Behind the glitz and glamour, these celebrity children faced unexpected challenges. From family drama to personal struggles, we're diving into the complex lives of nepo babies who prove that fame doesn't guarantee an easy childhood.
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00:00I'm the best example of what I don't want you to do.
00:03Welcome to Ms. Mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the
00:07celebrities whose life with famous parents wasn't all silver spoons and opportunity.
00:13We've had all sorts of men in our family.
00:17We've had horse thieves, one-man bands, and alcoholics.
00:24Number 10. Angelina Jolie.
00:26So is this kind of a family affair for you tonight?
00:29Yes, it seems to be, yes.
00:31This movie star and philanthropist was once Hollywood's wild child.
00:35The daughter of Oscar winner John Voight and actress Marjolaine Bertrand, yes,
00:41but Angelina Jolie's turbulent early life was marked by her father's abandonment
00:46and her own propensity for risky behaviors.
00:49Her relationship with Voight would be rocky for many years,
00:52beginning when Voight left his family when Jolie wasn't even one year old.
00:57I've had my share of things that have made me feel,
01:04you know, hard to speak too much about it, but just overwhelmed or broken.
01:09In the time before her stardom, Jolie struggled with antisocial behaviors,
01:14mental health issues, and substance use.
01:17The refreshingly honest actress has always been open about her battles,
01:21but her youth is proof that being born to fame
01:24isn't necessarily a cushion against hard living.
01:27Kind of always would see people with kids or married or in love and thought,
01:31that's great, that's not my life, and I wish I could have that,
01:36but I'm never going to have that.
01:38Number nine. Lisa Marie Presley.
01:41How does it make you feel when you go there?
01:44Depends. Sad, you know, that type thing.
01:46Oh, really? It brings back sad feelings for you?
01:48Well, good and bad. It's sort of a beautiful sadness, I guess.
01:52Being raised by the most famous rock star of the era might sound glamorous,
01:56but Lisa Marie Presley was still very young when her parents separated,
02:00and her father's untimely death in 1977,
02:04when she was nine years old, marked a tragic turning point.
02:08It was totally devastating to her,
02:10and I think that she in some ways spent her life grieving, and grieving him,
02:17and it definitely dictated her life and her story.
02:23Yes, Presley eventually followed in her father's footsteps
02:26to become a singer in her own right,
02:28but her journey included some shocking abuse.
02:30In her posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown,
02:34Presley went into detail about the continually
02:36and seriously inappropriate behavior of her mother's boyfriend,
02:40actor and model Michael Edwards.
02:42Allegations which relate also to some of Edwards' own
02:46disturbing comments about Lisa Marie in his 1988 memoir.
02:50It was a battle, that one.
02:52Really? Because you would think once you said it to your mom,
02:54she would just go, hey, I'm protecting my daughter.
02:56Well, no, she did. She did. She threw him out,
02:58but it was a bit of a, you know, it was a bit of a situation.
03:02Number 8. Wynonna and Ashley Judd.
03:05The last thing I said to her was, I love you,
03:07which I'm grateful for that because that hasn't always been the case.
03:10After years of struggling as a single mother,
03:12Naomi Judd finally made good in country music,
03:16but fame wasn't always her family's friend.
03:18Naomi had two daughters, Wynonna and Ashley,
03:21but the music split the family.
03:24Naomi and Wynonna toured the world throughout the 1980s as the Judds,
03:28while Ashley was left behind and left out.
03:31I know that toward the end, what ended up becoming the end of her life,
03:36she was feeling some guilt and shame about her parenting.
03:40Ashley Judd spoke in depth about how painful this period was for her
03:44in her 2011 memoir, All That Is Bitter and Sweet.
03:48She would later embark on her acting career
03:50and put her fame and resources behind charities for vulnerable women and children.
03:55But the relationships between the three Judd women were always incredibly strained.
03:59I mean, this is kind of a hard word, but I hope you know how I mean it.
04:02Malign, it's because you weren't talking about the core thing that you wanted to talk about.
04:07Number 7. Jane Fonda.
04:09Maybe you and I should have the kind of relationship that we're supposed to have.
04:14What kind of relationship is that?
04:16Well, you know, like a, like a father and a daughter.
04:20Her father was an incredibly famous all-American movie star.
04:24Her mother was a socialite with a tragic past,
04:26whose mental health issues saw her hospitalized.
04:29Jane Fonda was only 12 years old when her mother took her own life.
04:33If you have a parent who is not capable of showing up,
04:38not capable of reflecting you back through eyes of love,
04:43it has a big impact on your sense of self.
04:46And as a child, you always think it was your fault.
04:49Although she had resources and received a boarding school education,
04:53Fonda struggled with her self-image and mental health
04:56from her time at school until well into adulthood.
04:59She cites her father, Henry Fonda's, often cold and harsh assessments of her worth
05:04as one of the reasons why she fell into some early and damaging patterns.
05:08Fortunately, the two were able to make amends later in life.
05:12It's one of the most important things about getting older,
05:14is being able to go back with a forgiving heart
05:17and understanding they did the best they could, you know?
05:20I'm forgiving of it.
05:22Number 6. Mia Farrow.
05:24I was born in Beverly Hills, California,
05:26in just about the prettiest house you could possibly imagine,
05:30with a beautiful garden and a swimming pool.
05:32The daughter of actress Maureen O'Sullivan and director John Farrow,
05:36Mia Farrow was one of seven siblings in a household of Hollywood royalty.
05:41But her fairy tale upbringing ended with a traumatic bout of polio
05:45when she was nine years old, which left her in quarantine for nearly a month.
05:50Mia was lucky.
05:51After a few weeks, it was clear she would not die and would not be paralyzed.
05:57Her father was able to bring her home, but to a home scorched by fear.
06:02A series of further tragedies struck the family in her teenage years.
06:06Her illness, her brother's death in a plane crash,
06:09her father's substance use disorder, and subsequent death of a heart attack.
06:13They all occurred before she turned 18 years old.
06:16Ultimately, it was the financial burden of her father's death
06:19that spurred Mia Farrow onto an acting career of her own.
06:23I realistically could have and intended to go to college, go to medical school,
06:32get a degree, become a pediatrician,
06:35and go and work in either Africa or Southeast Asia.
06:38That was the dream.
06:40Number 5.
06:41Carrie Fisher
06:42Despite a wry sense of humor about a childhood that she'd often admit was unconventional,
06:47Carrie Fisher perhaps had plenty of reason to look back and ask some questions.
06:52What can you really say about my father?
06:57I'm asking you.
06:59Fisher's parents were the actress Debbie Reynolds and the singer Eddie Fisher.
07:04When Carrie was two years old, her parents went through a highly publicized divorce,
07:09during the aftermath of which her father remarried to her mother's best friend, Elizabeth Taylor.
07:14Carrie Fisher's experiences with bipolar disorder began during her childhood and adolescence.
07:20I like being manic.
07:21Really?
07:22At a certain point, though, no, because you're peerless.
07:26I mean, you know, there's who else is like that?
07:29And you're a spectacle.
07:31And even though I grew up in a focus-pulling, spectacle-like family,
07:37it's fine, but if you can't turn it off, if you have no vote in it, it's not great.
07:43She would go on to develop substance use disorder.
07:46She always recalled these events with a crisp and gracious wit,
07:50with many of her struggles notably covered in her 1987 debut novel, Postcards from the Edge.
07:56My entire life could be summed up in one phrase, and that is,
08:05if my life wasn't funny, it would just be true.
08:10And that is completely unacceptable.
08:14Number four, Liza Minnelli.
08:16Liza Minnelli's mother, Judy Garland's story, has been held up as a classic cautionary tale
08:21for fame, and in many respects, a Hollywood tragedy.
08:25Overall, Minnelli has always been sure to emphasize the happy times she spent with her mother.
08:29But still, it certainly wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.
08:33I've collected things now from all over the world that have been confiscated in hotels,
08:38because they never paid the bill and they confiscate it, so we just leave.
08:41See, the trick was to get out before they discovered, you know, that we didn't have the loot.
08:47Garland's later career was marked by illness, failed projects, and symptoms of substance
08:52use disorder that reportedly began during her time at MGM.
08:56She passed away in 1969, when Liza was only 23.
09:01What do you miss most about your mother?
09:03Oh, her humor, you know, and her support.
09:13Minnelli saw her experience as mostly normal because she only had other Hollywood families
09:18to compare it to.
09:19But her chaotic upbringing perhaps contributed in part to her own problems later in life,
09:24including with alcohol and substance use disorders.
09:27It was dramatic on other people's standards, but we didn't live on other people's standards.
09:31Nobody in Hollywood did.
09:33Number 3.
09:34Robert Downey Jr.
09:36It's a bit of a foray into trying to understand your dad.
09:42Do you feel like you understand him now?
09:44I have a feeling I'll know a lot more when we're done.
09:47As the son of the countercultural filmmaker Robert Downey Sr.,
09:51the Iron Man actor was perhaps always destined to have a less than conventional childhood,
09:56and it had a lasting impact.
09:58Robert Downey Jr. grew up fast, and not just because his father introduced him to acting
10:02at the age of five.
10:03In fact, it was also his father who introduced him to illicit substances.
10:08There's going to be a lot of ups and downs.
10:09I'm not going to tell you the specifics because you'd get too scared.
10:12Years later, RDJ would explain that this was his father's way of bonding with him.
10:17But such early exposure led to a substance use disorder that plagued Downey Jr. throughout
10:22his early career before he made the decision to get sober in 2003.
10:27Surprised to admit that when I was, you know, locked down in a California correctional facility,
10:32I said, wow, this is really not panning out for me.
10:34Yeah.
10:35Maybe I should, uh, you know.
10:37Kind of took a look around.
10:39Huh.
10:40Number two, Tatum O'Neill.
10:42Winning an Oscar for your film debut is an incredible feat.
10:46Doing that and becoming the youngest actor to ever win the award is doubly impressive.
10:50Ain't you coming to the door with me?
10:54There it is right there.
10:55How much closer am I supposed to bring you?
10:57No wonder how I got you.
10:58Tatum O'Neill certainly inherited her parents' talent for performing,
11:02but unfortunately, her relationship with both her mother and father was fraught.
11:06Tatum's mother, actress Joanna Moore, lost custody of her and her brother Griffin in 1971,
11:12following a series of incidents relating to alcohol use disorder.
11:16Her father, the actor Ryan O'Neill, had issues all his own.
11:21I did go everywhere with him.
11:22Gone to every party with him.
11:24I had drugs around me.
11:25You are gonna learn all that behavior and it gets really sucked into your DNA.
11:29The two co-starred together in Paper Moon, but things deteriorated not long after.
11:34Ryan O'Neill's well-documented volatility
11:36led to a rift that saw the pair not speaking for the better part of three decades.
11:41He holds you responsible for a lot of the things that happen to me.
11:44That's the problem.
11:46Your son does?
11:47Yes.
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12:03Number 1. Drew Barrymore
12:05The Barrymore family ruled Broadway before expanding their acting empire to Hollywood.
12:10A dynasty that dates back to the 19th century, it meant that Drew Barrymore was only the latest
12:16in a long line of brilliant actors when she first emerged as a child star.
12:20He interviewed me and he said, um, well, she has too much personality.
12:28So he said, we're going to interview, I'm going to make a movie and it's going to be
12:32E.T. the Extra Trust Wheel.
12:34Trouble started very early, mostly left to her own devices by her mother.
12:38Barrymore's hard partying lifestyle at an incredibly young age
12:42meant that she was only 13 when she completed her first stint in a rehabilitation center.
12:48I had nothing but freedom up until that point.
12:51Dancing on tables at Helena's and Studio 54 and Limelight and every club on the planet and
12:56partying it up, doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
12:59And all of a sudden it was, you have no freedom. You will figure out your life.
13:05At one point, she attempted to take her own life.
13:08It would take a few years and illegal emancipation from her mother for Barrymore to set things right.
13:13Decades later, her honesty and forthrightness about that time in
13:17her life is a reminder of just how much she's overcome.
13:20Just recognizing all of us that we go through stuff and it can't be embarrassing.
13:27It has to be our strengths.
13:30It has to be something that we can be proud of because we overcame it and we look back with honor.
13:36Whose childhood story shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments.
13:40He has done enormous damage on this planet.
13:42It is time to take a look at that.