15 Celeb Personal Stories That Will Break Your Heart

So often we see the glamorous lives of celebrities and imagine that they live some kind of unearthly existence that's untroubled by the struggles that the rest of us mere mortals deal with. But the gloss and romance of the Hollywood dream is often beset by tragedy. More of your favorite stars than you might think have wrangled with off-screen dramas as cataclysmic as those they create for our entertainment on-screen. From abusive parents to substance abuse issues, and family members dodging in and out of prison, these performers' lives are nothing if not dramatic. While most of us tune in to watch their on-screen lives as a distraction from our own, it seems like a lot of the big names you'll be familiar with have lived through some pretty epic catastrophes. In this line up of celebrities whose shockingly tragic personal circumstances might well surprise you, it becomes all too clear that even the most famous, gorgeous, and glamorous celebrities are as human and vulnerable as we are. Which is a big part of what makes them so magnetic on the big screen. In fact, as is often noted in the interview series Inside the Actor's Studio, the actors whose early lives were laced with tragedy and high drama are uncannily numerous. This strange prevalence of tragic backgrounds among celebs almost begs the question: if there is some correlation between a troubled early life and making it big in the entertainment industry? Take a look at these shockingly sad celebrity struggles and decide for yourself.

15 Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling of The Mindy Project disowned her own brother amid accusations of racism and dishonesty. Mindy's brother Vijay claims that his application to medical school under a false name and race were part of a social experiment. Vijay has recently claimed that his experiment was a success because one of the medical schools accepted him, although he had pretended to be African-American in his application. The actress has let her actions speak louder than words and refused to say much on the matter, but her spokesperson said “Mindy has been estranged from her brother for years. She was not aware of his decision to apply to medical school under a different name and race.” Considering that she and her brother lost their mom a few years back too, it must be doubly painful for Mindy to be estranged from her brother. Vijay has said: “I recently learned that she put out through her press agent that we were estranged. That was her word, not mine,” he told host Josh Zepps. “Like any two siblings we have arguments, we have rivalries, we have disagreements, but I love her to death and I wish her all the best.”

14 Jim Carrey

Before he became one of the best known comic actors in Hollywood, Jim Carrey worked night shifts, together with his family, as a janitor at an Ontario warehouse to help pay the bills. During his interview on Inside the Actor's Studio, he described how his eight hour shifts after school affected his grades and motivation, and ultimately led him to drop out, at age 16. Not only did the family have to take security and janitorial jobs, they relocated from their cozy home in Newmarket, Ontario to Scarborough, a Toronto suburb, where they spent a winter living in the family's car. In an early interview with a local paper, the Hamilton Spectator, Jim said: "If my career in show business hadn't panned out I would probably be working today in Hamilton, Ontario at the Dofasco steel mill." When looking across the Burlington Bay toward Hamilton, Jim said he would see the mills and think "Those were where the great jobs were."

13 Charlize Theron

The stunning Oscar-winning actress is so well-mannered and elegant that you would be forgiven for assuming that she was born into a stable, affluent family. In fact, Charlize grew up in a tiny South African farming community. Her father suffered from bipolar disorder and was also aggressive and abusive. He would torture the young actress' mother mentally and emotionally. When Charlize was just 15 years old, she witnessed her mother shoot her father in self-defense after he attacked them both and threatened to kill them. A year after this tragedy, she moved to Milan and began modeling. Two years later, an 18-year-old Charlize rocked up in Hollywood with one suitcase, $400 in cash, and the big dream. Ten years from this moment, Charlize won an Oscar for her portrayal of a serial killer in Monster. We can't help but think that the actress must have channeled some of her tragic upbringings in the role, closing the circle on this traumatic time.

12 Jack Nicholson

In June 1937 an aspiring actress named June Nicholson brought into the world a young boy named Jack. But it wasn't until the Jack Nicholson we know and love today had reached the age of 37 that he discovered that June was not his sister, as he had been led to believe all his life, but his mother. Unmarried and unsure of who the father of her child was, the 19-year-old June had let her parents raise Jack like their own. June died of cancer when Jack was 26 years old and it was another decade before a TIME Magazine reporter, researching a cover story on the famous actor, discovered this shocking history. Nicholson stated that despite being surprised by the revelation, he wasn't traumatized by it and instead felt relieved: “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.”

11 Woody Harrelson

Woody has a history and a reputation for playing bad boy characters on screen. From Natural Born Killers to Seven Psychopaths and a hypocritical investigator in True Detective, we've seen the dark side of Harrelson. But did you know that his off-screen history is just as dramatic? Woody's father, Charles Voyde Harrelson, was a bonafide contract killer, convicted of killing U.S. District Judge John H. Wood, and grain dealer Sam Degelia, Jr., for money. Woody's father was a true hitman. Charles served 15 years in prison for his crime of Sam Degelia in 1973 but was put on parole and released from prison after only 5 years. Just a year later, he was arrested for allegedly killing Judge John Wood. Although Woody was not in contact with his father between 1968 and 1981, after Charles was imprisoned, Woody visited him frequently and tried and failed to get him a new trial. Charles died of natural causes in his maximum security cell in 2007.

10 Rihanna

We've all heard way more about the Chris Brown scandal than we'd like (we wish we didn't have to hear about any kind of abuse). But it seems like this wasn't the first instance of personal strife in the talented singer, dancer, and fashion designer's life. Riri had a huge family secret, and relatives she didn't know she had kept on popping up all over the place. But luckily, they appeared before Riri became famous, so at least they didn't have a hidden agenda. But it seems that Riri's father, Ronald was quite the ladies man, and had been around the block a few times before he met her mother, Monica. Rihanna was just 15 when her first long-lost relative knocked on her door, and soon Kandy was followed by Samantha and another brother from another mother, Jamie. But as they say, the more the merrier, and this is one of the less tragic family backgrounds in this line up of stars.

9 Keanu Reeves

You'll have seen the "Sad Keanu" memes that went viral a couple of years back, but poor Keanu had good reason to be sad. First off, his mother was a showgirl and his father abandoned them before Keanu learned to walk. This creates an unstable environment and Keanu changed high school five times which resulted in him never finishing. Back in 1993, he lost his best friend River Phoenix to an overdose. But the tragedy didn't end there for Keanu. In 2000, his girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Syme, gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Ava. Just a year passed before Jennifer too lost her life in a devastating road accident. “Grief changes shape, but it never ends,” Reeves told Parade Magazine once. “People have a misconception that you can deal with it and say, 'It's gone, and I'm better.' They're wrong. When the people you love are gone, you're alone, I miss being a part of their lives and them being part of mine. I wonder what the present would be like if they were here - what we might have done together. I miss all the great things that will never be.”

8 Oprah Winfrey

Oprah says that every time she is the only black woman in the room, she proudly channels her African American descent to help her assert herself. The daughter of a teenage single mom, Oprah was once so poor the local children made fun of her for having to wear dresses made from potato sacks. Now one of America's richest self-made entrepreneurs, Oprah has her work ethic to thank for her success. She spent the majority of her childhood living in a ghetto outside Milwaukee with her mother, grandmother, and half siblings. It was later, when she reconnected with her father, that he impressed on her the importance of a strong work ethic. So from a background of almost no opportunities, both geographically and in general, Oprah has carved one of the most successful careers in America. And she has founded a school for girls in South Africa to give others the opportunities that she never had.

7 Liv Tyler

Like many of the life stories in this line up, a tragedy looked at one way can be a fairytale looked at differently. Liv's background errs more on the fairytale side than the tragic but isn't without its bitter moments. Her mother Bebe Buell was a playmate in 1973, with a habit of entertaining numerous famous musicians and artists. She had relationships with Rod Stewart, Steven Tyler, and Todd Rundgren. Liv assumed that Todd was her father (her surname was even Rundgren), and witnessed a lot of things that we would typically protect young children from moving from the wild lifestyle of her mother to the calmer one of her grandparents' home until her early teens. It was at the age of eleven that her resemblance to Steven Tyler led to the realization that she was, in fact, his child. Despite her unconventional upbringing, Liv Tyler has become one of the best loved actresses in Hollywood, not just for her on-screen presence, but for her all-around class.

6 Leighton Meester

Gossip Girl fans prepare yourselves for some real gossip. The starlet who plays privileged and sassy Blair Waldorf in the series was almost literally a prison baby. The whole family was in prison when Leighton was born, as they had all been arrested for smuggling 1,200-pound shipments of illegal substances from Jamaica in 1983. Leighton's aunt escaped from prison and became the first woman in the United States to make the US Marshals 15 Most Wanted List. Although Leighton was born in a hospital outside the prison, her mother still had to serve 16 more months after she was born. The family was eventually reunited in Marco Island, Florida, where Leighton spent her childhood before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her career in acting, ultimately scoring the hit series in which we know and love her, Gossip Girl. But here's a case in which the off-screen gossip was way better than the on-screen stuff. XOXO

5 Tobey Maguire

You may not think that Spider Man was once caught up in a familial web of deceit, but Tobey was born to a secretary and cook who were 18 and 20 at the time. The two divorced when Tobey was two. Like many of the stars on the list, Maguire spent the majority of his upbringing moving from one place to another, living with one or other combinations of family members. Although he wanted to become a chef like his father, his mother offered him $100 to take a drama class instead. Luckily, Tobey agreed. Tobey's dad, though, had lost his sister to cancer and feared he too would succumb to the illness. Burdened by a family of three children, and his absurdly low salary as a cook, he had the idea of robbing a bank. Without thinking it through, he attempted to rob the bank opposite his house, in the middle of the day, without a mask. He spent just two years in prison because it was his first offense and he was unarmed.

4 Shania Twain

The Canadian country music singer-songwriter has sold over 85 million albums, received 5 Grammy Awards, has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame and is the first and currently the only female artist in history to have 3 consecutive albums certified Diamond by the RIAA. With over 40 million copies sold worldwide, “Come On Over” is the best-selling album by a female artist and the top-selling country album of all time. But the singer grew up with famine and lost her hardworking mother and stepfather in a car accident when she was 21, forcing her to take responsibility for her three younger siblings until they reached adulthood. Shania says she found a way to live her tough life creatively:

“I loved the feeling of being stranded. I'm not afraid of being in my own environment, being physical, working hard. I was very strong, I walked miles and miles every day and carried heavy loads of trees. You can't shampoo, use soap or deodorant, or makeup, nothing with any scent; you have to bathe and rinse your clothes in the lake. It was a very rugged existence, but I was very creative and I would sit alone in the forest with my dog and a guitar and would just write songs.” 

3 Demi Moore

Demi Moore was born into an abusive household. Her mother was a single teenage mother who suffered from bipolar disorder, and her stepfather struggled to hold down a job because of his various addictions. This resulted in the family moving a total of 15 times during Demi's childhood, and Demi dropping out of school at age 16. This was the first stroke of luck for the American actress, film producer, film director, former songwriter, and model. After posing nude for Oui Magazine, she debuted on-screen in the soap opera General Hospital and gained critical acclaim for her roles in Blame it on Rio and St. Elmo's Fire. Her career success began just after her stepfather ended his own life. Despite this personal tragedy, Demi made About Last Night, a critical and commercial success, and was catapulted into the Hollywood fame and glamor that characterize her life today. Talk about a baptism of fire.

2 Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd revealed the severe psychological scars of her childhood in her book entitled All that is Bitter and Sweet back in 2011. She attended 13 different schools between the ages of 5 and 18 and was a victim of both neglect and abuse. As a 7-year-old she says, she started to feel alone and depressed. The young Ashley apparently felt that she was forgotten about and had no one to turn to. Throughout her upbringing, she was exposed to family fights and witnessed dramatic abuse by her family members of illegal substances and alcohol. On top of all this, she had to protect herself from a slew of predators throughout her teenage years. On top of becoming one of the most successful and highest paid actresses in Hollywood, Ashley is determined to transform her tragic childhood into a positive and has begun helping young women who are facing similar kinds of abuse in Southeast Asia.

1 Rose McGowan

You probably know her from the hit series Charmed, or maybe as Ann-Margaret in the CBS miniseries Elvis, but Rose McGowan had a pretty quirky upbringing. She has revealed that at an early age she was part of a controversial cult called the 'Children of God', which blended free love with preparations for the second coming of Jesus. At an early age, Rose started to become suspicious of the cult's practices and noticed that the women were enslaved. Her father managed to pull her out of the group just as the group's practices began to get even stranger and more disturbing. Recounting her experience in the cult, Rose has said: “At a very early age, I thought 'These beliefs are absurd,” said Rose on one occasion. “Like in most cults, you were cut off from your [outside] family. There were no newspapers, no television. You were kept in the dark so you would obey. It was not a wealthy existence.”