10 Celebrities Who Overcame Their Tragic Pasts To Shine Today

It's difficult not to be jealous of the luxurious lives of celebrities. They have fame, beauty, and fortune. They may never be concerned about unpaid rent or expenses. Instead, they fly on private flights to exotic locations and enjoy luxury parties on their boats.
However, you may be surprised to discover that not every affluent and famous international celebrity was born rich. Many of the world's wealthiest superstars came from humble beginnings. Before having the glamorous lifestyles they have today, these well-known people had to deal with a lot of problems. In their childhood and adolescence, they witnessed and experienced shortages, domestic violence, drug-infested housing projects, and so forth. After all, these men and women beat the odds, stood in the spotlight, and had a dazzling life.
Let’s take a closer look at these 10 celebrities who overcame their tragic pasts to go on to achieve great things and become icons in their fields.

#1 Britney Spears

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Everyone knows about the extremely tragic past of Britney Spears. We almost lost an icon for generations, but Britney proved that there is no brink you can’t be brought back from. She received the assistance she required, and she is once again the Queen of Pop. She grew up in a poor family with her violent, intoxicated father. At a young age, Britney became the sole breadwinner of a family of 5. In a book by her mother, Mrs. Lynne Spears revealed that the star was drinking at 13, having sex at 14, and taking drugs at 15.
After that, her career took off, she had a breakdown, and she needed to be placed in conservatorship by her father for 13 years. Despite Britney's success, popularity, and wealth, few of us would want to be in her shoes. Although her story may not be particularly inspiring, we're glad it ended happily.

#2 Oprah

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Oprah is perhaps the most famous example of a celebrity overcoming the past and achieving success. To become one of the most recognizable and influential people in the world, she overcame her childhood filled with severe abuse. For many years, young Oprah was sent to move between her parents' homes, moving to one of the poorest and most dangerous slums in Milwaukee at the age of 6.
Her mother worked a variety of jobs to make ends meet and rarely was able to take care of Oprah. When she was 9 years old, she suffered an extended period of sexual abuse by a number of trusted family friends. She also suffered a lot of physical abuse from various family members: her grandmother whipped her for getting blood on her dress because she played with water. Eventually, she went to live with her father for good, who helped her become the woman she is today.

#3 Jim Carrey

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Carrey's childhood began normally, with an accountant father, providing the family with a decent middle-class life. Unfortunately, his father lost his job, forcing the comedian to drop out of school and start working as a janitor to help support the family. At one point the whole family was forced to live in a van. Luckily, his comedy career developed quite quickly.
But years later, he got into trouble again when he broke up with his girlfriend Cathriona White. A note on her iPad accused Carrey of ruining her life by introducing her to drugs, abusing her, and exposing her to a number of sexually transmitted diseases. The actor has been accused of causing White to commit suicide. It was later revealed that White had faked STD tests to incriminate Carrey. After years of legal battles, Carrey was cleared of all charges.

#4 Terrence Howard

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Most people like to believe that there is good in the people around us, even if they are not kind. So when someone definitively decides to sever their blood ties, they often have a good reason. Terrence Howard was physically abused by his biological parents. When he was two, he witnessed his father stab a man to death.
His mother raised him until his father was released and when they divorced, he was sent to live with his grandparents. When he was 16 years old, Howard had himself legally emancipated. He moved to New York, lived off welfare and tried to become an actor.

#5 Kevin Spacey

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There is nothing in your past that can allow you to abuse a child, including a history of abuse as a child. So while most of us may struggle to find any sympathy for the alleged pedophile Kevin Spacey, it's worth noting that he himself is clearly the victim of that abuse. That doesn't excuse or justify his behavior, but it might help explain it.
His estranged brother Randy Fowler said that Spacey was physically and sexually abused by his father during their childhood. Worse, their mother clearly knew but turned a blind eye to the whole thing. But beyond physical and sexual abuse, Spacey's father was a white supremacist fascist.

#6 Jack Nicholson

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Jack Nicholson's life was one that can hardly be described as a “tragedy” by any imagination. In 1974, it was revealed that his late sister was in fact his mother. The people who had raised him as their own were in fact his grandparents, and his other sister was his aunt. His story isn't the only one of its kind with many families applying the same trick to young unmarried mothers.
And he doesn't seem to hold any grudges against those involved in the lie “I’d say it was a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn’t what I’d call traumatizing… After all, by the time I found out who my mother was, I was pretty well psychologically formed. As a matter of fact, it made quite a few things clearer to me. If anything, I felt grateful.”

#7 Kelsey Grammer

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When Kelsey Grammer was just two years old, his parents split up. He was raised by his grandparents until he was 12 when his grandfather died of cancer. The following year, his father was murdered by an intruder and set a fire in front of his new family. In 1975, Grammer’s 18-year-old sister Karen was abducted, raped, and murdered. Sadly, Karen had enough strength to go to a nearby house, where bloody handprints showed she was trying to ring the doorbell but the house was empty.
Two years later, both of his half-brothers died in a scuba diving accident. Shockingly, Grammer appeared at the parole hearing of the last remaining member of the gang that killed his sister. In 2014, he spoke directly to the killer at his hearing: “You could not have come to a better person in the world than me to advocate for someone who has made some bad choices. I accept your apology. I forgive you. However, I cannot give your release my endorsement. To give that a blessing would be a betrayal of my sister’s life.”

#8 Nicki Minaj

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Love her or hate her, there's no denying that Niki Minaj has built a pretty successful career of her own with triple platinum, number one albums, and a litany of awards... According to Minaj, it’s her bad childhood inspired her to work so hard. Throughout her childhood, Minaj had to deal with her abusive, drug-addicted father, who regularly beat her mother, punched holes in the wall, got arrested, and sold their possessions for money to buy drugs.
Despite all this, her parents stayed together and her dad didn't seem too happy when she told that story. She says “It’s the price you pay when you abuse drugs and alcohol. Maybe one day your daughter will be famous and talk to every magazine about it, so think about that, dads out there who want to be crazy.”

#9 Pierce Brosnan

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Born into a poor family in rural Ireland, Pierce Brosnan was abandoned by his father. His mother was forced to send him to live with her relatives while she worked as a nurse in England. His mother visited twice a year until he was 11 years old. At this age, he became the focus of school bullies.
In 1980, Brosnan married Cassandra Harris and adopted the 2 children of her late husband, and had a biological son in 1983. But in 1991, Cassandra passed away after a four-year battle with ovarian cancer, which eventually claimed the life of their 41-year-old daughter Charlotte in 2013.

#10 Charlize Theron

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Charlize Theron is considered one of the most talented actresses in Hollywood. But if her past were a little different, we might never have heard of the feisty South African we all have come to know and love. Theron grew up on a farm with her parents, who were locked in a loveless marriage.
Although Theron insists her father never physically abused her, he abused her mother. One night, her father was coming home in a particularly bad mood, argued, and whipped her mother. Her mother then killed him with a shotgun. Fortunately, prosecutors ruled that the mother acted in self-defense and Theron went on to achieve great things in life.