30 Celebrities Who Went From Rags to Riches

No movie star from any style earned extra in 2017 than the $130 million raked in by hip-hop, vogue and media mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, based on Forbes. With a web value of $900 million, he’s closing in on the $1 billion membership. Nevertheless it wasn’t at all times that manner. Combs received a paper route as a boy to earn cash in his gritty Harlem neighborhood when his mom couldn’t afford to purchase him sneakers, based on CNN. Dwell Richer Podcast: Overcome Your Fear of Asking For the Raise You Deserve

Comic-turned-actor Jim Carrey boasts a web value of $180 million and a resume of films which have grossed practically $4.9 billion worldwide. However earlier than a job on “In Dwelling Coloration” launched the Canadian comedian’s profession in 1990, issues weren’t so easy. At 12 years outdated, the actor was homeless and residing in a van after his father misplaced his job, Time reported.

Issues are going effectively for mannequin, mom, entrepreneur and Matthew McConaughey’s spouse Camila Alves, who has a web value of $20 million. That actuality, nonetheless, was removed from actual when the Brazilian immigrant was 15 years outdated. As a brand new arrival in an odd nation, Alves said in a 2015 interview that she labored in eating places and cleaned homes to assist her low-income household get by and save for her dream of pursuing a profession in New York.

One of many richest motion stars of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a seven-time Mr. Olympia with a web value of $450 million and a resume of films that earned $4.73 billion on the worldwide field workplace. He additionally boasts the title of the thirty eighth governor of California. When he was born in 1947, nonetheless, his homeland of Austria was devastated by World Battle II, and the longer term “Governator” lived in a house with no plumbing and no telephone. Starvation-based riots plagued the streets exterior his door.

Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry has loved a unprecedented profession in present enterprise that features roles in classics like “Jungle Fever” and “X-Males.” Though she now has a web value of $90 million, she grew up poor, raised by a single mom in Cleveland and as soon as lived in a New York Metropolis homeless shelter earlier than she made it huge in Hollywood.

Demi Moore’s father left earlier than she was born, and the person who grew to become her stepfather was steadily out of labor, forcing the household to maneuver steadily, based on Hiya! Journal. The highschool dropout went on to blossom right into a two-time Golden Globe nominee with a web value of $200 million. With 69 appearing credit within the trade, Moore’s profession has spanned greater than 35 years.

Sylvester Stallone was born in New York Metropolis’s Hell’s Kitchen, the place his mom was a hairdresser. Useless broke and anticipating a baby, he took bit components in B-movies. At one level, he even offered his canine for money. Right now, he’s one of the vital profitable motion stars in Hollywood historical past, with a web value of $400 million and a portfolio of movies that earned greater than $4.4 billion worldwide.

In 2014, Joaquin Phoenix revealed to Playboy that his childhood concerned a Spartan existence together with his household, who trekked via South America as a part of a non secular cult referred to as Youngsters of God. Right now, his fortunes have modified dramatically. He has greater than 50 credit for motion pictures like “Gladiator” and “Stroll the Line,” three Oscar nominations and a web value of $60 million.

In 2016, Billy Bob Thornton informed ABC about rising up poor in rural Arkansas. About his childhood, Thorton stated all 12 months he regarded ahead to getting a stick and a rock in his stocking for Christmas. Right now, nonetheless, the Oscar-winning author and star of “Sling Blade” enjoys big- and small-screen success that has earned him a web value of $45 million.

Right now, Selena Gomez is a music and film celebrity with 116 movie and tv credit — in addition to a web value of $95 million. However when she was an 18-year-old Disney star in 2011, she revealed to Hollywood Life that her mom gave start to the longer term celebrity when she was simply 16 years outdated and labored a number of jobs simply to place meals — usually greenback retailer spaghetti — on the desk.

Nation-pop celebrity Shania Twain stored her previous and personal life to herself — till a 2011 “Nightline” interview the place she revealed that she grew up desperately poor in an abusive family in rural Canada. In 1987, her mother and father have been killed in a automobile accident, which left her liable for elevating her youthful siblings. She went on to a groundbreaking profession that culminated in 5 Grammy awards and 18 nominations — in addition to a net worth of $400 million.

In 2016, Kelly Clarkson left the viewers — and herself — in tears when she carried out a rendition of her tune “Piece by Piece” on “American Idol.” The explanation for all of the emotion? The tune was about her troubled childhood, which was punctuated by her father leaving and her siblings being cut up up and scattered amongst members of the family. She by no means give up, nonetheless, and went on to parlay her tough circumstances right into a profession that earned her three Grammy wins, 14 nominations and a web value of $45 million.

It’s no secret that Snoop Dogg’s childhood concerned poverty, violence and run-ins with the regulation on the streets of Lengthy Seashore, Calif. Because the human embodiment of early ’90s West Coast gangsta rap tradition, his exploits have been effectively documented in his lyrics. His music and persona have reworked him into an immediately recognizable — and extremely marketable — icon. Because of his profession and a few sensible investments on the facet, he has a web value of $150 million.

In 2015, the Chicago Tribune reported that hip-hop celebrity Nicki Minaj was shifting gears to supply a comedy based mostly on her less-than-funny childhood. The ten-time Grammy nominee immigrated from Trinidad to Queens, New York, the place she suffered via her drug-addicted father’s many violent outbursts. She now has a more-than-comfortable life backed up by her $150 million web value.

The $68 million Mark Wahlberg earned in 2017 made him final 12 months’s highest-paid actor. An Oscar-nominated main man who has earned continued success as a producer and actor on each tv and within the motion pictures, the Boston native has a web value of $400 million. As a baby, nonetheless, he was certainly one of 9 siblings in a damaged house. He each used and offered medication as a baby. He was additionally the aggressor in a sequence of violent, racially motivated assaults. Probably the most severe prices resulted in his imprisonment after being tried as an grownup for tried homicide.

Mila Kunis has publicly vowed she and her husband, fellow actor and A-lister Ashton Kutcher, is not going to increase entitled youngsters. That’s as a result of she grew up poor. An immigrant born in Ukraine, Kunis’ household fled to America because the Soviet Union collapsed. In a 2016 interview with the Every day Mail, Kunis recalled consuming “ketchup soup” as a child when meals was scarce. And in a 2012 interview with Metro UK, Kunis insisted she “acted her manner out of poverty,” beginning with a starring function on “That ’70s Present” — alongside Kutcher — when she was simply 14 years outdated. She now has a web value of $75 million, making her one of many wealthiest movie star immigrants.

Arguably one of many largest and richest names in nation music, Dolly Parton has a web value of $650 million — nevertheless it wasn’t at all times that manner. Parton grew up in poverty. In reality, certainly one of her best-known songs is “Coat of Many Colours,” which chronicles her formative years as certainly one of 12 siblings within the rural mountains of Jap Tennessee. Appalachian poverty pressured Parton to develop up in a home with out operating water, gasoline or electrical energy. She and her siblings slept on beds made from straw. However by age 12, Parton appeared on native tv, and the remaining is historical past. Parton’s achievements embody eight Grammy awards, together with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Nation Music Affiliation Lifetime Achievement Award and extra.

Born in Gloucestershire, England, J.Okay. Rowling was elevating a daughter with the assistance of public help when she wrote “Harry Potter” in 1994. Reflecting on life earlier than literary super-stardom, Rowling stated in a 2013 interview with Every day Mail that she was “as poor because it’s attainable to be.” In 2017, Rowling earned about $95 million, which gave her the title of world’s highest-paid writer and third highest-paid movie star throughout all classes on this planet, based on Forbes. That’s a step down from 2008 when she shocked the world by pulling in $300 million in a single 12 months. Right now, she has a web value of $1 billion because of the $25 billion “Harry Potter” franchise.

Style icon Ralph Lauren has a web value of $8 billion and retains management over the Ralph Lauren model, value $8.2 billion. And, his automobile assortment is believed to be the costliest on this planet. Lauren was born Ralph Lipschitz, the Bronx-born son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He modified his title due to the relentless bullying he believed the title attracted. He traces his creativity to his early fascination with motion pictures, which served as the one escape from his household’s poverty.

Eminem’s practically 20-year profession has stoked controversy, endeared legions of followers, outraged an equal variety of critics, bridged racial divides and earned the rapper a web value of $250 million. With greater than 14.43 million items offered, The Marshall Mathers LP 1 & 2 is historical past’s best-selling rap album assortment, with the primary album alone promoting extra items than the following 9 best-selling collections. Eminem is a self-made man. Born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, he was raised within the poor and racially charged space alongside 8 Mile Street, Detroit’s symbolic poverty dividing line. “I might change faculties two, thrice a 12 months,” the rapper informed Anderson Cooper in a 2011 interview whereas reflecting on how his unstable house life affected his training. “I received beat up within the lavatory, beat up within the hallways, shoved into lockers; for probably the most half, only for being the brand new child.” Eminem dropped out of faculty within the ninth grade.

Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed a poor vagabond in “Titanic” and a grasp of the monetary universe in “The Wolf of Wall Avenue.” In actual life, he’s lived either side of the coin. The best-paid male Oscar nominee in 2016, DiCaprio has a web value of $300 million. In 2014, DiCaprio reminisced to the Los Angeles Occasions about rising up in a seedy L.A. neighborhood that was house to open-air drug and prostitution markets. He traces his love of appearing to surviving a beating on his first day of public faculty after profitable a scholarship to a personal elementary faculty. Of his success, he informed the Occasions, “It goes again to that neighborhood. It got here from the truth that I grew up very poor, and I received to see the opposite facet of the spectrum.”

On the checklist of top-earning hip-hop stars in 2017, Jay-Z got here in second behind Diddy. With a web value of $2.1 billion, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is the primary rapper to enter the billionaire’s membership, based on Forbes. His empire consists of not simply music, but additionally clothes, sports activities gear, spirits and several other startups. His startup portfolio features a music platform not too long ago valued at ten instances what he paid for it simply two years prior. That monetary success pushed Jay-Z previous Dr. Dre on this planet of rap’s wealthiest gamers. Jay-Z’s rhymes, which frequently depict life on the imply streets of the interior metropolis, are steadily autobiographical. Raised in a Brooklyn public housing undertaking, Jay-Z admitted in a 2013 Vainness Truthful interview he offered crack to flee the entice of poverty. He admitted to feeling responsible later. Nevertheless, on the time, he was simply attempting to outlive. “I used to be fascinated with surviving,” he stated. “I used to be fascinated with bettering my state of affairs. I used to be fascinated with shopping for garments.”

Sarah Jessica Parker as soon as described her childhood as Dickensian. She recalled in a 2000 interview with the New York Occasions what life was like rising up on welfare and struggling the each day humiliation and stigma related to receiving free lunch at college and fundamental utilities being turned off in her household’s house. “I keep in mind being poor,” Parker informed the Occasions. “There was no nice approach to conceal it. We didn’t have electrical energy generally. We didn’t have Christmases generally, or we didn’t have birthdays generally, or the invoice collectors got here, or the telephone firm would name and stated, ‘We’re shutting your telephones off.’” A star of each the massive and small screens, the “Intercourse and the Metropolis” movie star managed to flee her previous. Parker now has a web value of $200 million.

In 1986, boxing historical past was made and a legend was born when the person who would go on to change into the world’s most feared fighter was topped the youngest heavyweight champion in sports activities historical past. Though Mike Tyson’s life unraveled after shedding the belt 4 years later, he rebounded and is now value $10 million. Tyson not solely fought his approach to super-stardom, but additionally his manner out of crushing poverty. Like so many poor youngsters earlier than him, Tyson turned to boxing as an escape from the crime, violence and dysfunction that surrounded his life in Brownsville, Brooklyn, till he was found and adopted by legendary coach Cus D’Amato. In a 2015 interview with the Hudson Union Society, Tyson mirrored on the realities of his poverty-stricken neighborhood. “No person was above killing anybody there,” he stated within the interview. “It was poverty-stricken, drug-infested, gang-infested … I received concerned with the unfavorable entities there … I’d been arrested virtually 40 instances by the point I used to be 12 years outdated.”

Canadian singer Celine Dion stays related, with a profession that has lasted a long time. She earned $42 million in 2017, principally from a Las Vegas artist residency that has netted her $350 million because it debuted in 2003. The worldwide celebrity’s web value is estimated at $800 million. One in every of 14 youngsters in a poor Quebec household, Dion began out singing in her mother and father’ bar. Whereas nonetheless a minor, she was found by a famed French-speaking singer.

In a 2009 interview with Parade, Shia LaBeouf overtly mentioned rising up together with his “ravenous artist” mother and father who have been too poor to drag the household out of poverty. LaBeouf sought escape and cash by beginning a stand-up comedy profession at ten years outdated, which put him on the trail to stardom. “My dad and my mother have been each artists who by no means discovered an viewers for his or her art work,” he stated within the interview. “And so I lived in poverty. Now that I’m not poor, I do know that’s what it was. As Hemingway stated, you possibly can’t write something in case you’ve by no means been shot at or been gored by a bull, you understand? So I look again at that stuff, and I’m grateful. It’s like scars. You change into pleased with them.” So far, LaBeouf’s motion pictures have earned greater than $5.02 billion worldwide, garnering him a web value of $25 million.

Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank has gained Academy Awards for her roles in “Million Greenback Child” and “Boys Don’t Cry.” Her profession, which dates again to tv appearances within the early Nineteen Nineties, has earned her a web value of $70 million. Swank grew up, nonetheless, in a trailer park in Washington state, the place her household suffered from poverty and monetary insecurity. Her experiences have formed her profession, which has included portrayals of ladies fighting poverty and stigmatization. In a 2011 interview with Every day Mail, Swank defined that poverty might breed resourcefulness. “Rising up in a lower-income household, you don’t have the sources to make ends meet, and it’s important to discover artistic methods to get by,” she stated. “That infuses your character with loads of drive and willpower.”

“I used to have a bit, now I’ve rather a lot” is certainly one of Jennifer Lopez’s most well-known lyrics, and the road from “Jenny From the Block” encapsulates J.Lo’s life. A dancer, pop star, actress and mannequin, Lopez was born to struggling Puerto Rican mother and father within the powerful Fortress Hill part of the Bronx. In keeping with a 2013 interview with Every day Mail, watching her mother and father battle instilled in Lopez the worth of laborious work. “I watched my mother and father,” she stated. “My dad labored nights, and I used to be conscious of how a lot he was doing for us. My mother was a Tupperware woman and in addition labored on the faculty. I at all times felt that I couldn’t allow them to down. And I had a pure self-discipline from early on. I used to be at all times coaching for one thing.” After learning dance at an early age, she received her huge break as a Fly Lady dancer on the Fox hit “In Dwelling Coloration.” Her web value at present stands at $400 million.

One of many richest ladies in nation music, Miranda Lambert earned $18 million in 2016 alone, which is $10 million lower than she earned the 12 months earlier than. Lambert’s notoriously frenzied touring schedule has earned her a web value of $60 million. Lambert, nonetheless, comes from humble roots. Her mother and father’ enterprise was a casualty of the Eighties Texas oil bust, and Lambert was briefly homeless throughout her childhood till she moved in together with her uncle. Nonetheless, the expertise taught Lambert self-reliance. “I discovered find out how to do chores as a result of it’s important to carry your weight,” Lambert informed Nation Fancast.

Few actors have ascended larger on Hollywood’s A-list than Tom Cruise, whose motion pictures have earned practically $9.2 billion worldwide. From “Rain Man” and “High Gun” to “Dangerous Enterprise” and the “Mission: Unattainable” franchise, Cruise’s blockbuster profession has earned him a web value of $600 million. Though Cruise loved monetary success in his grownup years, he grew up in a poor, dysfunctional family the place he has described being affected by a violent, abusive father. His mom left with nothing to get away from his father when Cruise was solely 12 years outdated.

It’s inconceivable to debate rags-to-riches tales with out mentioning Oprah Winfrey.

Arguably probably the most recognizable girl on this planet, Oprah boasts a web value of $3.5 billion and the standing of an entrepreneur who modified daytime tv endlessly. She has launched numerous careers and endeared herself to tens of millions of adoring followers.

Regardless of such achievement, Oprah grew up in extreme poverty in rural Mississippi. Raised with out indoor plumbing, she suffered bodily and sexual violence till she started working for an area radio station after highschool, a job that launched her ardour for media.

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