh, will you look at this?"
Burt Reynolds' struggles were once so bad that he deemed himself a relic of "the nostalgia
section of Blockbuster."
Those were devastating words to hear from a man who built a reputation as a certified
Hollywood hunk throughout the 70s and 80s.
He showed off his goods in the likes of the chilling thriller Deliverance and the smash
hit comedy The Cannonball Run.
Despite his iconic status, his luck would change before too long.
As recounted by Vanity Fair, Reynolds had an annual income of $10 million at the height
of his stardom, which he then blew on luxury vehicles, mansions, a string of failed restaurants,
dresses for his wife, and even $100,000 worth of toupees.
Then, in 1994, he and his wife Loni Anderson divorced, and she received a huge chunk of
his cash in their settlement.
A few years later, with debts totaling $11.2 million, Reynolds filed for bankruptcy.
Unfortunately, his money troubles didn't end there.
By 2009, Reynolds owed $225,000 in back taxes.
Poignantly, auctioning off his own possessions made him a millionaire again, as he fetched
$2.5 million in 2014.
While $154,000 of that went to Anderson, he was still left with over $2 million.
It's been a while since Dane Cook was at the top of the comedy world, and that's partly
because he was left flat broke.
According to CNN, Cook was actually scammed by his brother Darryl McCauley and his sister-in-law Erika.
McCauley worked as Cook's business manager throughout the 90s, and embezzled him to the
tune of $12 million.
In 2010, he and Erika were sent to jail and ordered to repay the comedian.
However, Cook wasn't going to just wait around for the money, so he concocted to make it
back himself.
As Cook revealed on an episode of Steve-O's Wild Ride podcast, he scrambled together the
only dough he had left: $450,000 worth of stocks that his brother couldn't access.
He then came up with the idea of renting out arenas in order to perform his stand-up, thereby
eliminating the need for an expensive tour promoter.
As he explained,
"The door's mine, the merch is mine.
We did some deal on the food and drinks and at the end of the two nights, I had already
put like [$1.8 million] or something back in my pocket."
“Alright, here's $200,000.
Rent me two more that are within that range."
He continued on this path, and by the end of the year, Cook had made back everything
that his brother had taken from him.
"What took me, like, 17 years I pretty much banked in a year."
"Unbelievable."
Donald Trump loves to toot his own horn about his massive wealth, but he may have told more
than a few white lies about his finances in the process.
In 2018, The Washington Post even claimed that he embellished his fortune to get onto
the Forbes 400 list in the 80s.
Thanks to his father Fred, Trump was already a millionaire when he was barely out of pre-school.
Despite such a massive head start, he has also faced financial hardships on numerous
occasions, and declared bankruptcy a startling six times.
Due to a series of bad decisions and failed business ventures, including a quintet of
floundering casinos, Wall Street firms refused to loan Trump any more money.
Eventually, he was saved by Deutsche Bank, who Bloomberg reports gave him a $125 million
loan in 1998.
Even with such a massive sum in-hand, Trump's money troubles did not end there.
As reported by The New York Times, he was struggling again in 2003, but thanks to the
sale of his late father's empire the following year, he wound up with another $177.3 million.
According to Forbes, as of September 2022, Trump is worth an estimated $3.2 billion.
The 2009 song "Tik Tok" was a colossal success, as it propelled Kesha to superstardom, though
she was soon left with nothing.
In 2014, she sued her producer, Dr. Luke, alleging that he repeatedly sexually assaulted her.
Luke denied the allegations, and the judge dismissed the suit.
Kesha was then ordered to pay the producer $373,000 as part of a countersuit, leaving
her broke.
In an act of solidarity, Taylor Swift donated $250,000 to her fellow pop star.
In 2018, Kesha made a comeback after a four-year hiatus, releasing the song "Praying," which
reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song became hailed as an anthem of the MeToo movement.
Curiously enough, it was the TikTok app that helped Kesha recoup some of her losses following
her lengthy legal battle.
In 2020, her song "Cannibal" reached the Top 40 a decade after its release, thanks to the
audio going viral on the social media app.
She also debuted her ghost-hunting series, Conjuring Kesha, on Discovery Plus in 2022.
The show garnered positive reviews, and all her recent ventures have enabled Kesha to
accumulate a hefty bank balance once again.
Need evidence of her recovered success?
Look no further than the $5 million Los Angeles home she bought in 2020.
"We are so, so, so happy to see you, to look at you, to have you here."
Real Housewives of Potomac star Robyn Dixon lived a life of luxury when she married her
high school sweetheart, former NBA player Juan Dixon.
As she revealed to Woe Magazine in 2019,
"Life as a young adult was fun and easy and we had money […] like the hardest decision
to make was at a dealership — either we wanted the black one or the silver one."
However, the couple's fairytale lifestyle would soon turn into a nightmare.
On Real Housewives of Potomac, Dixon reported that she and her husband were victims of a
close friend's allegedly bad investments.
Reports have speculated that this person was former basketball player Earl Badu, who committed
suicide in 2012.
For Robyn, the betrayal of being lied to by a friend hurt her more than the loss of the
money.
As she shared in an interview with Bravo,
"I experienced the shock of my life when that same friend took his own life in order to
avoid the consequences of his actions."
According to documents obtained by Radar, Dixon was $217,000 in debt when she filed
for bankruptcy in 2013.
Thanks to her reality series, Dixon was able to recoup her losses and save her marriage
to boot.
As she admitted to People Magazine,
"I will be honest, if Juan and I were not broke and honestly if we weren't on the show,
we probably would not be together today."
Dixon also found a lucrative side hustle in flipping real estate, as she reportedly bagged
$30,000 from renovating and then selling her home.