There's a difference between being frugal and being cheap. It's one thing to be careful with your money, but it's another thing entirely to be a multimillionaire who refuses to pay people fairly or who tries to get things for free.
Here are 13 times celebs were called out for being cheap or for trying to get things for free:
1. In 2019, Tana Mongeau put out a call for a makeup artist who'd work for free. On her Instagram story, she said, "Looking for an MUA in LA that would wanna work together frequently in exchange for an abundance of promo!"
She continued, "Wanting to get my makeup done more often for simpler stuff/work. You can also use my face to try out new looks/be your canvas for your Instagram!! We can always try new stuff. Looking for someone available a lot/flexible/willing to accept mainly promo as compensation."
2. In 2007, Jeremy Piven was reportedly banned from the sushi restaurant Nobu after tipping his server with an Entourage DVD rather than money.
In a statement, the actor said, "I'm such a fan of Nobu and all of his restaurants. I had a great dinner at the Nobu in Aspen. As always, the meal was excellent, and the service was great."
3. While on the press tour for her 1993 movie Sliver, Sharon Stone wore a $400,000 diamond necklace from Harry Winston. She thought it was a gift, but when the jeweler said that was a "mind-boggling" belief, she sued them for $12 million for "breach of contract" and "misrepresentation."
Eventually, the necklace was returned to Harry Winston, who made a substantial donation to the American Foundation for AIDS Research once the lawsuit was settled.
4. In 2014, Tyra Banks told Watch What Happens Live, "The president of Victoria's Secret promised me a lifetime supply of Victoria's Secret products, even after I decided to leave the company. But once I left, he only let me have it for a year. So I have a bone to pick."
5. Michael Jordan is an allegedly poor tipper. In 2010, then-Vice President of Operations for the Hard Rock Hotel Rich Strafella told Urban Daddy, "I remember a night when Wayne Gretzky insulted Michael Jordan at the table. It was a private salon game. Michael had ordered a drink from the cocktail waitress, and he gave her a five-dollar chip."
"Wayne took it off the cocktail waitress’s tray, gave it back to Michael, grabbed a hundred-dollar chip from Michael’s stack and put it on the cocktail waitress’s tray. Then he said, 'That’s how we tip in Las Vegas, Michael,'" he said.
6. Similarly, during a joint appearance on Oprah, Charles Barkley called Michael Jordan out for being "cheap." When the host asked about it, Charles said, "I say that. Everybody says that... He spends all his money on clothes."
He also said, "I was gonna give a homeless guy some money one night, and [Michael] smacks my hand. And he says, 'If he can say, "Do you have any spare change?" he can say, "Welcome to McDonald's. Can I help you, please?"'"
7. In the same Oprah interview, Charles Barkley also called out Tiger Woods. He said, "Tiger's the same way. They're both cheap."
8. Similarly, in his memoir The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods, Hank Haney wrote, "Whenever we got takeout food from outside the club, I'd go pick it up, and I always paid."
He also said, "He seemed to think it was funny to be cheap... The truth is, I probably would have paid Tiger just to teach him, it meant that much."
9. In 2022, Grimes was criticized across social media after telling Vanity Fair that her then-partner Elon Musk — who's one of the richest people in the world — "does not live like a billionaire" and "lives at times below the poverty line."
She continued, "To the point where I was like, can we not live in a very insecure $40,000 house? Where the neighbors, like, film us, and there’s no security, and I’m eating peanut butter for eight days in a row?"
10. In 2019, Pete Davidson was invited to Kid Cudi's birthday dinner at Nobu, so he got there early to give them his card so he could treat his friend. Timotheé Chalamet joined the party late, which Pete was fine with, but then, Kanye West showed up with his then-wife Kim Kardashian and requested the "special room in the back." He also ordered "crazy stuff" that wasn't even on the menu. Pete got stuck with the bill.
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Pete said, "We're sitting in there, and I'm, like, texting my touring agent, and I'm like, 'Yo, you gotta book more shows.' ... It wasn't actually as bad as you would think, but, you know, it's not like it's Applebee's. It's Nobu, you know? Which is like 77 Applebeeses."
11. On her Food Network show $40 a Day, Rachael Ray suggested that viewers save money while eating out on vacation by only tipping 10% rather than the standard 15%–20%.
12. In 2007, Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills alleged that part of the reason their marriage didn't work out was his refusal to share more of his reported $1.6 billion fortune with those in need. She told Today, "How can anybody have that kind of money and not do more for charity?"
"That’s what we argued about all the time," she added.
13. And finally, at the 2018 Create & Cultivate conference, Kim Kardashian said that the best thing about being Kim Kardashian is "the free shit." She said, "No, free trips. Free planes. Free everything."
"But I do love to share, when I get free stuff, I literally give it to all my friends and family," she added.