15 Celebs Who Struggle With Fame

Being famous is a goal for tons of people, but sometimes it's not what it's cracked up to be. We tend to imagine it would be awesome to have photographers following us, wearing huge sunglasses everywhere without looking like a jerk, and being adored by millions of people, but the testimonies of some of the biggest stars on the planet suggest that the whole fame thing is a little more complicated than that! The following 15 celebs struggle with fame for a bunch of reasons. Some of them have seen the ugly side of losing your privacy and appearing in the paper every week, some suffer from anxiety and stage fright that makes their time in the limelight a total nightmare, and some just aren't cool with the concept of being an idol. The Kardashians of the world may do it perfectly, but the following people just aren't down with being famous!

15 Adele

It's safe to say that there aren't too many people left today who haven't heard of the one-name superstar Adele. She rose to global fame back in 2011 and since then has come back with a huge album and stadium tour, so it's totally hard to believe that being famous doesn't come easily to her! Adele suffers from anxiety, including social phobia, and her stage fright leads her to have panic attacks. So you can see how that would be a problem in a job like hers! She always seems cool, calm and collected when she actually performs, but Adele has stated that there have been times when the anxiety has been so bad that she's actually tried to run away through the fire escape! She's had to face her fears of performing and deal with her stage fright in order to do what she loves, so we think that is really awesome and inspiring.

14 Jennifer Lawrence

Yep, this one seems hard to believe since Jennifer Lawrence seems like the spotlight suits her super well! But Jen has talked about how she isn't in love with being famous multiple times. What does she struggle with the most? Not having a normal life -- well, at least when it comes to all things love and romance. She has said,  “No one ever asks me out. I am lonely every Saturday night. Guys are so mean to me." That sounds totally strange to us because here we were thinking she would obviously have a billion dudes lining up at her door, but it seems there's a whole other side to this celebrity thing we don't know about! It would definitely suck to sacrifice that part of your life. She went on to say, "… it hurts my feelings. “I'm just a girl who wants you to be nice to me.” Poor J-Law! Bet you're rethinking this whole famous thing, right?

13 Johnny Depp

It's no secret that Johnny Depp isn't exactly what you'd call desperate for attention. He's pretty well-known for not exactly loving his famous status, and we're sure if he could be a well-paid actor with the freedom to work with people like Tim Burton and remain anonymous, he totally would. His behavior over the years shows just how much he wants to be left alone. He's usually pretty shy in interviews (well, when he actually does them), he lived in France for a long time to get away from the American paps and media, and he's talked about how terrible it is to be a celebrity. In the past, the actor has compared being a celeb to “living like a fugitive” because “everything has to be some sort of strategy.” When you put it like that and think about putting on a disguise to go out and buy some milk, it does sound like a lot of hard work.

12 Eva Mendes

While some celebs are overwhelmed by the lifestyle that comes with fame, the sacrifices they have to make and the debilitating nerves, others struggle because of moral issues. Eva Mendes was moving along quite well until she ended up in rehab, which was totally out of character. She later explained to E! Online in 2008 that she was having issues accepting the huge amount of wealth she'd stumbled upon, and all the privileges given to her because of her new status. She told them, “I just couldn't deal with that. How can I have so much? It's not fair. How can the world have so little? I allowed it to mess with me in the sense that I just didn't know how to handle it.” Wow! Can we just take a moment to admire Eva for having such a beautiful heart, while she works in an industry full of people with egos the size of hot-air balloons!

11 George Clooney

This one was surprising because George Clooney is just about the smoothest guy on the planet! But George struggles with the lifestyle he has to adopt because everybody knows who he is, which is kind of what's going on with J-Law. More than anything, he believes that fame restricts you, and though he's grateful for the life he's been given, he really just misses the good old days where he could stroll in the park without being mobbed. “There are restrictions to this kind of fame,” he said in 2014. “I haven't walked in Central Park for 15 years. I'd like to, you know? The truth is you run as fast as you can toward it because it's everything you want. Not just the fame but what it represents, meaning work, meaning opportunity. And then you get there, and it's shocking how immediately you become enveloped in this world that is incredibly restricting.”

10 Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart shot to global fame when she appeared in Twilight in 2008, but she doesn't appear to be too keen on it. As the star of one of the biggest movies ever, Kristen really could have done anything with her new status. She could have been right there sitting beside the elite at Balmain shows in Paris. But Kristen has instead largely chosen to stay out of the spotlight, and it all makes sense when you hear what she had to say about fame: “Fame is the worst thing in the world. Especially if it's pointless. When people say, 'I want to be famous'-why? You don't do anything.” We do agree-the redeeming quality of fame for most of these people is that they get to do what they love in return. If you were just famous without your passion for singing or acting to save you, it would probably be a nightmare.

9 Kylie Jenner

The youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan would probably be the last person you'd expect to struggle with being a celeb. After all, some of those girls were clearly born to do it! But Kylie has been open in the past about the struggles of her famous life. In an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kylie broke down over her family's fame: "Some people are born for this life and some people aren't. I just know I'm not supposed to be famous. I'm over not being able to go out and be normal for a second. Life is life but sometimes I just want to be a kid." We guess it would especially be difficult for somebody who didn't choose to become a celebrity but was catapulted into it via the choices of others, and from such a young age. We hope Kylie finds some top coping strategies for the future!

8 Lauren Jauregui

Teen idol of Fifth Harmony, Lauren Jauregui, might not appreciate being a pop star quite as much as the other members of her girl band. She made her feelings about the subject clear on Twitter, where she wrote, "I am completely aware of the love and I love each and every one of you… this is me frustrated by the fact that I have no control over my own life anymore, and it's a side effect of not being made for this whole fame thing." Aw! It would be really hard when you're trying to appreciate the positive aspects of being a pop star, like having a legion of supportive fans and getting the opportunity to perform for them, but at the same time being completely thrown off by creepy photographers following you and people writing mean things about you. We don't think we'd be cut out for it either. Hang in there, girl!

7 Robert Pattinson

Kristen Stewart wasn't the only Twilight star who wasn't able to cope with being a celeb! Robert Pattinson starred as sparkly vampire Edward Cullen, but while his face was posted on the walls of girls' bedrooms across the planet, he was secretly drowning under the pressure of it all. Back in 2012, he opened up about what it was really like to be one of the most talked-about people in the world and said that for two years after he played the role, he was depressed. He said, “I went through a big time of depression between 23 and 25,” he said. I couldn't go where I wanted to go. I was in the tabloids every day, and I didn't have access to the roles I really wanted. I wanted more, on every level.” Robert has also said that he was never really passionate about the character or the story, which wouldn't have helped!

6 Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron is another star who just doesn't appreciate the sacrifices she has to make in order to do the job she wants to do. Mainly, she isn't cool with the notion of sacrificing her privacy and a normal life for her children just because she's an actress. On one hand, we think that's a totally fair call. But on the other, the nature of the biz is that it's audience-based and depends on people's interest, so it would be hard to make it work without that level of attention from the media and the fans. We don't think celebs should become objects, though, and Charlize's words on the topic were kind of heartbreaking! She has said, “I don't like this casual attitude that if you decide to be an actor then your life is up for grabs. It's just not nice to go and get your groceries and have seven cars following you.”

5 Jack Gleeson

Game of Thrones star Jack Gleeson also isn't a fan of celebrity culture. He had this to say about his experience after the huge success of GOT: “… I was literally just excited to act in a cool show… when I realized that I had, unbeknownst to me, signed an invisible contract which required me to enter into a strange new echelon of society. People suddenly wanted to take pictures of me on the street, and journalists were interested in what kind of socks I preferred. It was an atmosphere from which I instantly wanted to retreat. I detested the superficial elevation and commodification of it all, juxtaposed with the grotesque self-involvement it would sometimes draw out in me.” To be fair, Jack received a whole bunch of hate, just because his character on the show was a serious douchebag and fans couldn't tell the difference. The curse of a gifted actor!

4 Jesy Nelson

It seems that girl bands aren't all sunshine and roses! Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson is loving life with her band these days as they're getting ready to tour the world in support of their new album, but early on, she was convinced she wasn't cut out for fame. After appearing on the X-Factor in 2011, Jesy received a huge amount of hate from people online. Because she looked a little different to the other three girls, Jesy was getting messages from people she didn't even know saying they hated her and hoped she'd die. Isn't that awful?! The hate took its toll on Jesy, and made her rethink whether she really wanted to go through with this. The struggles didn't stop there, though, as she still gets overwhelmed when aggressive photographers follow her onto the beach and demand to let them take pictures. Gross! At least she has the other girls to lean on!

3 Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez has been in show business from a young age (seriously, she was one of the children who was on Barney!). But recently it's become obvious that she doesn't handle the fame as well as we thought she did. The intense scrutiny for her no doubt comes from her ties to pop star Justin Bieber, and she says that kind of interest in her life isn't easy to deal with. She has said, "Sometimes, I'll be honest, I don't handle [fame] as well as people, So, it's been important to really figure out what makes me feel grounded." While we always see Selena looking cool in interviews and cruising through mobs of fans like it's nothing, she recently returned from rehab, so there are obviously struggles under the surface for her. Dealing with a boyfriend who is a pain is hard enough, but doing it in the public eye would be almost impossible!

2 Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand is one of the most seasoned performers ever, so it probably comes as a shock that like Adele, she actually suffers from stage fright. Who would have thought?! This has led to a social anxiety disorder and had serious implications on her life, which would definitely be a thousand times worse with cameras following you around. Barbra once forgot the lyrics mid-performance, and it scarred her so badly that she didn't come back and perform live again for nearly thirty years. That's some intense fear! The pressure of having such a large audience and fan-base obviously got to her. We're glad to say that since then, Barbra has learned how to cope with her anxious feelings by seeing a therapist, having access to medication, and using teleprompters on stage to save her from forgetting the lyrics. Again, she probably decided her passion was worth facing her fear and coping with fame!

1 Zayn Malik

Former One Direction star Zayn Malik comes in at the top of the list for having a few issues with the fame thing! In Zayn's self-titled tell-all book, he talks about how being in One Direction caused him anxiety, and while he was definitely put on this earth to sing his heart out, the other parts of being a famous singer don't come naturally to him. He was never one for talking to the audience and getting them revved up or giving really good interviews. Since leaving the band to pursue his own path, Zayn has seen huge success with his solo music, but he still feels intense fear when he has to get on stage alone, and that totally cripples him. It sometimes even stops him from performing! Even though he's clearly cut out to make music, he might have to work on the other side of being a superstar!