Growing up is never easy, but there should still be plenty of happy memories, fun family times and other beautiful moments that you’ll never forget. That wasn’t the case for these 5 celebrities, who all say they had a pretty tough upbringing. Some had parent trouble and felt that they were given too much responsibility too soon because their mother or father did little to look after them. Others endured harsh physical beatings which left a mental scar and some were forced to move around too often and had little money to get by. Whatever the reason, these celebrities don’t look back to the past particularly fondly, but have found happiness and fame later on in life and are grateful for what they’ve become through their hard struggle to the top.
Ben Kingsley
Ben struggled during his childhood because of his mother: “To put it in a nutshell, I am an actor, but my childhood was not full of applause. It was applause-less. It was very difficult to read my mother. She had a circuit missing. That made her distant. And somewhat baffled by her four children, two girls and two boys. Thinking perhaps it would all go away soon and life would be simple again. Adulthood? Whoa. She couldn’t handle it. Her attitude was difficult to cope with. Fibbing. Showing off. Acting all the time. How profoundly can you misconceive one of your own children? It baffles me.”
James Morrison
James had a rough time because his parents weren’t always around and there wasn’t much money: “My dad left when I was young – he was on the bottle. My mum, she had her own issues. We were skint. We moved around a lot. Me and my brother and sister had to take care of ourselves when we were younger. I’ve definitely learned not to be a smackhead or a boozer. I’ve seen a lot of that around me.”
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay often felt like a parent: “I feel like a second parent in the sense that I helped raise my family. When my friends and family are around me, I feel like they’re safe. No matter what happens, we’re going to be fine.”
LL Cool J
LL was forced to live with his mother’s boyfriend Roscoe who abused him physically: “Living with Roscoe was like being a little kid who gets to play in the daisy field every day. But every evening that kid has to go home and sleep in a cemetery with a dragon. It was the most horrible experience. I was defenceless and I didn’t understand. The pain went so deep. It wasn’t sexual, it was just beatings… (Getting) kicked out in the snow, (and being ordered to) stay outside… (Getting) beat (sic) with vacuum cleaner pipes, (getting ordered to) strip naked, ‘Put your hands on the bunk bed,’ and when you fall down, ‘Stand up, get back up.'”
Tyrese Gibson
Tyrese was very poor and had a hard time getting to school: “My childhood was probably one of the worst childhood experiences ever. You’re talking about gangs and prostitution, drugs and physically being there witnessing murders happening and my mom being alcoholic for seven years, so nothing about my childhood was easy. My neck used to hurt because I used to walk, like, two miles to get to the bus stop. It was a bus called the Dash that only cost a quarter. The Rtd (Rapid Transit District bus) was about a dollar 35 (and) I definitely didn’t have that. My neck was hurting because I would walk from my house all the way to the bus stop, hoping that I’d run into some change on the way to the bus stop, trying to get to school.”
