Creating their own rags-to-riches stories, these 5 celebrities grew up with very little money and food, and often struggled to survive. Shooting to fame, they now lead comfortable lives and say that having an impoverished upbringing has given them a unique perspective on fame because they know what it’s like to grow up in difficult circumstances with the odds stacked against them.
Arnold reveals that his mother would beg for food: ”I never really thought about [the poverty]. When I finished with bodybuilding, I said, ‘OK, now I want to be a leading man in Hollywood’. As a kid you don’t notice it, but when you think back those were tough times. There was no food around; my mother had to go begging for food from farm to farm and come back with maybe a little bit of butter and some sugar.”Jennie Garth
Jennie’s family grew their own food to save money and lived as frugally as possible: “My upbringing certainly influenced my relationship with money, as everyone’s does. We grew much of our own food, and I can still remember flipping through the tattered pages of my mom’s favorite cookbook, about feeding a family on $12 a week…”
Ke$ha
Kesha would sell clothes to buy food: “I can’t stand pretentious people. I think growing up without money has taught me not to take myself seriously. I’m the same person I when I was selling clothes to buy a taco for dinner, I just have a few extra bucks.”
Rita grew up as a refugee in London: “That word (refugee) carries a lot of prejudice but it also made us determined to survive. When you put anyone into an alien environment, where other people aren’t completely comfortable with them being there, they are automatically going to be defensive. It’s the rule of the jungle, right? (There was) one room for all four of us, my sister Elena annoying me by doing her times tables when I was trying to sleep. Out of the window I could see Brompton Cemetery. Scary.”
Viola Davis
Viola would look for food in trash cans: “I was one of those kids who grew up hungry. I’m 48 years old now, and it’s only been recently that I can admit that I would jump in trash bins looking for food and I would steal from the corner store because I was hungry… We had nothing. My house was a condemned building. It was boarded up and infested with rats.”
