It’s a right of passage as much as it’s needed to learn your independence as a young teenager. However, for some children, arguments with parents can create a rift and it can be hard to get past that especially as you get older. It might be a part of growing up, but in worst cases fights with parents can lead to estrangement and disownment. For these celebrities, there’s no going back with their parents as they resent them now.
Here are 12 former child stars who fell out with their parents:
1. Selena Gomez and her mom, Mandy Teefy.
Photo: DFree / Shutterstock Often times as a young child actor or singer, your parents are your managers. This was the case for Selena Gomez and her mother, Mandy Teefey. RELATED: 7 Best (And Worst) Celebrity Apologies Of Last Year According to E! News, Selena and her mother started a rift between them in 2014 when she dropped Teefey as her manager. After she dropped her own mother, they allegedly didn’t talk for a whole year. “Mandy wouldn’t even let Selena talk to her sister for a long time,” according to an E! News source. When Gomez was an executive producer on the Netflix show “13 Reasons Why,” she had to work with her mother as the other executive producer. Issues began to arise when getting starting the show early on because Mandy “lost her clout as a manager after Selena left.” After the series came out, the two unfollowed each other in December 2017 and a month later Mandy called out Selena for choosing to accept a role in Woody Allen’s film, “A Rainy Day in New York” due to the sexual abuse allegations against him. Mandy responded to fans saying, “Sorry, no one can make Selena do anything she doesn’t want to.” The other reason why the two had a rift between each other involved Selena’s long history with her ex Justin Bieber as their falling out coincided with Selena and Justin getting back together briefly. The duo seem to have reconciled and do follow each other on social media again.
2. Ariel Winter and her mother.
Photo: DFree / Shutterstock In Ariel Winters’s case, she has very valid reasoning for cutting her mother out of her life as she allegedly physically and emotionally abused Winter. In October 2012, when the child actor was only 14-years-old, she filed a restraining order against her mother Crystal Workman. Shanelle Gray, Arielle’s older sister, was granted temporary guardianship of Ariel and according to her lawyer, Ariel was almost fired multiple times from “Modern Family,” “because of the mother’s harassment and interference.” Rumors were even said at the time that Ariel’s co-stars would sneak in some food for her because Workman wouldn’t feed her own child. Workman claimed that her treatment of Ariel was harsh after she caught 14-year-old Ariel and then-boyfriend 18-year-old Cameron Palatas in bed together. In 2015, when Ariel was 17, she became legally emancipated from her mom. A year later she told Ellen DeGeneres that both she and her sister Shanelle had a relationship with their mother and that her mother only went on “Dr. Phil,” “to make herself look better.” Ariel also revealed in a September 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that her mother wouldn’t let her have female friends, “because females are competition — that’s how some people see it.” She also claims her mother pressured her to be constantly getting roles and even sexualized her when she was a child. “People thought I was 24 when I was 12,” she recalled.
3. Beyoncé and her dad, Mathew Knowles.
Photo: DFree / Shutterstock Mathew Knowles and Beyonce had a tumultuous relationship during her rise to fame. In her early days with the girl group Girls Tyme, which eventually became Destiny’s Child, her father was the manager and continued this role into her solo career, but this would prove to be divisive. Knowles was reportedly inconsistent in his children’s childhood and wasn’t always faithful to her mother, Tina Knowles. In 2009, Tina learned her husband had fathered an illegitimate child with Alexsandra Wright, a month later she filed for divorce. In 2011, the divorce was final and Beyoncé was severing ties with her father as her manager, accusing him of stealing from her. In 2013 her father got remarried to Gena Avery and Beyonce and her sister Solange didn’t attend the wedding. Then a year later it was revealed he’d had another child with TaQoya Branscomb in 2010. RELATED: 10 A-List Celebs Who Live Like Normal People Mathews made things worse for himself in 2018 when he claimed she was only partly successful because she’s light-skinned. On Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” album, fans speculated about some of her lyrics being about her father’s infidelity, especially the song “Daddy Lessons.”
4. Justin Bieber and his mom, Pattie Mallette.
Photo: DFree / Shutterstock Justin Bieber’s once estranged mom, Pattie Mallette, is now on good terms with her son. However, it hasn’t been easy for her especially from the long history of their complicated public relationship. By 2014 Justin Bieber had frequent entanglements with the law, including his DUI arrest. It was revealed in 2015 that Bieber did not have a good relationship with his mother even having none at all. In an interview with Billboard, he called their relationship “pretty nonexisting,” sharing, “I was distant because I was ashamed. I never wanted my mom to be disappointed in me and I knew she was. We spent some time not talking, so it takes time to rebuild that trust.” Thankfully, it seems these two are back on track and have rebuilt their relationship.
5. Eminem and his mom, Debbie Mathers.
Photo: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock Eminem’s frequent rapping about raising his younger brother Nate without his mom’s help and his claims about her drug abuse really pushed him away from Debbie Mathers-Briggs. Mathers-Briggs eventually tried to sue him in 1999 do not have a relationship together, claiming his lyrics about his upbring were fabrications. According to Rolling Stone, Eminem “slandered her in various broadcast and print interviews, by implying she was an unstable drug abuser.” His mom wanted $10 million in damages but the case was eventually settled for $25,000 with Mathers-Briggs only seeing $1,600 of the money. In 2013, Eminem shocked fans with the release of “Headlights” in which he says he forgives him mom. “Ma, I forgive you,” he raps, “All you did, all you said, you did your best to raise us both. Foster care, that cross you bear, few may be as heavy as yours. But I love you, Debbie Mathers.” The pair have reached a place of finding mutual respect and love.
6. Adele and her dad.
Photo: DFree / Shutterstock Adele didn’t have a good relationship growing up with her father Mark Evans. According to an interview Evans did with “The Sun” in 2011, this was due to his alcohol addiction, “I was putting away two liters of vodka and seven or eight pints of Stella every day.” Mark’s alcoholism started after Adele’s grandfather died in 1999, Mark reportedly went down a dark path, shutting out his own child. “And all the time I thought, ‘How can I do this to Adele?’ I knew she’d be missing her grandad just as much as I was because they had such a close bond. She adored him,” he said. RELATED: 11 Times Celebs Got Dropped From Major Deals Due To Their Controversial Comments “Yet all I could do was drink and I’m so, so ashamed of myself for that. I was in so much grief that I couldn’t see past myself and how I was feeling… I have regretted that every second of every day to this moment now. It tears me up inside.” Adele referenced her strained relationship with her father in a 2017 Grammy’s acceptance speech. “I love you like you’re my dad. I love you so, so much,” she said of her manager, “I don’t love my dad, that’s the thing. That doesn’t mean a lot. I love you like I would love my dad.” However, Adele revealed in 2021 that she reconciled with her father before his passing. “I know he loved me, and we actually got our peace before he died,” she said explaining that her own divorce made her more understanding of her father.
7. Leighton Meester and her mom.
Photo: DFree / Shutterstock Leighton Meester had it rough from the start. When she was born her mother, Constance Meester, was in prison serving a sentence for drug trafficking. While she was in prison, Leighton had to be taken care of in a halfway house before eventually being placed in the custody of her grandmother until her mother’s release from prison. After she left jail, Leighton and her mom were living paycheck to paycheck. As Leighton got older, she was responsible for bringing some of the money in from modeling and acting gigs. According to People, in 2011, four years after Leighton got a leading role on “Gossip Girl,” she sued Constance. This was because her mom was allegedly spending money on herself that was supposed to go to her brother, Alexander’s, medical issues. “Her mother threatened to sue [Leighton] for $3 million if she didn’t raise the monthly allowance [from $7,500] to $10,000.” Her mother then alleged Leighton “threw her to the ground” and hit her with a bottle. A year later, Leighton won the legal battle against her mother and according to the Daily Mail, she didn’t want to recover any money but “simply wanted her mother out of her life.”
8. Demi Lovato and their dad.
Photo: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock Demi Lovato tried very hard to have a relationship with their father, Patrick Lovato, but due to his problems with alcohol and letting them down multiple times, they gave up. In 2009, they told the “New York Daily News” that the reconciliation their dad told tabloids about was not “the fairy tale ending that he portrayed.” “The last time I talked to him was two years ago … You try to have faith in somebody, even when you’re the last person that believes in him. But when somebody lets you down after you’ve been the only one there for them, and so many times, you don’t know what else to do.” They were first estranged from their father in 2007 and they continued to do so until his death in 2013 from Cancer. In Demi’s 2011 album, “Unbroken,” the song “For the Love of a Daughter,” hinted that he had issues with alcohol. RELATED: 20 Celebs Who Lost It All (And Went Broke) Then in 2015, Demi revealed in a YouTube interview that the song “Father” off their 2015 album, “Confident,” was about how their father was abusive. They cited Patrick’s struggle with mental illness as part of the reason why he couldn’t care for them and the family.
9. Macaulay Culkin and his parents.
Photo: Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock The reason why Macaulay Culkin doesn’t have a relationship with his father is that his father, Kit Culkin, allegedly physically and emotionally abused Culkin. His father reportedly had a reputation of being very demanding with his son’s projects and acting jobs while he was a young child actor. In 1995, Patricia Brentrup, Culkin’s mother, separated from Kit after being together for 20 years and seven children together. She accused Kit of “drunkenness, unfaithfulness and a violent ‘reign of terror.’” The separation also reportedly stirred up tensions over who would manage their children’s careers. According to The Mirror, Culkin said on Marc Maron’s podcast that his parent’s divorce was “one of the best things that have ever happened, as it led to me leaving the industry. I wanted to take a break for a while and eventually I was like, ‘I’m done guys, hope you all made your money because there is no more coming from me.’” Macaulay sought emancipation from his father at only 15-years-old because of the damaged relationship with his father.
10. Khloe Kardashian and Caitlyn Jenner.
Photo: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock After Caitlyn Jenner published her autobiography in 2017, “The Secrets of My Life,” the Kardashian sisters have had some serious issues with their former stepfather, especially Khloe. In the book, Jenner claimed that Kardashian’s father knew O.J. Simpson was guilty of murder, and she was called both a “liar” and “not a good person” by Kim Kardashian. Khloé felt especially “betrayed” which she went to explain further on the “Howard Stern Show” saying that when she discovered “business people” learned about Caitlyn’s transition the same time she did, she was very upset. RELATED: Caitlyn Jenner Airs Grievances Against Khloé Kardashian On National TV — What’s Their Beef? After Caitlyn heard the interview she got upset at Khloé which made Khloé even more upset. She revealed in season 12 of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” in 2016, “She can tell me to f*** off all she wants. I don’t have a relationship with her. I’m done.” In a more recent episode of the show in 2021, Khloe admitted that the relationship is still messy, “I feel like that whole dynamic has been through so much. It’s taken mom a really long time to get to where she is now emotionally. I don’t know if mom has any more to give. I don’t know if this is, like, triggering for her. Or, if she’s at the place where she’s just like, kumbaya, who cares.”
11. Angelina Jolie and her father, Jon Voight.
Photo: Tinseltown / Shutterstock Soon after Angelina Jolie was born, her famous father Jon Voight, left the family as he was unfaithful to her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand. Ever since then, her relationship with her father has been unstable. Voight made things worse in 2002 when he told Access Hollywood that his daughter had had “mental problems.” After hearing that, Jolie released a statement saying, “I don’t want to make public the reasons for my bad relationship with my father. I will only say that like every child, [brother] Jamie and I would have loved to have had a warm and loving relationship with our dad. After all these years, I have determined that it is not healthy for me to be around my father, especially now that I am responsible for my own child.” That same year she legally dropped “Voight” from her name. In December 2017, things changed as Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, “Jon and I have gotten to know each other — through grandchildren now — [and] we’re finding a new relationship.” Last year, it was revealed Jolie was upset with her father after he had some sympathetic comments to say about Jolie’s ex-husband Brad Pitt, saying he “prayed” for the guy amid Jolie and Pitt’s ongoing custody battle. A source told Ok! magazine that Jolie, “feels Jon’s undermining her fight to win sole physical custody, and she’s furious at him for running his mouth.”
12. Oliver Hudson and Bill Hudson.
Photo: DFree / Shutterstock Both Oliver and Kate Hudson think of stepfather Kurt Russell as their father as he came into their lives when they were very young. However, their biological father is Bill Hudson who is Goldie Hawn’s ex-husband. Oliver and Bill have always had an estranged relationship that became apparent after Oliver posted an Instagram picture of him, his sister Kate Hudson, and Bill Hudson on father’s day, captioning the photo, “Happy abandonment day.” A few days later he posted another picture with him and Kurt Russell and captioned it, “Happy Father’s Day Pa.” Bill told the Daily Mail in response to the post that he was disowning both Oliver and Kate. “I say to them now, ‘I set you free,’ adding, ‘I had five birth children but I now consider myself a father of three. I no longer recognize Oliver and Kate as my own.’” He even asked them to stop using the Hudson name and said Oliver and Kate were dead to him. Surprisingly, five months after the Instagram incident, Oliver told “Watch What Happens Live” with Andy Cohen that he had a three-hour conversation with his father, revealing “we’re texting, and we’re trying to see each other. So we might be mending something.” RELATED: 10 Strict Rules Hugh Hefner Allegedly Forced His Girlfriends To Follow Megan Hatch is a writer at YourTango who covers news & entertainment, love & relationships, and internet culture. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
