Just because they made bank on stage doesn't mean they want to set their children up for life. Tough love or tough to live with? For these musicians, cutting their kids out of their wills was personal.
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00:00Just because they made bank on stage doesn't mean they want to set their children up for life.
00:05Tough love or tough to live with? For these musicians, cutting their kids out of their
00:09wills was personal. The wholesome pop and country-western singer Marie Osmond is all about
00:15family. She shot to fame at a young age as part of the Osmond troupe and is best known for
00:19performing with her brother Donny. As an adult, Osmond raised eight kids, five of whom she adopted,
00:25so it might come as a surprise that she intends to leave her children with no inheritance.
00:29In Osmond's mind, this is an act of tough love. It's also a way of ensuring that her kids have
00:34the best start in life and are driven to find their real passions. Osmond told Us Weekly,
00:39Honestly, why would you enable your child to not try to be something? I don't know anybody
00:44who becomes anything if they're just handed money. To me, the greatest gift you can give
00:48your child is a passion to search out who they are inside and to work."
00:53I tell my children that God will be there for them when they struggle."
00:56The country star has mentioned her views on fame and fortune in a number of interviews,
01:00stating that she intends to enjoy her fortune while she is alive. Osmond has also said that
01:05she wants to give a good portion of her money away to charity. Both as a solo artist and a
01:10member of the police, Sting has made a fortune writing and playing music. However, the iconic
01:15rock star had a humble start in life, growing up as the son of a hairdresser and milkman in
01:19Northumberland, England. Before he became famous, he worked as both a teacher and a bus conductor.
01:24It was only after a long period of struggle that Sting rose to stardom with hits like
01:28Roxanne and Message in a Bottle. Sting has eight children and has expressed concern that they will
01:34not have his work ethic or humility. For this reason, the singer has announced he will not
01:39be passing on his mega-millions to his kids. In an interview with The Mail Online, Sting said,
01:44I certainly don't want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses around their necks.
01:49They have to work. All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything,
01:52which I really respect and appreciate. The singer then added that he is already spending his money
01:57and so won't be able to pass it on anyway.
02:00Granddaddy of soul James Brown was once a real ladies' man, so upon his death,
02:05multiple heirs came out of the woodwork to claim their inheritance. Brown acknowledged having at
02:10least nine children, but he only recognized six of them in his will. The scramble for Brown's
02:15fortune led to one of the biggest celebrity estate battles in history. It was a fight that
02:19lasted 15 years and involved multiple lawsuits. Originally, Brown had left most of his money to
02:25fund scholarships for needy children in South Carolina and Georgia. Five of Brown's children
02:30would ultimately challenge the will. They accused his advisors of having too much influence over
02:36Brown's final decisions and potentially trying to enrich themselves while managing his trusts.
02:41In 2009, Brown's children won a settlement that split part of the estate between them.
02:46However, the ruling was overturned again in 2013. Shockingly, one of the children to miss out on the
02:52enormous fortune was James Jr., then just a small child and the son of Brown's widow, Tommy Ray.
02:58However, his mother's claim to the estate was ultimately rejected by the court after it was
03:03discovered that she never divorced her previous husband before shacking up with Brown. So
03:08technically, she could never have legally married the soul singer. Brown's last wishes were ultimately
03:13respected by the time the case concluded. His estate was finally sold for a whopping $90 million
03:19in 2021, with the vast majority of the proceeds earmarked for the scholarship fund.
03:24The queen of Mexican rock, Alejandra Guzman, is well known in the Spanish-speaking world for her
03:30turbulent family life. The star, who has sold 12 million records worldwide, has been releasing hit
03:35albums since the late 1980s. Today, she is more often in the press for feuding with her daughter,
03:40model and songwriter Frida Sofía. In 2022, Guzman announced she would be leaving Sofía
03:46out of her will. The dramatic family feud began after Sofía publicly accused her grandfather,
03:52singer Enrique Guzman, of molesting her from the age of just five years old. Sofía told her story
03:57during an emotional TV interview, which garnered a shocked response from her family. Enrique has
04:03since denied the claims made against him by his granddaughter, stating that Sofía needs
04:07psychological help. The feud that unfolded following the accusations culminated with
04:12Guzman disinheriting her daughter. According to People Magazine en Español, Guzman has stated
04:17that although she has let her daughter keep an apartment she bought, she will not be leaving
04:21her any of her fortune. Songwriter and actor David Cassidy had two children while he was alive,
04:27but favored only one of them. Upon his death, court documents obtained by The Blast revealed
04:32he had left $1.68 million to his son Beau Cassidy, but nothing to his daughter. Before he died,
04:39the star explained to People Magazine that he barely raised his daughter Katie Cassidy,
04:44who was largely brought up by her mom, model Sheri Williams, and stepfather.
04:48I didn't meet my biological father until later in life. I think I was in second grade."
04:52While Katie and her dad maintained a warm friendship for many years, they became
04:57estranged shortly before Cassidy died. Despite losing out on a small fortune,
05:01Katie reacted with unusual grace when talking about her deceased father.
05:06She affectionately noted to People,
05:07"'He left me with really great advice. He was like,
05:10Don't ever stop going to class. That's where you should put your money. And that's what I do. And
05:14I've been able to go from nothing to where I am today, and it's built confidence and self-esteem."
05:19Despite being the child of a celebrity, Katie has said she knows how to budget and did not
05:24grow up with a glamorous, wealthy lifestyle. Today, she has achieved considerable success
05:29in her own right, working as an actor on shows like Arrow.
05:32In the 1970s, John Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono was extremely controversial. Ono was
05:38blamed for breaking apart the Beatles and for destroying Lennon's family with his first wife,
05:42Cynthia. John abandoned his wife as well as his eldest son Julian when he was just five years old.
05:48"'To a degree, I was abandoned as a kid."
05:51In life and in death, Lennon came to favor his child by Ono, Sean. By the time Lennon was
05:56assassinated in 1980, Julian had reportedly been cut out of Lennon's will entirely. Ono was
06:01ultimately made executor of Lennon's £220 million estate, but Julian was not shut out in the cold
06:08forever. Around 16 years after the will was originally executed, Ono allowed Julian a
06:13share of his father's estate. It is believed he got around £20 million from a settlement deal.
06:19When Di McLean disinherited his daughter Jackie, she knew it was coming. The singer
06:23had threatened to cut her off financially if she continued to speak out against him in public.
06:28Jackie did not relent, however, and ultimately lost her $3 million inheritance.
06:32In a shocking interview with Rolling Stone, Jackie described her childhood with McLean
06:37as walking on eggshells to avoid his vicious temper. She claimed to the magazine,
06:41"'There was a constant state of fear in the house about the slightest thing that would
06:45make my dad turn into a crazy person.'" McLean has denied the abuse allegations,
06:50claiming that he was a good father and that he believed his daughter was simply courting publicity.
06:54Jackie's story was backed up by her mother, Patricia McLean, who expressed
06:58disgust over her ex-husband's will in an interview with Page Six. She told the outlet,
07:02"'He's punishing the children. It's disgusting. He's merciless. He has no
07:07shame. The cruelty knows no bounds.'" Patricia, who now runs a domestic abuse charity,
07:12has also spoken extensively about McLean's abusive behavior. The couple divorced in 2016
07:18after he was arrested for domestic abuse and pleaded guilty to four of the six charges
07:22against him. Country singer Glen Campbell cut three of his eight children out of his will,
07:27leading to a lengthy legal battle after his death. Campbell had been married four times,
07:32but only chose to punish the children he had with his second wife, Billie Jean Nunley.
07:36The couple divorced in 1976 after having three children together — Wesley, Kelly, and Travis.
07:42The will was contested in a Tennessee court in 2018. Glen's widow, Kim Campbell,
07:47who stuck by him during his battle with Alzheimer's, was named executor of the will.
07:51She did not challenge the children's right to contest. It has not been revealed why Campbell
07:56chose to exclude the three children he had with Nunley, but it should be noted that their marriage
08:00was at times difficult. In an interview with People magazine in 1976, the country singer told
08:05the press that Nunley had disliked his music, including his celebrated hit, Rhinestone Cowboy.
08:10It was ultimately Nunley who left the singer, with Campbell claiming that he had no intention
08:14of ending the relationship. Wesley, Kelly, and Travis eventually abandoned their claim
08:19to Campbell's will without a settlement. The entire estate was valued at just $420,221.
08:26Musician and producer Rick Okasek's estate became a big news story in 2021,
08:31two years after he suddenly died in the middle of a divorce.
08:34In his last few weeks on Earth, he made major changes to his will,
08:38cutting out his wife, Paulina Poritzkova, as well as his two oldest sons, Adam and Christopher.
08:43Okasek had Adam and Christopher with his first wife, Constance Campbell.
08:47The Cars singer left Campbell while she was still pregnant with their second child.
08:51Christopher has publicly criticized his father for being a bad dad who barely saw him as a child,
08:56telling Page Six,
08:57"'My father, in essence, died the day I was born. He was never present, he was never there.
09:02Even when he was, he was never there, and that's the abandonment that I'm referring to.'"
09:06On the anniversary of his father's death, Christopher posted a picture of Rick
09:09standing with him and his brother Adam on Instagram. He wrote in the caption,
09:13"'You don't exist. We didn't either.'"
09:15In 2021, Poritzkova reached a settlement that awarded her part of Okasek's estate,
09:20but details were kept under wraps. News reports made no mention of Adam or Christopher.
09:25Troubled country singer Naomi Judd died by suicide in 2022 after a long battle with depression.
09:31In the days that followed, it was discovered that Judd had left both her daughters out of her will,
09:36awarding the entirety of her estate to her husband, Larry Strickland.
09:40This was especially surprising, given that Ashley Judd in particular
09:43is known to have been very close to her mother. It was Ashley who found her mother's body on one
09:48of her daily visits to the house. In public, Ashley has spoken extensively about her grief,
09:52including a lengthy piece for The New York Times in which she wrote about the
09:56difficulty of dealing with rumors about her family.
09:58"'My mother is entitled to her dignity and her privacy.'"
10:01While the story made headlines across the U.S., one legal expert, Jason Goldman,
10:06told Page Six that it may well have been a practical decision and not a snub.
10:10He stated that Judd was most likely acting on legal advice and would probably have been
10:15told that it would be simpler for the family to name her husband as the sole executor.
10:20If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse,
10:23you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
10:28You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.