These Celebrities Revealed Just How Much It Sucks To Deal With The Paparazzi All The Time

"Your paparazzi have no respect, no integrity, no character."

Being a celebrity comes with a lot of perks, but there's no denying that there are some major downsides, too — like constantly being stalked by paparazzi.

Diamond Films Latam/Giphy / Via giphy.com

While most celebs understand it just comes with the job, sometimes it gets a little too extreme, and they decide they need to speak out about the situation.

Find out what these celebs had to say about the paparazzi:

1. Camila Cabello

Astrid Stawiarz / WireImage / Getty Images

Camila Cabello recently got real about how difficult it is to constantly deal with paparazzi, especially when it often leads to her body being criticized in the media. The music artist explained that on several recent occasions, photographers caught her during a day at the beach. While she was enjoying herself in the moment, paparazzi snapped photos that left her feeling badly. She says she decided to prepare herself for her next beach outing — wearing makeup and jewelry, and holding in her core. And even though she may have liked the photos better, she says she was miserable the entire time.

"I held my core so tight my abs hurt and didn’t breathe and barely smiled and was so self conscious of where the paps were the whole time. I couldn’t let go and relax and do what we’re meant to do when we go out into nature. I tried to pretend they weren’t there, but I couldn’t, and I held my breath from my sun chair to the ocean...What is health if you are so fixated on what your body looks like that your mental health suffers and you can’t enjoy your life? Who am I trying to look attractive for, and am I even attractive to myself if I can’t let loose and relax and have fun and be playful on a beautiful day at the beach?” Camila wrote. 

2. Katy Perry

Christian Vierig / Getty Images

Back in 2014, Katy Perry took a stand against Australian paparazzi who were harassing her while she was on the beach. In an extended message on Twitter, Katy explained that photographers tried to make a "deal" with her by saying if she posed for a photo in her bikini, they would leave her alone. Katy wrote that she was disgusted by the Australian paparazzi and even shared photos of the "stalkers" who were bothering her.  

“You should be ashamed of your paparazzi & tabloid culture. Your paparazzi have no respect, no integrity, no character. NO HUMANITY. I was stalked by many grown men today as I tried to take a quiet walk to the beach. These men would not stop as I pleaded over & over to let me have my space. Many other people stopped to try to help, but the paps continued to laugh at me & hold their barrels up and shoot...This is PERVERTED & disgusting behavior that should NEVER be tolerated, especially by people who do NOT want this," Katy wrote.

3. Selena Gomez

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images

Selena Gomez has also shared about having a "violating" experience with paparazzi at the beach when she was just a teenager. The actor and musician explained that when she was only 15, a group of photographers followed her to the beach, and even though she felt uncomfortable, she didn't think she could say anything. 

"We were all new to this, and [Wizards co-stars David Henrie and Jake T. Austin] wanted to say things to the paparazzi, but you can't, because that's exactly what the paparazzi want...I remember going to the beach with some family members who were visiting, and we saw, far away, grown men with cameras — taking pictures of a 15-year-old in her swimsuit. That is a violating feeling," Selena told Vogue. 

4. Blake Lively

Dia Dipasupil / FilmMagic

Blake Lively isn't a fan of the paparazzi, particularly when it comes to her three young children. Last year, she took to social media after she had been hounded by a group of paparazzi who she felt were "stalking" her children. Although some photographers agreed to leave her alone after getting a photo of just Blake, one refused to stop — even when she tried to reason with him. On Instagram, she called out the agency that had hired him. 

"My children were being stalked by men [sic] all day. Jumping out. And then hiding. A stranger on the street got into words with them because it was so upsetting for her to see. When I tried to calmly approach the photographer...he would run away. And jump out again at the next block. Where is your morality here? I would like to know. Or do you simply not care about the safety of children?" Blake wrote. 

5. Cara Delevingne

Emma Mcintyre / Getty Images for dcp

When Cara Delevingne was on a trip to Milan, she took a stand against the intense paparazzi who were following her every move while she was trying to enjoy a vacation. She noted that while she understood dealing with photographers is a part of being in the public eye, the group following her in Italy were making her feel like a "zoo animal" and an "object." 

"I was excited to be in Milan, but now I have a feeling you are going to ruin my trip. If only I could make you feel the way you make me feel, I just hope that outside of this, you are able to feel empathy for others. If not, then I feel truly sorry for you...I refuse to let these grown men treat people like objects with no feelings and get away with it. I will never be silent," Cara tweeted. 

6. Charli & Dixie D'Amelio

Jc Olivera / WireImage

Not long after Charli and Dixie D'Amelio gained a massive TikTok following and skyrocketed to fame, they began getting followed by the paparazzi. While the sisters say they befriended photographers like Kevin Wong and Pap Galore at first, things took a turn when they began waiting outside their house for them to leave. It got to a point where the men even knew the girls' routines. Charli says that she finally asked them to stop, and they agreed — but didn't follow through. 

"Kevin, Josh, this is for you guys: Please stop waiting outside my house. Super weird, super uncomfortable, big invasion of privacy. Home is supposed to be a safe place, not a place where you have people waiting for you," Charli said on her podcast.  

Dixie added, "They used to be really chill. We'd be like, 'Hey, not right now, we're just sitting outside.' But now, I feel like since everything's closed [during quarantine], and they're getting zero content from anyone, they kind of know our routine."

7. Jennifer Lawrence

Michael Ostuni / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Early in her career, Jennifer Lawrence spoke out about the paparazzi who had begun to incessantly follow her around. Although she knew they would be around, she says she didn't realize they would impact her mental health so severely. 

"I knew the paparazzi were going to be a reality in my life. But I didn't know that I would feel anxiety every time I open my front door, or that being chased by 10 men you don't know, or being surrounded, feels invasive and makes me feel scared and gets my adrenaline going every day. You can say, ‘This is part of my job, and this is going to be a reality of my life. But what you don't expect is how your body and how your emotions are going to react to it," Jennifer said during a press conference. 

8. Sienna Miller

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis / Corbis via Getty Images

Sienna Miller was so frequently followed by the paparazzi in the early 2000s, she actually took photography company Big Pictures to court and sued them. She claimed the paparazzi had become "intolerable" — and she had the evidence as she had been secretly filming them for a year. 

"The paparazzi sat outside my home in London, and everywhere I went, I was followed by 12 cars. It wasn't even safe to take my sister Savannah's kids out. My whole life was documented and manipulated. I thought, I've got to put a law in place to make it illegal for people to sit outside my home. I sought an injunction. Filming them secretly for a year with a camera the size of a cigarette lighter and then going to court in 2008 with the evidence," Sienna said. 

9. Kristen Bell & Dax Shepard

Valerie Macon / AFP via Getty Images

After Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard welcomed children, they realized they had to do something to protect their young daughters from the "predatory" paparazzi. In 2014, couple helped enact a #NoKidsPolicy, which encouraged media outlets not to buy photos with children in them — and in turn, paparazzi would not take the photos since media outlets weren't buying them.   

"We wanted to start a public conversation that children, under no circumstance, should be followed by strangers, with or without a camera. It just should never be okay because they can't understand what's happening. All they feel is that predatory feeling of being hunted...There's so much erratic behavior that happens around schools and around parks, and I just feel we should put a stop to it," Kristen said on The Ellen Show.

10. Taylor Swift

Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images

Taylor Swift isn't often captured by the paparazzi anymore, but early in her career, they were a constant fixture in her life. At one point, she talked to the press about it and questioned why it was actually allowed for people to follow her wherever she went. 

"There's definitely something really confusing about people following you and being allowed to. I don't think it's necessarily that paparazzi are taking pictures of me that freaks me out, as much as the fact they're hanging out with you all day. I asked to be a singer, I wanted this, so I can kind of understand it when they're waiting outside a radio station or on a red carpet. But it gets to be a bit irritating for me when they're waiting for me outside my house, or when I'm on vacation and they're there, too," Taylor told BBC. 

11. Hilary Duff

Emma Mcintyre / Getty Images

Hilary Duff has no problem calling out paparazzi — and she doesn't mind posting about them online, too. On several occasions, she's videotaped photographers who were harassing her and then posted them on social media. In 2020, she caught a man photographing her 7-year-old son's football game and approached him to ask him to leave. When the man claimed what he was doing was legal, Hilary doubled down and repeatedly asked him to leave. When he refused, she decided to post a video of him on social media.  

"Paparazzi shooting KIDS...Go 'practice' your photography on ADULTS! Creep! Laws need to change! This is stalking minors! Disgusting!" Hilary wrote. 

12. Emma Stone

Emma Mcintyre / WireImage,

Emma Stone has learned to ignore the paparazzi (and even sometimes use their photos to promote a good cause), but she says that having them waiting outside her home will never feel normal to her. 

“It’s uncomfortable to have photographers outside of your home. That’s never going to feel good, and I don’t think that’s OK. Yet there’s also a goal to live life normally. So, if they photograph you walking to the same restaurant every morning, like you do when you live in a neighborhood. Honestly, I try not to think about it any longer than when it’s happening,” Emma once told the New York Times. 

13. Jennifer Garner

Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter

Jennifer Garner has dealt with intense paparazzi for the majority of her career — especially when she began dating Ben Affleck. As their relationship progressed and they eventually welcomed children, things got even worse.

"You’d go through a yellow light and 15, 20 cars would go through the red light behind you, driving up on the side of roads, and this is just for a mom and a kid. We lived down a street that was chock-a-block full of actors, much more successful and famous and decorated than me, including Ben, and they’d all go by one by one, no problem, and then I’d go do a school run, and it’d be 15 cars going with me. I never had a day without them, and if I did, if I made it to a park by hiding in the bottom of the pool man’s truck or something, then a nanny would see me there and call a number, and they’d swarm," Jennifer told THR. 

Jennifer says that it made her children so anxious that she got the police involved, and when that didn't help, she gave a testimony to the California legislature which helped pass a bill that granted children some protection from paparazzi.