In Hollywood, nepo babies generally benefit from their parents' wealth as well as their industry connections and influence. However, that's not always the case.
Here are 11 celebs who were (or will be) cut off financially by their rich parents:
1. Dakota Johnson's dad, Don Johnson, cut her off when she decided to pursue acting over going to college. She "definitely had moments where [she] couldn’t afford groceries and things like that."
She told Today, "It was difficult, but I figured it out. He said to everybody — by 'everybody,' I mean all of my siblings...he calls it the ‘payroll.’ It’s an allowance. He said if you go to college, you still get an allowance. And I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to be an actress,’ so he was like, ‘Alright, well, you’re on your own.’ I was cut off."
However, in times of struggle, she turned to her mom, Melanie Griffith, for help.
"She was the nice one," Dakota said.
2. In 2007, Kourtney Kardashian Barker, who's the daughter of Robert Kardashian Sr. and Kris Jenner, told Inside Edition, "I was cut off when I graduated college."
"My dad was like, 'You need to get a job. You have a month, I’ll help you find one. But then you have to make money and support yourself,'" she said.
3. In the same interview, her sister, Kim Kardashian, told Inside Edition, "I just think that it’s actually probably harder we did grow up with this privileged life, but knowing that at a certain age we’re gonna be cut off and we can’t ask our parents for anything."
She continued, "Already having that lifestyle growing up, we wanna maintain that. So it’s probably even harder for us, because a lot of people are doing nothing. And we were taught at a very young age that we’re gonna have to work, and we’re gonna have to fend for ourselves — and whatever lifestyle we want, we have to make that on our own. We’ve all worked since we were about 16 years old."
4. In 2021, Prince Harry told Oprah Winfrey that, after he and his wife Meghan Markle stepped down as working royals in January 2020, "My family literally cut me off financially, and I had to afford security for us. I’ve got what my mum [Princess Diana] left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this."
A spokesperson for Harry's father, King Charles, told Vanity Fair that he'd given the couple "a substantial sum" to aid in their transition out of royal life.
The spokesperson said, "That funding ceased in the summer of last year. The couple are now financially independent."
Charles's spokesperson and Harry's representative disagree on the timeline of when they were cut off.
5. In 2016, Gwyneth Paltrow told HARDtalk, "[My dad, Bruce Paltrow] said, 'You are completely on your own.' So he never gave me anything. I never had any supplementation, he never helped me with my rent, I never had a trust fund. So the idea that I am spoiled or that I didn’t work for what I have, that’s just not accurate. But I can see how somebody might have that perception."
She also told Glamour, "People think, 'She's just a rich kid.' Until I was 18, I was. Then I was broke. I've never taken a dime off my parents. I'm completely self-made."
6. When his father, Kirk Douglas, died in 2020, Michael Douglas reportedly received no inheritance because Kirk left his estimated $61 million fortune to charity.
Kirk grew up in poverty, but his mother taught him the importance of generosity.
In 2015, he told the Hollywood Reporter, “Sometimes we didn’t have enough to eat, but very often there would be a knock at the door, and it would be a [person experiencing homelessness] wanting food, and my mother always gave them something. My mother said to me, ‘You must take care of other people.’ That stayed with me."
He also said, "My wife [Anne] is very smart. Fifty years ago she set up a trust, and it’s been growing ever since. So recently [in 2012] I said, ‘How much money do we have in that?’ And she said, ‘$80 million.’ I said, ‘What?!'"
Anne added, "He said, ‘I want to give it away.’ And that’s exactly what’s happening."
7. Just a few months prior to his death in 2010, Jamie Lee Curtis's father, Tony Curtis, reportedly cut her and her four siblings out of his will. In court filings, her sister, Kelly Curtis, alleged that the decision was "a result of duress, menace, fraud or undue influence by Jill Curtis [his sixth wife, who was nearly five decades younger than him] and/or others."
Jamie's other sister, Allegra Curtis, told Inside Edition, "We were all blindsided, and it was very painful. It's written there, but I don't believe that was his last wishes... I believe he was influenced, and we all know who he was influenced by. I don't need to say her name."
8. Though her father, Aaron Spelling, was worth a reported $500 million at the time of his death in 2006, Tori Spelling only inherited $800,000, which is a lot of money, but a mere 0.16% of his fortune.
Most of Aaron's money reportedly went to his wife/Tori's mom, Candy Spelling.
In 2021, Tori told Overserved with Lisa Vanderpump, "It could be worse... [But] what if he'd given me $50 million, and what if, with that $50 million, I had changed the world? Like, what if I am the fierce hustler and businesswoman I am today, but with that?"
In 2023, following Tori's separation from her husband Dean McDermott, Candy told TMZ that "of course" she'd help her daughter financially. She said, "I will always be there for her."
9. Presenter/influencer Tilly Ramsay and podcaster/influencer HollyAnna Ramsay are the daughters of Gordon Ramsay, who plans to not leave any inheritance to his five children so they won't be "spoiled."
In 2017, he told the Telegraph, "It’s definitely not going to them, and that’s not in a mean way; it’s to not spoil them. The only thing I’ve agreed with [my wife] Tana is they get a 25% deposit on a flat, but not the whole flat."
10. Prior to the death of their mother, Joan Crawford, in 1977, both Christina Crawford and her brother Christopher were written out of her will. At the time, she reportedly said it was "for reasons which are well known to them."
In 2008, Christina denied rumors that her mother made the decision as revenge on her for writing her tell-all memoir, Mommie Dearest. She told the Guardian, "The attorney told me that the language in that will went way back to the '60s, and every time the will was rewritten that language was carried forward absolutely intact. So none of the later years had had any impact on her emotionally whatsoever. All the efforts I’d made had been for nothing, and I decided that was enough, and I was going to tell the truth as I knew it."
11. And finally, Sachi Parker, the daughter of Shirley MacLaine, said that, when she finished secondary school at 17, her parents unexpectedly cut her off. As a result, she wasn't able to afford college.
In 2013, she told the Hartford Courant, "She doesn't see the importance of it because she didn't go [to college]. Neither did my father."