Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor | Top 10
If you were wondering if all the celebrities were born rich, well, you’re in the right place!
Because today we’re going to show you 10 of today’s wealthy celebrities that were once extremely poor!
Not all the A-list celebrities were born rich, some of them had to work for every dollar they have now, and some of them have a net worth of billions.
It seems hard to imagine doesn’t it?
But they’re the perfect example that with a lot of hard work, and a little luck, everyone can make it.
So let’s start the list of Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor!
10. Sarah Jessica Parker
Born in Nelsonville, Ohio on March 25, 1965, Sarah Jessica Parker is now an American actress, model, singer and producer.
The daughter of a nursery school operator and teacher (mother) and an entrepreneur and journalist (father) is now worth aproximately $90 million.
But she was never this wealthy. Back in 2000 at an interview for the New York Times, Sarah Jessica Parker said:
”We were on welfare. I remember being poor. There was no great way to hide it. We didn’t have electricity sometimes. We didn’t have Christmases sometimes, or we didn’t have birthdays sometimes, or the bill collectors came, or the phone company would call and say, ‘We’re shutting your phones off.’ And we were all old enough to either get the calls, or watch my mother’s reactions or watch my parents shuffling the money around.”
9. Leonardo Dicaprio
Well you didn’t expect too see him here, right?
Born in November 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California, Leonardo Dicaprio is the only child of Irmelin, a former legal secretary, and George DiCaprio, an underground comic artist and producer.
With a net worth of approximately $200 millions, Leonardo Dicaprio grew up in a poor neighbourhood in Los Angeles.
In an interview for the Los Angeles Times, Dicaprio said that drugs and prostitution were so prevalent in his neighbourhood, that it turned him off to do drugs at a very young age.
And it seems that the poverty he was born in didn’t stop him to become a world famous actor and film producer which was until now nominated for five Academy Awards and ten Golden Globe Awards.
8. Tom Cruise
On number 8, we have Tom Cruise, a man who is now worth approximately $500 million, but he’s one of today’s 10 Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor.
So life wasn’t always this good for him.
Born in Syracuse, New York on July 3, 1962, Cruise was the only boy in the family formed by Mary Lee and Thomas Cruise Mapother III.
His mother was a special education teacher, and his father was an electrical engineer, so there’s no need to tell you that he wasn’t born rich.
In fact, his family was very poor, and they were dominated by his abusive father.
Tom Cruise described his father as “a merchant of chaos.”, saying that “He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you”
7. Hilary Swank
Another big name on the list of Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor is Hilary Swank.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 30, 1974, Hilary Swank is the daughter of Judy Kay, a secretary and dancer, and Stephen Michael Swank, a Chief Master Sergeant in the Oregon Air National Guard and later a traveling salesman.
The two time oscar winner grew up in a trailer park and was left by her father when she was young.
Although Swank is now worth approximately $40 million, there were times when she lived in a car, or stayed at her friends.
At the age of fifteen, Hilary Swank dropped out of high school, but later on, after pursuing her dream to become an actress, things started to get better, and here she is, a wealthy American actress, with two oscars and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, wearing her name.
6. Jim Carrey
Yes, Jim Carrey is one of the Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor!
Born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada on January 17, 1962, James Eugene Carrey is the son of a homemaker and a musician and accountant.
In an interview with James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio, he said:
“My father was a musician who got a “regular job” to support his children. When he lost his job that’s when everything fell apart. We went from “lower middle class” to “poor”.”
With a net worth of approximately $150 million, you would have never expected for Jim Carrey to live in a van right? But he did, and at the age of 15 he started to work as a janitor to support his family.
But after all that hard times, Carrey started working as a stand up comic, and eventually ending up in the film industry.
5.Demi Moore
Demi Moore is the number 5 on the list of Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor!
She was born in Roswell, New Mexico on November 11, 1962, and she had it hard from the beginning, because before she was born, her biological father, Air Force airman Charles Harmon, Sr. left her mother, just after a two-month marriage.
Although Moore is now worth approximately $150 million, there was a time when she lived in trailer parks.
At the age of sixteen, Demi dropped out of high school and moved out of her parents house in order to pursue a modelling career.
But just after she enrolled in drama classes, at the age of seventeen, she discovered her true calling.
4.Shania Twain
Shania Twain is one of the Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor, and if you want to find out why, just keep reading!
Born in Windsor, Ontario on August 28, 1965, Shania Twain is the daughter of Sharon and Clarence Edwards.
When she was two years old, her parents divorced, and her mother moved to Timmins, Ontario with Shania and her sisters.
Her family was very poor, and at times there wasn’t enough food for them.
After a dramatic childhood, Shania turned to music to deal with the issues with her family and living in poverty.
But because of a car accident in which Shania’s mother and stepfather died, she put off her dreams of becoming a singer to raise her younger siblings.
And after they were old enough to take car of themselves, Shania returned to music, and now the Canadian country music singer-songwriter is worth approximately $350 million.
3.Leighton Meester
And we’re down to 3 more Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor, and we carry on with Leighton Meester.
Born in Fort Worth, Texas on April 9, 1986, the star from Gossip Girl is the daughter of Constance and Douglas Meester.
At that time, her mother was serving a federal prison sentence for smuggling drugs, and nursed her for three months in a half way house and then returned to prison to finish her sentence.
In the time that her mother was in prison, her grandmother took care of her.
When Leighton’s mother was released, they moved to New York, where Leighton started working as a model.
In 2007 she was cast as the role of Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl, and now Leighton is worth approximately $5 million.
2. J.K. Rowling
Yes, the British novelist that wrote Harry Potter is one of the Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor!
Born on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, the famous author of the Harry Potter series is the daughter of Peter James Rowling, a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer, and Anne Rowling.
When she found herself a single mother and living on welfare in the U.K., she wrote by hand in cafes with her baby by her side, because she was not able to afford a typewriter.
With a net worth of approximately $1 billion, there were times when Rowling would not eat, because she could only afford to feed her daughter.
But she hit the jackpot when she wrote “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in 1997 and from there on it went all up.
1. Oprah Winfrey
And the number one spot in the Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor Top 10, is Oprah WInfrey!
Oprah was born on January 29, 1954 into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother, so yes, she wasn’t always as rich she is now.
She was later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood, and experienced considerable hardship during her childhood.
Oprah stated that she was raped at age nine and became pregnant at 14, her son dying of infancy.
At the age of 14 she started working in radio, after moving with her father in Tennessee, and later on began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19..
Now with a net worth of approximately $2.9 billion, and her own cable network, Oprah Winfrey started from rock bottom, and it’s the perfect example that with hard work and a huge ambition, you can become anything you want.
So these were the 10 Wealthy Celebrities That Were Once Extremely Poor!
Let us know which one is your favourite and if you knew these facts about them. Leave your answers and opinions in the comments section bellow.
And don’t hesitate to share these amazing life stories with your friends!
