45 of the Worst Celebrity Parents in History

Jeremy Bieber is the father of one of the best-selling music artists of the century, Canada’s very own pop tart, Justin Bieber. However, Jeremy was allegedly absent from his son’s childhood and only showed up once Justin became famous.

He’s also been accused of exploiting his son’s fame and fortune for his own personal gains by starting a company called Bieber Industries. Rumors like these suggest Bieber’s family dynamics may have negatively impacted his struggles with mental health and dependencies on illicit substances.

In 1992, Vanity Fair magazine stated Nirvana lead singer and rock icon Kurt Cobain and his partner, Courtney Love used illicit substances while she was pregnant with their daughter Frances Bean. The subsequent media storm claimed Courtney and Kurt were unfit to raise a child, leading Child Services to briefly remove Frances from her parents’ home.

Kurt, of course, took his own life two years later, and Courtney blames the Vanity Fair article. She also maintains that she never took anything while pregnant.

As the matriarch of one of America’s most famous families, Kris Jenner should be a role model. Instead, though, she’s a shameless self-promoter. Let’s begin with the time Kris told her daughter, nine-year-old Khloé Kardashian, she needed a nose job.

Then, there was the time Kris told Khloé that she best stay on a diet as her weight gain was damaging her brand. Next, she encouraged Kim to pose for Playboy magazine. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she promoted Kim’s personal intimate tape, selling it to the highest bidder.

Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger’s divorce was an absolute mess. Baldwin spent a million dollars in lawyer’s fees and trying to see his daughter Ireland. But then, in 2007, Alec lost his mind. After trying to reach his 11-year-old many times without success, the actor left her a disturbing, angry voicemail calling her a “rude, thoughtless little pig.”

Then, TMZ released the voicemail for the world to hear. Baldwin said the backlash had him contemplating taking his own life. But that, he said, would have been a victory for Basinger.

Mariah Carey has often been accused of exploiting her children for their own shameless self-promotion. In an attempt to show her perfect life and motherhood, the diva has shared countless photo ops featuring her twins, Monroe and Morrocan.

But ever since the kids were tiny, reports say she’s had an army of ever-present nannies to change their diapers and look after them. Several of Mariah’s ex-boyfriends say she insists on having her own music blasting through speakers when they are up to bedroom activities!

In the late 1950s, Hollywood siren Lana Turner was in a toxic relationship with mob enforcer Johnny Stompanato. The known gangster once stalked her to London — but Lana’s co-star, James Bond actor Sean Connery, disarmed him! After one brutal fight too many, though, Johnny lost his life.

Turner’s daughter, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane, confessed, saying Johnny had attacked her mother. But over the years, many rumors have circulated. It seems likely that Lana was the one who took Stompanato’s life, and she talked her daughter into taking the fall.

Former model Yolanda Hadid is the mother of models Bella, Gigi, and Anwar Hadid. She rose to fame on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills but has faced a lot of criticism for her parenting methods.

Some people have accused her of emphasizing her daughters’ looks too much and encouraging them to pursue modeling careers at a young age. Yolanda Hadid allegedly placed her daughters on restrictive diets and allowed Bella to get a nose job when she was just 14.

Knight Rider and Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff had a terrible relationship with his children. In 2007, his teenage daughter, Taylor Ann, posted a video of her dad lying on the floor eating a hamburger as she pleaded with him to seek help after he fell off the wagon.

Saying he’ll lose his job on America’s Got Talent, Hasselhoff tells Taylor Ann she doesn’t know anything about life. The video went viral, meaning the whole world saw Hasselhoff’s terrible parenting skills.

Mama June might just be the worst mother of them all. Reality TV’s biggest supervillain rose to fame in TLC’s Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo. Georgia’s finest exploited her own seven-year-old daughter, Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, by entering her into dozens of beauty pageants. But, worse was to come…

In 2014, Mama June got back together with Mark McDaniel. He had just gotten out of prison for conducting an inappropriate relationship with another of Mama June’s daughters, Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell. Mama and Mark’s rekindled relationship resulted in the cancellation of the series.

For more than two decades, Tom Jones denied that Jonathan Berkery was his son. Jonathan was born after a four-day fling with ex-model Katherine Berkery. One lengthy legal battle and one DNA test later, the Welsh singer finally agreed to pay Katherine a lump sum and monthly child support but refused to admit that Jonathan was his child.

His father’s abandonment caused Jonathan life-long problems with homelessness and dependence on illicit substances. To make ends meet, Jonathan performs at bars and clubs, as well as on the streets. In 2018, he apparently also stacked supermarket shelves in Hoboken for $7.40 an hour.

Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown were once pop icons. They had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina in 1993 but their rocky relationship, Brown’s mistreatment, and dependencies on illicit substances soon saw their young daughter become their primary caregiver.

Despite such a tough upbringing, Bobbi Kristina became a singer and TV personality. Sadly, Whitney took her own life in 2011. Four years later, Bobbi Kristina followed in her mother’s footsteps, also attempting to take her life in a bath. Sadly, she passed away six months later.

Joan Crawford was Hollywood’s golden girl. Unable to have kids of her own, her performance of a lifetime was playing a loving mother to Christina and Christopher, who she adopted in 1940. But behind the scenes, Joan was a cruel narcissist who often smacked her children with clothes hangers.

The star would pose for Christmas photos with the kids before rewrapping or giving all but one of the gifts away to charity. After her mother passed away, Christina detailed her decades of mistreatment in a tell-all book entitled Mommie Dearest.

In 1975, actress Marcheline Bertrand gave birth to Jon Voight’s daughter Angelina Jolie. One year later, Jon had an extra-marital affair, abandoned the family, and became estranged from his daughter. As such, Angelina’s relationship with her father has always been messy.

Over the decades, she made many attempts to reconcile her relationship with Jon, but no matter how hard she tried, she would never win her father’s love. Voight threw Angelina under the bus on Access Hollywood, criticizing her marriages and accusing her of having “serious mental problems.”

Legendary singer Nina Simone married New York police detective Andrew Stroud in 1961 and had a daughter. But as soon as Lisa Simone Kelly was born, Stroud began to show his true colors as a narcissist, leading Nina to develop serious mental health issues.

By the early 1970s, the High Priestess of Soul was so desperate to escape her abusive husband that she left her daughter with relatives and moved to Liberia, Africa. But when Lisa visited Nina, her mother badly mistreated her, so she went back to her father.

Remember Octomom? If not, let us refresh your memories. In 2009, Californian Natalie Suleman achieved celebrity status for giving birth to octuplets. But, her time in the spotlight was brief when the media discovered she already had six children, reportedly paid for by the taxpayer.

To cash in on her new-found fame, Octomom appeared in a plethora of chat shows and even an adult film. In 2012, Suleman filed for bankruptcy, having blown her earnings on a lavish lifestyle while leaving her 14 children to fend for themselves.

Richard Williams may not be a household name, but his daughters Venus and Serena are. The tennis coach wrote a “78-page manifesto” before his daughters were born and pushed his daughters to dominate women’s tennis, both becoming champions. But along the way, he made their childhoods a living nightmare.

Venus and Serena began playing tennis aged four. He pushed them far too hard, and both girls missed out on real childhoods. In 2021, a biopic of his life, King Richard, was released — starring Will Smith as the overbearing parent.

French actress, model, and singer Brigitte Bardot was an icon of the ’50s and ’60s. But when the blonde bombshell became pregnant with her partner Jacques Charrier’s child, she had zero desire to become a mother.

Once their son, Nicolas, was born, their marriage fell apart and the media attacked Bardot for being a bad mother. Bardot eventually filed for divorce and granted Jacques full custody of Nicolas, whom she referred to as a “tumor” in a no holds barred autobiography.

You’ll probably know Gloria Grahame from her role as George Bailey’s (Jimmy Stewart) girlfriend in the amazing Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life. But, her real life was anything but wonderful. She was married four times, and her second husband was famous film director Nicholas Ray.

However, in 1950, Nicholas accused Gloria of having an inappropriate relationship with his 13-year-old son, Anthony. Unlikely as this may sound, Gloria Grahame and Anthony Ray reconnected in 1958. They eloped to Tijuana, Mexico in May 1960 and had two children together.

Charlie Sheen has five children with three different women, and he’d probably admit to having been a terrible father. He’s led a reckless party lifestyle for decades and has cheated on several partners with adult film stars. His children have even denounced him multiple times.

In 2011, Sheen’s twin sons, Max and Bob, were removed from his care. Five years later, the Two and Half Men star sued their mom, Brooke Mueller, so he could pay less child support. At the same time, his former fiancée Brett Rossi sued him for stalking her.

While Charlie’s a bad dad, his ex — Brooke Mueller — needs her own entry as a bad mom. The actress has had a whopping 21 stints in rehab. As such, a judge declared Brooke an “unfit mother” and took away twins Max and Bob.

Since Charlie couldn’t look after them either, Sheen’s amazing ex-wife, Denise Richards, was awarded legal guardianship of the boys. In more recent years, Brooke Mueller was placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold at UCLA Medical Center.

Being the daughter of one of the greatest entertainers of the twentieth century was always difficult, especially considering Judy Garland’s dependencies on illicit substances. Despite Judy’s advice, “Watch me, learn from me, and learn from my mistakes,” her daughter Liza Minnelli struggled with many of the same addiction issues as her famous mom.

When Liza followed in Judy’s footsteps along the Yellow Brick Road into showbiz, Judy became as green with envy as the Emerald City. Judy took her own life in 1969, aged 47.

Generational trauma has a lot to answer for, and Judy Garland’s mom Ethel Gumm is no exception. Ethel gave birth to Judy in 1922, and within two years, she was parading her daughter around Vaudeville venues, nightclubs, and speakeasies — seeking the fame and fortune she herself missed out on.

Edith would threaten violence if Judy performed poorly, placed her on diet pills when she was 10, gave her sleeping pills, and controlled her finances. Garland later described her mother as “the real Wicked Witch of the West.”

Pushy parents Joe and Katherine Jackson helped their children, The Jackson Five, top the charts in the 1970s. But, they over-disciplined and mistreated the kids. As such, the Jackson boys never had a normal childhood and were instead forced to practice music routines for five hours every day after school.

This affected them for the rest of their lives. Joe was a monster, and Michael bore the brunt of his physicality. Joe even gave MJ the nickname “Big Nose,” which might explain the King of Pop’s obsession with plastic surgery.

The Jackson child most affected by their “monstrous” father was Michael. He went on to have many hang-ups, and the 2019 Netflix documentary Leaving Neverland alleges his inappropriate relationships with minors. But, don’t forget MJ was also a father. And a pretty lousy one at that.

When his son Blanket was just nine months old, he dangled the tiny tot over the balcony of his Berlin hotel four stories above the ground. According to the pop star, he was just excited to show off his newborn baby to all the fans standing outside the hotel.

Best known for his role as the dedicated patriarch of the Von Trapp family in The Sound of Music, Christopher Plummer was a terrible husband and father. He married Tammy Grimes in 1956, and a year later, they had their daughter Amanda.

Or rather, Tammy did because Christopher left his wife in the delivery room while she was in labor and went out on the town. The highly-rated and well-regarded actor rarely saw his daughter after she was born, but he might have caught her playing Hunny Bunny in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

Loretta Young says Clark Gable forced himself on her on a train while they were filming the 1935 adventure Call of the Wild. The young actress fell pregnant, hid her pregnancy, and eventually gave birth to a girl she named Judy after St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.

Loretta placed Judy in an orphanage but adopted her a year and a half later. While adopting her own biological daughter hid the truth, Judy grew up to look just like her father, letting the cat out of the bag.

Heartthrob Ryan O’Neal and actress Joanna Moore had a tumultuous relationship and two children. As such, Tatum and Griffin grew up surrounded by illegal substances and adult beverages. Then, a man who supplied Ryan and Joanna’s substances had an inappropriate relationship with the young Tatum.

When she later tried to take her own life, her father reportedly criticized her technique. Ryan O’Neal was accused of knocking his 14-year-old son’s teeth out with a baseball bat. He was also arrested in 2007 for an assault on Griffin involving a weapon. Tatum and Ryan have since reunited in an attempt to reconcile their relationship.

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline married and had two children in the mid-1990s. Sadly, Britney’s fame and fortune, combined with their chaotic marriage, sent her head into a much-publicized spin. During Britney’s dark days, she was often snapped by paparazzi as she failed to look after her children.

One famous photo showed Spears driving with her infant son on her lap, while a video captured her stumbling when holding her baby. The newspapers were just as happy when a Toxic child custody battle ensued.

This fella deserves his own entry. In July 2004, Britney Spears became engaged to one of her dancers K-Fed, after she had known him for only three months — which is a love-bombing red flag in itself… but not enough to make Britney see the error of her ways.

What should have made up her mind was the fact that Kevin abandoned actress Shar Jackson while she was still pregnant with their second child to go out with Britney. Numerous reports state that K-Fed ain’t nothing but a gold digger.

After Britney Spears’ mental health struggles, she was placed under a conservatorship. This meant her father, Jamie, was given control over her finances and personal decisions. The conservatorship was meant to be temporary but had actually been in place for over a decade, despite Britney and her fans advocating for its end.

During a live-streamed 2021 court proceeding, Britney finally opened up about her mental health struggles, her loss of agency, and how her father often forced her to work. Following that hearing, the judge ruled to end the conservatorship and our fave pop star now has free reign to do and say whatever she wants.

French warbler Édith Piaf famously sang “Je Ne Regrette Rien”, but she must have regretted how her life turned out. She became pregnant when she was 16 and put her musical career on hold to work in a factory. At 17, Édith gave birth to a daughter.

However, Édith often left her newborn baby Marcelle alone in a Parisian hotel room as she performed and socialized. When her partner Louis Dupont found out, he rescued his daughter. Sadly, Marcelle passed away from meningitis when she was just two years old.

In 1991, when gorgeous South African actress Charlize Theron was just 15, her armed and inebriated father, Charles Jacobus Theron, threatened his wife and daughter’s lives one too many times. But while one of Charlize’s parents was a monster, her other parent was a real-life hero. Her mom, Gerda Maritz, took her husband’s life in self-defense to protect Charlize.

In 2018, Charlize explained, “I am lucky enough that I had a great mom who really kind of made me brave and always told me to be brave.”

Guns N’ Roses leading man Axl Rose didn’t have the easiest upbringing. His father, William Bailey, was “a troubled and charismatic local delinquent.” He was emotionally abusive, and Axl often had to defend himself from violent outbursts. Axl’s parents divorced when he was young, so he was raised by his mother and stepfather.

Wiliam Bailey remained an estranged father but crawled out from the woodwork when Axl became famous. However, their relationship remained strained because Bailey did things like sell unofficial Guns N’ Roses merchandise, leading Axl to file a lawsuit.

Hulk Hogan was a wrestling superhero in the ’80s and ’90s. But, his home life was villainous. The 54-year-old’s wife, Linda, divorced Hulk after discovering he cheated on her with their daughter’s 33-year-old friend.

Hulk’s infidelity ruined his marriage, his relationship with his daughter, and his daughter’s relationship with her friend. Not to be outdone, Linda dated long blond-haired Charlie Hill, who was almost 30 years her junior and had gone to Brooke’s high school. The boy toy ended up suing Linda for $1.5 million.

Drew Barrymore followed in the Barrymore acting dynasty’s footsteps by shooting to fame as a seven-year-old actress in E.T. The Extraterrestrial. However, her life soon became a whirlwind thanks to her mother, Jaid. By the time she was eight, Drew was already calling herself a “party girl,” going out clubbing with her mother at New York’s famous Studio 54 nightclub five times a week.

Jaid institutionalized Drew at Van Nuys Psychiatric Hospital for 18 months when she was 13, so a year later, Drew officially divorced her mother.

Drew Barrymore’s not the only celebrity to have emancipated themself from their parents. Macaulay Culkin’s childhood was marred by his father’s terrible behavior. Macauley grew up in cramped conditions with his mom, dad, and seven siblings. When he rocketed to fame in Home Alone, his father became jealous and treated him even worse.

Macauley also accused Kit and Patricia Culkin of mismanaging his earnings and exploiting his movie career. After a lengthy and bitter legal battle over control of his finances, Macaulay ultimately divorced his mother and father.

Bing Crosby was a great singer, but he was a terrible father. Or was he? After Crosby passed away, his son Gary’s book Going My Own Way described his father as distant, cruel, and abusive. But, hold on to your horses because Bing’s other son Phillip chimed in to defend his father.

Phillip called Gary “a liar, ugly, greedy, talentless, and money-grubbing.” Not finished there, he also said his brother was a “whining, crybaby, walking around with a two-by-four on his shoulder and just daring people to nudge it off.”

Lindsay Lohan’s mom is often referred to as the “Worst Mother in America.” Dina Lohan gained notoriety as her daughter Lindsay’s manager and is to blame for the child star turned party girl’s bad reputation.

Dina introduced Lindsay to adult beverages and Hollywood’s excesses when she was still a teenager. Lindsay has also accused her mom of stealing her earnings. In 2012, Dina appeared on Dr. Phil to tell her side of the story, but it didn’t go well. She flipped off the cameras and demanded to go home.

Henry Fonda’s relationship with his children Peter and Jane was complex. Despite his iconic Hollywood status, Henry was emotionally unavailable. Serving in World War II made him even more distant, leading to outbursts of anger whenever his children sought his love or comfort.

All this led to their mother, Frances Seymour, taking her own life. Fonda lied to his children about the cause of her death and kept them away from the funeral. Young Jane Fonda eventually discovered the truth of her mother’s demise by reading a magazine.

Shirley MacLaine’s relationship with her daughter, Stephanie Sachiko Parker, a.k.a. Sachi, was always strained. When Sachi was little, her mother began receiving kidnapping threats, so the tiny tot was sent to Japan to live with her father and his mistress.

Shirley was often busy filming or touring, so only visited her daughter for Christmas and holidays. Sachi eventually released a tell-all book about her mother’s negligence and abandonment. Her mother described the book as a “dishonest, opportunistic effort” written by a child she had always loved.

Marlon Brando’s marriage to Anna Kashfi was a whirlwind, and when they filed for divorce, their son Christian was the subject of a bitter custody battle — which the actor eventually won. Anna discovered that Marlon was in France filming, so she kidnapped Christian from school and smuggled him over the Mexican border.

All this trauma affected Christian badly. In 1990, he took the life of his half-sister Cheyenne and went to jail. Christian was eventually found living in a tent, starving, emaciated, and suffering from pneumonia. He passed away in 2008, aged 49.

Woody Allen has made some great films over the years, but he has to be the worst celebrity parent in history. Creepy, cruel, manipulative, and blackmailing, the film director had inappropriate relations with several of his adopted children and even married his own stepdaughter, Soon-Yi Previn.

30 years later, Dylan Farrow revisited the childhood trauma Allen inflicted on her in HBO’s brilliant but harrowing 2018 documentary, Allen v. Farrow. Woody maintains that young Dylan was coached by her mother, Mia Farrow, to say awful things about him.

The Beach Boys featured three brothers— Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson — plus a cousin and a friend. Their harmonized vocals, carefree lyrics, and radiant attitudes suggested everything was fine and dandy in sunny California. But behind the scenes, The Beach Boys’ father, Murry Wilson, was a monster.

Murry Wilson’s methods to get his boys to perform were so obscene we cannot mention them here. Brian recalled, “My dad was violent. He was cruel… Whenever I got afraid, he would yell at me or slap me.”

Angela Lansbury was a star of stage and screen who delighted audiences during an eight-decade career. Most famous for playing writer detective Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote, Lansbury was undoubtedly a loving mother to children Anthony, Diedre, and David. But, there’s a but — a big but!

Legend says that in 1968, Lansbury wrote a note for her 15–year-old daughter giving her permission to party with the Manson Family. In fairness, once she found out, Angela saved Diedre from maniacal cult leader Charles Manson and moved her family to Ireland.

Actress and singer Leighton Meester is best known for playing Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. She was born when her mother was in prison, so her grandmother raised her until her mother’s release. But in 2011, Leighton accused her mother of stealing her younger brother’s medical care funds to pay for cosmetic surgery.

Constance sued Leighton, claiming she was entitled to her daughter’s earnings as she’d made sacrifices by moving Leighton to Los Angeles for her acting career. The legal dispute was eventually settled out of court.