These 5 celebrities all went to boarding school during their teenage years and had a mixture of experiences during their time there. Some loved it and say they thrived in that environment away from home, while others were bullied or just found it unpleasant. Candidly sharing what they went through, these stars have discussed how they got on at boarding school.
Henry Cavill
Henry was regularly taunted for his weight and says he often rang home crying: “I was fat. I was Fat Cavill. I bawled on the phone to my mom four times a day. I became an easy target.”
Olivia Wilde
Olivia followed in her sister’s footsteps by going to boarding school: “I went there because my sister went to boarding school – it’s sort of a tradition in our family. It wasn’t a forced thing. But I had a little bit of a rebellious adolescence, so I was encouraged to go.”
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict says boarding school was good for him because it gave him the company he needed: “Because you have that complete experience of being a child. You are not going to and from a place all the time, and I was very, very hungry for company. My mom and dad, poor them — I used to ask every Christmas and birthday for a brother or sister. That’s all I really wanted when I was growing up, because I was an only child.”
Tilda Swinton
Tilda hated the experience and says she didn’t speak for the entire time: “So it’s a weird moment to go, ‘OK, we’re going to distract you from all that useful evolutionary work, and lump you together with a lot of people on a desert island called school and leave you to it.’ I don’t think I spoke for five years.”
Tom Hiddleston
Tom enjoyed his years at boarding school: “It was a like a mixture of summer camp and Harry Potter without the magic, so I had a good time. Boarding school is an interesting experience because you’re all away from home with each other at a very early age, so the friendships you form with people are very strong. The friends that I made at school are among the closest I have and wherever we see each other we just pick up where we left off.”
