12 Celebrities Who Have Gone No Contact With Their Families
Imagine finding out Steven Tyler was your dad. On the one hand, cool! Your dad is a rock star! On the other, now you have to try to maintain a relationship with a rock star for the rest of your life.
Keanu Reeves
Reeves’ dad left his family when he was three, and went radio silent 10 years after that. He didn’t hear from him again until the ‘90s, after his Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure success. Reeves said he never responded to his father’s outreach.
Frances Bean Cobain
She got a temporary restraining order on her mother, Courtney Love, in 2009. For the rest of her adolescence, Kurt Cobain’s mom and sister were her legal guardians.
Courtney Love
She legally emancipated from her parents at the age of 16, after bouncing around foster care for years. She’s still estranged from her parents and maternal grandmother.
Liv Tyler
She didn’t find out that Steven Tyler was her dad until she met him at the age of 10. They reconciled to some degree, with Liv appearing in an Aerosmith video and Aerosmith contributing to the Armageddon soundtrack. By 2009, Liv said, “He has been going through a lot of things on his own and he has not been the… he hasn’t been around that much for us.”
Jennifer Aniston
She stopped speaking to her mother after she tried to cash in on her Friends success with a tell-all memoir about their relationship, From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir.
Heather Graham
Her hyper-religious parents were pissed that she took a role as a porn star in Boogie Nights. That was the role that launched her career, and she’s been estranged from them ever since.
Drew Barrymore
She emancipated from her parents at age 15, and says her estrangement from her mom in particular is tough but necessary: “It’s the hardest subject in my life. I’ve never just been angry with her. I’ve always felt guilt and empathy and utter sensitivity. But we can’t really be in each other’s lives at this point.”
Gary Coleman
Coleman was adopted as an infant, but by 1993, he won a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents for mishandling the money he’d made as a child. He was estranged from them for the rest of his life.
Tatum O'Neal
Somehow, a reality show didn’t help her relationship with her father, Ryan. After the death of Ryan’s wife, Farrah Fawcett, Oprah convinced the two to star in an eight-episode show called Ryan & Tatum: The O’Neals. Their relationship became more strained than ever after the show was produced.
Eminem
A lot of his lyrics are about his father, who abandoned him before he turned two, and his estranged mother, Debbie. His mother reverted to her maiden name after Em’s lyrics called her out by her full legal name. She once tried to sue him for slander for $10 million.
Tracy Morgan
At least in 2012, he had cut out a large portion of his family: “As of this moment, I’m estranged from my own mother and most of my family, and I’m not sure that’s going to change much. It’s okay though. I’ve gotten used to it. I’m an island, kind of like Antigua: hot and humid, definitely a destination of choice if you want to get freaky or just kick back — and pretty isolated.”
Macaulay Culkin
He legally emancipated from his parents when he was 14, accusing them of taking advantage of his celebrity status and skimming off the top: “I hope you guys had a good time and made as much money as you possibly could because there’s no more coming from me.”
