Some celebs in childhood went through the unthinkable. Some have had it much worse than
others, but most of these 15 have turned their tragic pasts into something great. While each
story is unique, all of these stars have endured great tragedy, and have a great story to tell.
Each one is an over-comer in one way or another.
Even Spiderman himself has a rocky past. Growing up wasn’t easy for Tobey Maguire. Partially
because his parents were growing up too! Only 18 and 20 when he was born, the relationship
didn’t last long, as they split when he was only 3 years old. In regards to his parents,
he has said, “They were just babies, doing whatever the heck they thought they should
be doing.” Though his parents split when he was merely
a baby himself, Tobey always felt loved. He grew up being bounced around from one family
member to the next, but he knew his family cared about him and that he was special. He
never felt like a victim, though he very easily could have. He learned at a very young age
that his happiness came from within, and not from others.
Jack Nicholson grew up believing his grandparents
were actually his parents. His sister, June, was actually his biological mother! Wait,
what!? When Jack was born, his mother was only seventeen years old, unmarried, and unsure
who the father was. At that time her parents made the decision to raise Jack as their child,
and never reveal to him his real parents. When Jack was 26 years old his sister June
died of cancer. A TIME magazine reporter was working on a cover story and discovered the
shocking truth about Jack Nicholson’s family. It was because of that reporter that Jack
learned about his mother’s real identity and that his parents are actually his grandparents.
Of this shocking revelation, he said it made a lot of things click for him, and he felt
gratitude for the way things were.
Charlize Theron is a fabulous actress, but she is more than just long legs, and a gorgeous
face. Charlize has always tried to avoid roles that focused only on her looks…though that
hasn’t stopped her from taking on advertisers who do. She did not have a picture-perfect
childhood. In fact, her adolescent years were something out of Hollywood, not real life.
Her father was an alcoholic, and a violent one at that. One very horrible night, her
father came home and was scaring the family with his aggressive behavior. So her mother
did what she felt she had to do and shot and killed Charlize’s father. The police in
South Africa (where she is from) ruled it self-defense, but that one night has impacted
the rest of her life in so many ways. She is fascinated by people and what makes them
do the things they do. That’s why she took on the role of Aileen Wuornos in “Monster.”
Shania Twain took the country music scene by storm with her song “Whose Bed Have Your
Boots Been Under?” As well as “Any Man of Mine.” Those songs were the beginning
of her incredible career. Don’t let her short stature and fun songs fool you though.
She is one tough cookie! Growing up for Shania meant going hungry, and being dirt poor. She
is not one of those celebs born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
Shania’s life took a drastic turn when she was only 21 years old. Her parents (mom and
stepfather) were killed in a car accident, leaving Shania to care for her 3 younger siblings.
Thrust into the role of the caretaker and provider, she would do manual labor while
caring for them, and sneaking off to the forest alone with her dog and guitar to write songs.
Her life is literally a country song.
Jim Carrey is one of the goofiest, most hilarious actors in Hollywood. His childhood though
was no laughing matter. He was raised by his parents in a town in Canada, with his 3 older
siblings. His father was an accountant, and Jim attended Catholic school for a brief time.
Forced to drop out of school and work to help his financially strapped family, Jim Carrey
began working on his comic act. Soon he began performing regularly, which was his career
of choice, and made him a full-time income. His comedy routines opened the door to an
acting career. Saturday Night Live actually turned him down for the 1980 -1981 season,
so he decided to focus on Hollywood. It didn’t take long for the public to see him and fall
in love with his hilarious films and routines.
Oprah Winfrey is mega wealthy now, but she certainly didn’t come from a high-class
lifestyle. At only 2 years old her grandmother taught her to read, and before the age of
three, she was giving speeches at her church. She was so smart she wrote her kindergarten
teacher a note which explained she was too smart for this and deserved to be in the first
grade. The next year she went to third. Her parents split and she was sent to live
with her mother in an extremely poor ghetto in Milwaukee. She began being abused at the
age of nine. Her salvation came when she was sent to her father's safe home at the age
of twelve but unfortunately was then sent back to live with her mom. Her abusers were
men that family trusted. Her mother wasn’t around much as she worked many jobs trying
to provide for the family, but that lifestyle left her open and vulnerable to predators.
Kevin Spacey has found himself in the middle
of a firestorm lately. Many accusers have come forward saying he attacked and tried
to take advantage of them. Those are seriously disturbing accusations. His childhood is equally
disturbing. Raised in a home with a Nazi-loving father, who literally idolized Hitler so much
he trimmed his mustache to look like him. He suffered at the hands of his father, all
the while his mother allegedly knew about it. His brother, Randy Fowler says he refused
to have children because he didn’t want them to inherit the predator gene. The home
and family life were as dark and miserable as one can imagine. Years later their mother
wrote Kevin, his sister, and his brother a letter explaining that she and their father
had been abused as children. I guess this was her way of justifying what had happened
to them growing up.
As the first female artist to have 7 singles simultaneously on the Billboard charts, Nicki
Minaj has certainly made history. Born in Trinidad, she moved to New York when she was
five years old. Her father was an addict with a history of violence. It was so bad that
at one point he burned down the family’s home in an attempt to hurt Nicki’s mother.
The struggles in her life early on gave her the drive and motivation to overcome it and
make something of herself. Nicki has always had female empowerment in
the back of her mind. She says she always wanted her mother to be stronger, but she
wasn’t. She thought that if she became successful she could change her mom’s life. And that
she did!
Rihanna was raised in Barbados with 5 siblings. The half-siblings were all born to different
mothers but they all share her father. Raised in a 3 bedroom bungalow she helped support
her family by selling clothes in street stalls. Her father had a serious substance problem,
which deeply impacted the family. When she was 14 years old her parents divorced,
which was a very good thing for Rihanna. Prior to this, she suffered from debilitating migraines,
that the doctors couldn’t find a cause for. When her parents split, she began to improve.
The stress of having an addict father undoubtedly was the cause of her health issues. At 16,
she left Barbados and moved in with her producer and his wife in their home in Connecticut.
The rest is (as they say), history.
Leighton Meester’s childhood doesn’t even
sound real. A far stretch of her family life on Gossip Girl. In fact, the two worlds are
so vastly different it's amazing she could play the part of Blair Waldorf. Leighton was
born while her mom was serving time in a federal prison for drug trafficking. Her father has
spent time in prison too. Her childhood ended far too soon, as she began
modeling and acting at the age of ten and by fourteen was auditioning for movies and
TV shows. Her mother never had much money, and she grew up poor. Recently her mother’s
money problems became more public, as she has financially cut her off. She had been
sending her mother money every month to take care of her brother with special needs. But
instead of spending the money on her brother's very expensive care, she was spending it on
herself. Leighton was furious!
Ashley Judd is a gorgeous Hollywood actress who has not always had such a wonderful life.
Her famous mom and sister (Naomi and Wynonna) traveled on tour often, and she would be left
at home with her father. Switching schools thirteen times before she was eighteen was
extremely traumatic and left her feeling depressed and lonely.
Ashley says she is the victim of not only abuse but this occurred as well with an unnamed
family member. That’s a horrible way to spend your adolescent years. Prior to her
mom singing, she struggled to make ends meet on a nurse’s salary. They often went without
electricity and indoor plumbing in rural Kentucky. Ashley spent a long time suffering from depression
about her upbringing. She finally got help in rehab as the therapy sessions helped her
move forward.
Liv Tyler didn’t know who her father actually was until she was eight years old. Though
she always felt loved by her family, it was an emotional time for her when she discovered
the truth. Imagine, standing behind the stage at an Aerosmith concert and looking over at
a girl only a year younger than you who looks exactly like you. It was seeing Steven Tyler’s
younger daughter, Mia, that Liv discovered who she really was.
Raised as Liv Rundgren, after her mother's partner at the time of her birth, her real
father’s identity was unknown. Her mom was very young when she had Liv, and she was never
totally sure who the father was. Todd Rundgren was her father, and she will always think
of him as her father, despite sharing DNA with Steven. She is very grateful for the
man who helped to raise her, even though she wasn’t actually his.
Maybe these stars become such great actors
because of their Lifetime movie sounding childhoods? Woody Harrelson is no exception to this! Woody’s
father was convicted of ending the life of a Federal judge and sentenced to life in prison
when he was only seven years old. Since his father was out of the picture, he was raised
by his mother. His mother and Woody’s two brothers had a loving family life, despite
not having their father around. One day when he was only eleven or twelve he heard his
dad's name mentioned on the radio because of his murder trial. He said it was a wild
realization about who his father really was. He wasn’t around much before his arrest,
and after he went to jail, he obviously didn’t see him.
Christina Aguilera didn’t always have a
perfect life. She rose to fame after her time on The All New Mickey Mouse Club, with her
hit song “Genie in a Bottle.” It didn’t take too long for her to go from seemingly
nobody, to instant stardom with that first number one hit. Her childhood was far from
perfect, though you’d never guess so by looking at her.
Raised by her mother in Staten Island, New York, she had a very troubled home life. Her
father is an immigrant from Ecuador and served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. He was an
abusive man and hurt her mother. When Christina was just 6 years old, her mother escaped from
her father with a divorce, and took her, and her younger sister (Rachel) and moved to Pennsylvania.
Terrence Howard may be a very well known and beloved actor, but his past is far from dreamy.
His father was not a nice man, and when Terrence was only two years old he witnessed his father
end another man's life. This resulted in his dad (Tyrone) spending almost a year in jail.
When he was released his parents divorced. At the young age of sixteen, he legally divorced
both of his parents and lived off of welfare. Two years later he moved himself to New York
City to pursue his acting career. His father told him growing up that, “if you want oranges,
you have to go where the oranges grow.” He decided if he wanted to act, then he better
move to where he could find work, and that’s how he ended up in New York City.