Celebrities Who Are Sadly Estranged From Their Kids

This article contains mentions of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and transphobia.

We look to celebrities for all sorts of reasons. They can be role models through their charitable work, or their fabulous lives can give us something to strive for. We may admire their dedication to their art or just their business sense, taking notice of their enviable families or their desirable fashions. Sometimes, though, celebrities become cautionary tales, their media narratives giving us examples of what not to do. After all, stars are human too, and their lives are just as complicated as the rest of us. Sometimes, things go wrong, and sometimes celebs find themselves in the headlines for awful reasons.

That's the case with the stars on this list, all of whom have fallen out with their children for one reason or another. "Crucial for the function of celebrities' children within celebrity culture and national contexts is the establishment of affective ties of intimacy through familiarity and relatability," academic Eva Maria Schörgenhuber wrote in a journal called Celebrity Studies. In other words, when we pay attention to celebrity kids, we can learn lessons about how to form bonds of intimacy with our own children. When we pay attention to celebs whose relationships with their kids have gone sour, then, we can hopefully learn something important about how we can protect our own bonds.

When Caitlyn Jenner first came out as transgender in 2015, her entire famous family supported her. Kim Kardashian, who is Jenner's stepdaughter, even posted her iconic Annie Leibovitz-shot Vanity Fair cover on Instagram, writing, "How beautiful! Be happy, be proud, live life YOUR way!"

Over the ensuing years, however, it seems that the family's relationship soured. By 2016, Khloe Kardashian went on "The Howard Stern Show" and complained that Jenner told E! about her transition before she told her daughters. "We are a family," Khloe said. "We've never turned our backs on each other yet, with all the clusterf***s of s*** that's happened in our lives, why would we now?" Jenner later wrote a book called "The Secrets of My Life," which wound up fracturing the family further. Kris Jenner, Caitlyn's ex-wife, was especially furious with how she was portrayed. On an episode of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," Kris complained, "None of it makes sense. Everything she says is all made up. Why does everything have to be that Kris is such a b**** and an a******?"

These days, especially as Caitlyn Jenner has become more of an outspoken right-wing figure, she no longer speaks to most of her famous family. In 2017, she appeared on "Good Morning Britain" and admitted that they were estranged. "It's a big loss in my life, not having [Kim] there. And to me, that's sad," she said. "I love all my children."

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' relationship in the mid-2000s is one of the most iconic in pop culture history. After all, who can forget Cruise jumping on Oprah Winfrey's couch, proclaiming his love for the "Dawson's Creek" star? Their union produced a daughter named Suri, but the relationship was not meant to last. Cruise and Holmes divorced in 2012, after six years together.

In the years since, as Suri has grown up, her movie star father hasn't really been around very much. "The truth is, for the last 11 years, Tom has chosen not to see Suri," an insider told InTouch. After all, the "Mission: Impossible" star chose to attend Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in London rather than attend his daughter's high school graduation. A source told the outlet, "He was trading friendship bracelets with superfans and dancing to 'Shake It Off' in a crowd filled with young ladies who were around his daughter's age."

​​These days, Suri has dropped her father's last name; InTouch noted that she was credited as "Suri Noelle" in her graduation booklet. Next, she's headed to college at Carnegie Mellon University. A source told the Daily Mail that even though Tom hasn't seen his daughter in a long time, he's still footing the bill for her education. "Tom is indeed paying for Suri's tuition," a source said. "He has always paid for her schooling and would never stop as he is a stand-up guy."

In 1991, "Manhattan" director Woody Allen shocked the world by having an affair with his partner's adopted daughter. Allen had been in a long-term relationship with "Rosemary's Baby" star Mia Farrow, casting her in multiple films like "Hannah and Her Sisters." They never actually lived together, however, which meant that Allen wasn't around Farrow's daughter Soon-Yi Previn much while she was a child. At least, that's the story Previn told Newsweek back in 1992. "He was never any kind of father figure to me. I never had any dealings with him," she said. "He rarely came to our apartment before his own children were born. Even then, he never spoke and the truth is I never cared that much for him."

The scandalous affair ended Farrow's relationship with Previn, an estrangement that was further complicated in 2018 when Previn accused her mother of having mistreated her. In an interview with Vulture, Previn claimed that Farrow was physically abusive, including slapping her. "She would also tip me upside down, holding me by my feet, to get the blood to drain to my head," Previn recalled. "Because she thought ... that blood going to my head would make me smarter or something." 

For the record, Farrow's other adopted child Moses backed up Previn's account. "[There was a] total breakdown of your spirit, to ensure that you would do what she wanted you to do," he told Vulture.

Legendary Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins is perhaps best known for playing Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs," an iconically-creepy performance that won him an Academy Award despite only having about 16 minutes of screen time. Off-screen, the actor has been married three times. His second marriage, to Petronella Barker, brought them a daughter named Abigail. The marriage didn't last, however, and when Hopkins left Abigail's mother, he left her, too. She later became a singer and spoke with The Telegraph about what her childhood was like. "We have never really been close. We've never discussed big life issues. Because, well, our relationship was always so sporadic," she reflected. "I've never felt I could discuss those sort of things with him."

For his part, the "Transformers: The Last Knight" star is happy to continue this way. In 2018, while promoting an adaptation of "King Lear," Hopkins was asked by Radio Times (via The Telegraph) whether he was a grandfather. Surprisingly, he had no clue. "I don't have any idea. People break up," he said. "Families split and, you know, 'Get on with your life.' People make choices." Furthermore, Hopkins not only didn't know, but had no interest in finding out. "I don't care one way or the other," he said. The surprised reporter told him that he seemed cold, and the actor replied, "Well, it is cold. Because life is cold." Ouch.

When Mia Farrow and Woody Allen split over his relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow's relationship with her daughter wasn't the only one that was severed by the divorce. Allen, too, is estranged from his other children, Ronan and Dylan Farrow. In an HBO docuseries called "Allen v. Farrow," Ronan revealed that his father tried to get him to speak out against his sister, who accused the "Annie Hall" director of abuse. "He made funding my college education contingent on me speaking out in his support publicly," Ronan said (via the Independent). "The offer always stood that if I were willing to publicly go against my mother and my sister that he would offer financial support, support for my education and perhaps a comfortable life with a powerful, influential guy."

Ronan is now himself a powerful, influential guy; he was one of the reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story wide open, which kicked off the #MeToo movement. He reflected on their relationship in a 2016 essay for The Hollywood Reporter, writing, "I believe my sister. This was always true as a brother who trusted her, and, even at 5 years old, was troubled by our father's strange behavior around her: climbing into her bed in the middle of the night, forcing her to suck his thumb."

In 2023, Allen told Variety that he hadn't seen his children since the scandal. "Always willing to," he said, "but no."

Singer Elle King skyrocketed to fame in the mid-2010s thanks to hit songs like "Ex's and Oh's." Many fans were surprised to learn that she had a famous father, actor and comedian Rob Schneider. "My whole childhood, my dad was a workaholic," she told People, explaining why they didn't have a good relationship. Because they were estranged for a long time, King managed to get famous on her own.

When she found herself in the public eye, however, Elle King and Rob Schneider reconciled. Schneider has two more daughters, and King wanted a relationship with them, so she patched things up with her dad. "We both have grown up a lot," she reflected to People. "And you realize what's important ... When it's about the kids, the bulls*** kind of goes away. I love him."

In 2024, the two once more had a falling-out. Appearing on Bunnie XO's podcast, King revealed that the two were once again on the outs thanks to transphobic and homophobic comments Schneider had been making. "I disagree with a lot of the things that he says," King revealed. "You're talking out your a**, and you're talking s*** about drag, and, you know, anti-gay rights, and it's like, get f***ed." Speaking with Tucker Carlson a few days later, Schneider addressed his daughter. "I hope you can forgive me for my shortcomings," he said. "I love you completely." As of press time, King has not publicly replied.

In 1999, Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan was forced to admit that he had fathered a child after having an affair with beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi-lei. He held a press conference (via CNN) and confessed, "I'm not a saint. I've done something wrong. I've done something that many men in the world have done. Maybe it was a moment of playfulness." Still, Chan insisted that he would be involved in raising this new child. "If the child is mine, I'll take responsibility for it," he said. Ng Yi-lei declined his offer, according to the outlet, countering, "I will be the father and the mother. He doesn't need to bear any responsibility."

That seems to have been exactly what happened, and Chan was not involved in any way in his daughter's life. The child grew up to be Etta Ng, who hit the headlines in 2017 when she came out as a lesbian in a since-deleted Instagram post. E! News reported that two years earlier, she had told the press, "He is my biological father but he is not in my life. He never existed in my life. I will never regard him as a father ... I am not angry with my father, and have never wished to see him," she said. "As long as I have my mother with me, I don't need my father."

Rob Schneider isn't the only celebrity to lose touch with a daughter thanks to transphobia. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, went on right-wing provocateur Jordan B Peterson's podcast (via X, formerly Twitter) and slammed his trans daughter Vivian Wilson. "I was essentially tricked into signing documents," he claimed, repeatedly misgendering and deadnaming his child. "It's incredibly evil, and I agree with you that the people promoting this should go to prison," Musk said. He went on to add, "My [daughter Vivian] is dead, killed by the woke mind virus."

Wilson is very much alive, and she's not interested in repairing her relationship with her father now. She spoke with NBC News about her father's transphobic comments and emphasized the importance of not letting remarks like that pass by. "I think he was under the assumption that I wasn't going to say anything and I would just let this go unchallenged. Which I'm not going to do, because if you're going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I'm not just gonna let that slide," Wilson said. She described a pattern of abuse under Musk, including being yelled at for her feminine voice as a kid.

After Musk took to X to describe his daughter's childhood, Wilson hit back on Threads. "He doesn't know what I was like as a child," she wrote, "because he quite simply wasn't there."

Rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson has been involved in a long-running, incredibly-public feud with his estranged son Marquise, with the two trading barbs on social media for years. In 2017, as Marquise attempted a rap career of his own, he spoke with Rap-Up about what life was like as the son of one of the most famous rappers alive. "As I got older, you start realizing things or you start seeing certain patterns and it takes an effect on your relationship with people," he reflected. "That's what happened with me and my father. He's still alive but I can't tell you our last conversation or the last time we even had a dialogue."

In 2022, after years of arguing over how much money he should receive each month, Marquise publicly asked his father if there was a chance they'd be able to reconcile. Instead, the "Candy Shop" rapper roasted his son on Instagram. "This n****'s crazy," he said in the video, lounging in a bubble bath. "Twenty-five years old! Why you still talking about child support?" Things got even more intense when 50 Cent spoke with XXL (via BET) about their relationship. ​​"I didn't think success would cost me my firstborn, but this [is] the situation," he said. When asked if he still loves his son, 50 replied, "Used to." That says it all, doesn't it.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's relationship once made them one of the most glamorous couples in the world. The two gorgeous movie stars found each other on the set of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," while Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston, and the ensuing scandal shocked Hollywood. However, as Jolie and Pitt settled into their relationship, they had numerous kids by both birth and adoption.

Then came the divorce. In court papers (via The New York Times), Jolie described a fight aboard a private plane that got physical. "Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall. Pitt then punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times, prompting Jolie to leave the bathroom." Unfortunately, their children also got involved. "[Pitt] choked one of the children and struck another in the face," the filing said.

As a result of this alleged abuse, Pitt and the Jolie-Pitt kids have become estranged. In 2020, Pax Jolie-Pitt wrote on Instagram (via the Daily Mail), "Happy Father's Day to this world class a******!! You time and time again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person." Shiloh Jolie-Pitt is reportedly no longer using her father's last name. A source told People, "The reminders that he's lost his children, is of course not easy for Brad. He loves his children and misses them."

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