It's easy to believe that Hollywood celebrities have it fairly nice. They make millions of dollars every year, they are known around the world, and everyone wants to be just as rich and famous as them.
But the truth is that many of them had ordinary childhoods, and some of them even had to overcome tragedy and adversity to get to where they are now. Some have come out about growing up with alcoholic parents, and for many, the sickness has left an indelible mark. This list features celebrities whose parents were alcoholics, as well as some information on their relationship with their troublesome parents. Some celebs, such as Macaulay Culkin is unsurprising, others, such as
Tyler Perry or Charlize Theron might come as a surprise to readers.
#1 Macaulay Culkin
Macauley Culkin is sometimes cited as the poster kid for young stars who are unable to cope with Hollywood's fame and demands. According to court documents, father Kit Culkin was always by his renowned son's side, overseeing his career and ruling with an iron fist. Macauley Culkin was earning millions of dollars for each of his films at the time, but according to custody proceedings and court documents, there were accusations of infidelity as well as claims of drinking that led to physical abuse. Kit Culkin and his mother, Patricia, allegedly divorced in the past owing to excessive drinking, physical abuse, and adulterous behavior.
#2 Tatum O'Neal
Tatum O'Neal's mother, Andy Griffith Show actress Joanna Moore, was an amphetamine and alcohol addict. Her parents divorced when she was five years old, and Moore relocated Tatum and her younger brother to a ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles. That's when the abuse began in earnest, largely from the strange men to whom she and her brother had been abandoned. It had gotten so severe after three years that she was moved to boarding school, then to her father's care. Ryan O'Neal was one of Hollywood's most famous starring males at the time, and when she overshadowed him in Paper Moon, their relationship took a turn for the worse.
#3 Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron claimed for a long time that her father perished in a vehicle accident (via Huffington Post). It wasn't until 2004 that she first admitted what had transpired. Her father was a recovering alcoholic. The majority of the abuse, she claims, was verbal, except for one night when he returned from the bar shrieking that he was going to kill both her and her mother. When her mother took a gun and killed her father, he fired into her room. In the end, it was determined to be self-defense.
#4 Marlon Brando
When Stevan Riley was granted access to Brando's estate and allowed to go through personal possessions and recordings, he discovered the truth, beginning with a cassette Brando recorded for himself about leaving the horrible memories of his boyhood. He also mentioned his parents, who were also alcoholics. His mother's abuse manifested as neglect, while his father's abuse manifested as physical and emotional abuse. Brando states on the records, "I'd have been better off in an orphanage."
#5 Brooke Shields
Shields says in portions from her book "There Was a Little Girl" that her mother, who was also her manager, was an alcoholic. Teri Shields would frequently leave Brooke at the home of a neighbor when she went out partying, and she even set up dates for a young Brooke with
celebrity men. Shields, on the other hand, remains optimistic and recalls days when she and her mother could laugh "till we couldn't breathe."
#6 Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez
Details of Charlie Sheen's public downward spiral sparked parallels between Charlie's and his father's addictions. Martin Sheen and his boys may look back on a relationship that was anything but smooth. On the set of Apocalypse, he was famously inebriated enough to injure himself. The fact that his family was present to see him is now less well-known.
#7 Nicki Minaj
When it comes to
Nicki Minaj, the truth is a little hazy, and her allegations about her alcoholic father haven't gone unchallenged. She claims that witnessing her mother's inability to cut off communication with an abusive guy taught her an important life lesson, allowing her to make the difficult decision to cut people out of her own life.
#8 Eminem
Rapper
Eminem reportedly ended a long-standing estrangement from his mother, Debbie Mathers, in 2014. The end of the fight came with the Mother's Day publication of Headlights, a song that not only acknowledged but also forgave his mother's drinking.
According to Debbie Mathers, she escaped an aggressive and unpredictable father when Eminem was just two years old. Those who knew them after they moved to Michigan stated they were extraordinarily close and protective of each other. But for every person who remembers her as a caring, loving mother who covered her son's bills until he was 25, there was another who referred to her as "crazy."
#9 Tyler Perry
Perry claims that his father was always inebriated. More than that, Perry described himself as "angry at the world" and outlined a horrific laundry list of violence he endured, beginning with his father, who he remembered coming home drunk and striking him with the vacuum cord. Abuse also came from outside the family, and he described being molested by a friend's father at the same time he discovered his alcoholic father was doing the same thing to another buddy. Perry eventually ran away from his boyhood home in New Orleans, settling in an Atlanta apartment and, inspired by Oprah, began writing to relieve his fury.
#10 Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato was raised by her mother and stepfather, but her biological father has been a constant in her life – even after his death in 2013. The difficult relationship between Patrick Lovato and his daughter was caused by his alcoholism. She openly confessed in 2009 that she had cut off all communication with her father because he had injured her too many times. She went through her own addiction struggle and spent time in rehab, but the singer turned her bad experiences into something positive.
#11 Adele
Adele's tumultuous connection with her father has left an indelible mark on her life. Her father, Mark Evans, has expressed sorrow for his life. He regards himself as a bad father and admits to consuming two liters of vodka and seven or eight pints of Stelle every day.