People tend to easily assume that celebrities were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, enjoying a life path full of roses since infancy. Yet, the old saying goes: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Behind all the cameras, fame and wealth, there are depressing and tragic traumas that outsiders like us are never aware of or understand.
Childhood is supposed to be a beautiful period of learning and playing without worries or suffering. But for many Hollywood stars, it is what they want to get rid of in their lifetime the most. You might have never known that some famous people didn’t even meet their real parents until they were mature or acquired a huge reputation, or some experienced abusive memories when they were little kids.
In this post, we’ve pulled out 15 celebrities who went through unthinkable pasts during their young ages and turned them into something making them stronger. Each story is unique, but a sure thing is that all those
celebs have endured terrible tragedy and overcome it in an extremely brave way.
#1 Jay-Z
Source: themedizine
We all know that
Jay-Z is having a life in rose with
Beyoncé, yet he had a more modest and difficult beginning. He was raised by a single mother in a housing project after his father abandoned the family. He was exposed to crime, drug use, and street violence when he was young. Before becoming famous as a rapper, he recalled being shot multiple times and even engaging in drug sales.
#2 Kelsey Grammer
Source: Getty Images
Although Kelsey Grammer (a native of the U.S. Virgin Islands) was born in paradise, his life has been plagued by terrible losses. When Kelsey was just 13 years old, his father was killed. A couple of years later, Kelsey's sister was abducted, sexually assaulted, and killed. A few years later, he would lose two of his half-brothers simultaneously in a scuba diving accident. It is difficult to imagine someone going through that much loss before discovering their true calling as a popular actor.
#3 Hilary Swank
Source: Getty Images
The early years of actress Hilary Swank were largely secure, but she and her mother took a significant risk when she was a teenager. Hilary dropped out of high school to pursue acting, and she and her mother then relocated to Los Angeles. Even though it was in pursuit of a bigger dream, the fact that she and her mother lived out of their car while homeless is traumatizing before she found steady acting work.
#4 Jim Carrey
Source: Twitter
Jim Carrey, a comedian, is another famous person who was homeless when they were a teenager. His family briefly resided in a van and occasionally stayed in tents due to financial difficulties. To assist with the family's finances, Jim and his brothers both worked as overnight janitors. He also left high school during this difficult period.
#5 Woody Harrelson
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The actor Woody Harrelson had a difficult upbringing and little contact with his father. His father was a hitman who had been convicted and had been given a life sentence for the 1979 murder of a federal judge. Woody has admitted to being sensitive as a young child and to having many anger management problems that he found difficult to control.
#6 Tyler Perry
Source: Getty Images
In order to escape the abuse he experienced from his father,
Tyler Perry shared that his childhood was so traumatic. He was subjected to physical abuse as well as repeated molestation as a child. He was unable to finish high school, but he eventually obtained his GED and discovered writing as a way to cope with his trauma.
#7 Oprah
Source: Instagram
Oprah is one of the most well-known and wealthy people in the United States. She has made great strides since growing up in poverty, and she has been honest about being sexually abused as a child for many years. She has also bravely disclosed that she got pregnant at the age of 14 and miscarried the child when he was a baby. Some attribute her empathy for her talk show guests to her difficult upbringing.
#8 Ashley Judd
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Ashley Judd experienced abuse as well as early exposure to fame (thanks to her mother and sister Wynona's careers in country music). She describes how adults in her life did not believe her when she said she had been molested as a child in her 2011 autobiography All That Is Bitter and Sweet.
She also claims to have witnessed her mother draw a gun on a man and to have moved around a lot as a result of her family members' quest for fame. She has expressed her love for and belief in her mother's love for her, but she has also stated that she is working as an adult to change the dysfunctional systems in which her family was raised.
#9 Chevy Chase
Source: Instagram
Funnyman Chevy Chase is the creator of numerous hilarious scenes on Saturday Night Life and in films like Caddyshack, but his upbringing wasn't exactly lighthearted. He admits in his autobiography that as a child, both his mother and stepfather physically and psychologically abused him.
#10 Leighton Meester
Source: Instagram
Leighton Meester's birth story involves trauma, despite the fact that she seems to have had a generally stable childhood. Leighton was actually born inside a prison and spent her first few months in a halfway house so her mother could nurse her before coming back to finish her sentence. Her parents were both serving time for drug smuggling.
#11 Demi Moore
Source: cbs8
Alcohol and instability were the two main influences in Demi Moore's early life. Her mother and the stepfather who raised her were both heavy drinkers, and by the time she was 14, she had moved 30 times, making it difficult for her to make friends or form enduring relationships. When Demi was an adult, her stepfather committed suicide, and she cut ties with her mother, who had a long history of arrests.
#12 Christina Aguilera
Source: Getty Images
Christina Aquilera's early years were impacted by her father's violence, just like the early years of so many other celebrities on this list. She has claimed that her mother, who eventually got a divorce and left when Christina was only six years old, and her father were subjected to physical and emotional abuse.
#13 Iman
Source: Instagram
Iman, a famous supermodel, has long been regarded as one of the most attractive people on the planet. Although she was born to successful parents (her father was a diplomat and her mother was a doctor), many of her fans may not be aware that she spent a significant portion of her childhood apart from them due to political unrest in her native Somalia. Iman was either enrolled in a boarding school in Egypt or living with her extended family in Kenya when her family was eventually compelled to leave Somalia due to the ongoing unrest there.
#14 Charlize Theron
Source: Instagram
South African-born actress Charlize Theron experienced the almost unimaginable as a teen. In front of her, her mother fatally shot her father. Although the shooting was justified as an act of self-defense because her father had been drinking and was physically assaulting her mother, young Charlize had to witness terrible trauma.
#15 Eminem
Source: Instagram
Last but not least,
Eminem grew up in a trauma-filled environment. He had very little stability in his home life because his father was absent and he and his mother — who he claims has Munchausen by proxy syndrome — moved around a lot. He has also shared numerous stories of being bullied and assaulted as a child and teenager, some of which served as the inspiration for songs like "Brain Damage" in his discography.