The world of celebrity is often associated with glamour, success, and adoration, but behind the polished façade lies a tapestry of life experiences, struggles, and revelations.
In a collection of memoirs penned by 22 notable figures from the entertainment industry, a different side of fame comes to light.
Bored Panda offers a glimpse into the lives of the stars, showing us that even in the midst of fame and fortune, they too grapple with the same human experiences as the rest of us.
#1 Viola Davis’ “Finding Me”
In her new memoir, Finding Me, Viola Davis shared her experience growing up in extreme poverty in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
The How To Get Away With Murder star wrote: “We were ‘po’. That’s a level lower than poor.
“I’ve heard some of my friends say, ‘We were poor, too, but I just didn’t know it until I got older’.
“We were poor and we knew it. There was absolutely no disputing it.
“It was reflected in the apartments we lived in, where we shopped for clothes and furniture—the St. Vincent de Paul—the food stamps that were never enough to fully feed us, and the welfare checks. We were ‘po’.
“We almost never had a phone. Often, we had no hot water or gas.
“We had to use a hot plate, which increased the electric bill. The plumbing was shoddy, so the toilets never flushed.”
Image credits: violadavis
#2 Tom Felton’s “Beyond The Wand: The Magic And Mayhem Of Growing Up A Wizard”
In his 2022 book, Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, Tom Felton shared an episode when his team organized an intervention, recommending that he seek treatment for his struggles with alcohol abuse.
However, his attempt to address the issue by checking into rehab took an unexpected turn as he “escaped” the facility in less than 24 hours.
He wrote: “I didn’t really think, as I strode up the zig-zag road away from the rehab centre, that anything would come of my moment of rebellion.
“After I’d walked a couple of hundred metres, I remember thinking that any minute now one of the security people would sprint towards me and rugby tackle me to the ground.
“I’d be dragged back to my room, and that would be that. But nobody sprinted. There were no rugby tackles.
“Two minutes became five and five minutes became ten.”
Image credits: CBS Mornings
#3 Michelle Obama’s “Becoming”
Michelle Obama isn’t just the former US first lady and former president Barack Obama’s wife, she is also an attorney, a mother-of-two, and an accomplished author.
In 2018, Michelle published her memoir titled Becoming and unveiled interesting facts regarding her relationship with Barack.
The Chicago native wrote that her initial impression of her husband-to-be was far from positive before their first encounter in 1989 when he became her mentee during his summer associateship at her law firm.
Although the office assistants who had observed his initial interview found him appealing, Michelle said she was “unmoved” by the picture she saw of him in the staff directory: “a less than flattering, poorly lit headshot of a guy with a big smile and a whiff of geekiness.”
She has also described Barack’s style as “challenged.” She wrote: “He changed out of his work clothes, I noticed, and was wearing a white linen blazer that looked as if it’d come straight out of the Miami Vice costume closet. Ah well.”
Image credits: The Drew Barrymore Show
#4 Prince Harry’s “Spare”
In his memoir, Spare, which was published in January, Prince Harry revealed that for years he had trouble grieving his mother Princess Diana’s death and even believed that she’d faked the car crash and escaped.
The Duke of Sussex wrote: “With nothing to do but roam the castle and talk to myself, a suspicion took hold, which then became a firm belief.
“This was all a trick. And for once the trick wasn’t being played by the people around me, or the press, but by Mummy.
“Her life’s been miserable, she’s been hounded, harassed, lied about, lied to.
“So she’s staged an accident as a diversion and run away.”
Image credits: Invictus Games Dusseldorf
#5 Drew Barrymore’s “Wildflower”
Despite being a lot tamer than her 1990 memoir Little Girl Lost, Drew Barrymore’s second memoir, Wildflower, also sheds light on stunning experiences.
In fact, the Hollywood star recalled a sexist experience she and Cameron Diaz had while skydiving.
Both actresses had enjoyed participating in adventurous and adrenaline-fueled activities since the start of their friendship.
Upon wrapping Charlie’s Angels, the pair resolved to venture into the world of skydiving, aiming to share a memorable bonding experience. However, their aspirations for an enjoyable outing were quickly derailed by the inappropriate conduct exhibited by the male staff members at the skydiving school.
Drew wrote: “The guys were kind of making jokes and yukking it up as we changed.
“I was starting to get the sense that these yahoos were holding themselves back from falling all over themselves for [Cameron].
“It was obvious that they were all salivating, and who wouldn’t?
“I zipped up my suit, and we both emerged from our curtained makeshift dressing rooms at the same time. My eyes bulged.
“They had put me in a bright yellow rayon jumpsuit with a giant toucan across the entire front of it. I looked like an Oompa Loompa.
“Then my eyes looked over, and they had given Cameron a skintight, painted-on red spandex onesie that literally let you make out every inch of her body. I wanted to punch these assholes. And there we were, Suzy Chapstick and Toucan Sam.
“They told us how good we looked, and I rolled my eyes and uttered ‘f*ck you’ under my breath.”
Image credits: CBS Evening News
#6 Holly Madison’s “Down The Rabbit Hole”
Holly Madison’s 2015 Down the Rabbit Hole memoir left no stone unturned, offering readers an unfiltered look into her seven-year tenure at the iconic Playboy Mansion under the wing of Hugh Hefner.
Once Hugh’s top girlfriend, Madison, now 43, disclosed the intricacies of life there, including the house rules, interpersonal dynamics, and more, before her departure.
In several passages, she recounted episodes of severe depression while living at the Playboy mansion.
In one chapter, she shares a moment when she considered committing suicide in a bathtub.
Recalling a conversation with Bridget Marquardt, who was also one of Hugh’s girlfriends, Holly wrote: “‘I told him he should really talk to you about it’.
“If I had any doubts about my decision to leave, what Bridget said had just squashed them.
“Hef knew how desperate, sad, and broken I was, but didn’t do a damn thing about it. I’d given seven years of my life to a man who couldn’t even have a conversation with me.”
Image credits: Access Hollywood
#7 Matthew Perry’s “Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing”
In his 2022 book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry shared that his relationship with alcohol began when he was just a teenager.
He wrote of his experience as a 14-year-old with substance abuse: “I realized that for the first time in my life, nothing bothered me.
“The world made sense; it wasn’t bent and crazy. I was complete and at peace. I had never been happier than at that moment.
“This is the answer, I thought; this is what I’ve been missing.
“This must be how normal people feel all the time. I don’t have any problems. It is all gone.
“I don’t need attention. I am taken care of; I am fine. I was in bliss.
“I had no problems for those three hours. I wasn’t abandoned; I wasn’t fighting with my mom; I wasn’t doing poorly in school; I wasn’t wondering what life was about or my place in it.
“It took away everything.”
Image credits: Letterman
#8 John Stamos’ “If You Would Have Told Me”
In his new memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, John Stamos reflected on the instant he received the news of the passing of his dear friend and fellow Full House cast member, Bob Saget.
He detailed his initial reaction, mentioning that he had come across reports but harbored doubts about their authenticity.
Consequently, he opted to send a text message to Bob. As he received no immediate response from Bob’s wife, Kelly Rizzo, his concern deepened.
He wrote: “When I switch callers over to Kelly, all I hear is a wailing scream.
“I hit the ground in the parking lot and my knees slam down on the asphalt. ‘Nooooooooooooooooooooo.'”
Image credits: Jimmy Kimmel Live
#9 Elliot Page’s “Pageboy”
In his 2023 memoir, Pageboy, actor and transgender rights activist Elliot Page recalled being verbally assaulted at a party by an A-list actor two months after he had initially come out as gay, prior to coming out as a trans man.
Eliott announced that he identified as a lesbian in 2014 before coming out as transgender in 2020.
In a chapter of Pageboy titled “Famous A–hole at Party,” the 36-year-old said an actor who was an “acquaintance” told him: “You aren’t gay. That doesn’t exist. You are just afraid of men.”
The Juno star went on to recount that whilst at a party, the said-actor said “he’d ‘fuck [Elliot] to make [him] realize [he wasn’t] gay.’”
Image credits: Jay Shetty Podcast
#10 Carrie Fisher’s “The Princess Diarist”
In her memoir in 2016, The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher disclosed that during the filming of their initial Star Wars movie in the 1970s, she engaged in a romantic relationship with Harrison Ford.
Back then, she was 19 years old, while he was 33, and already married with two children.
Harrison was, Carrie recalled, “just so handsome. No. No. More than that. He looked like he could lead the charge into battle, take the hill, win the duel, be leader of the gluten-free world, all without breaking a sweat.”
She also remembered him as emotionally distant, monosyllabic and a bit boring, though this didn’t stop her falling for him.
The late actress revealed that during the weekends, they engaged in intimate encounters, while on set during the week, they maintained a facade of being complete strangers.
She wrote: “If Harrison was unable to see that I had feelings for him (at least five, but sometimes as many as seven) then he wasn’t as smart as I thought he was – as I knew he was.
“So I loved him and he allowed it. That’s as close a reckoning as I can muster four decades later.”
Image credits: Wikipedia Commons
#11 Britney Spears’ “The Woman In Me”
In Britney Spears’ highly anticipated memoir, The Woman In Me, which was released last month, the princess of pop unveiled that while she dated Justin Timberlake, she became pregnant by him, but had an abortion.
The Baby One More Time singer wrote: “It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy.
“I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day.
“This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.
“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy.
“He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.
“If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
Britney wrote of her experience undergoing the abortion: “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
Image credits: britneyspears
#12 Julia Fox’s “Down The Drain”
In her memoir, Down the Drain, Julia Fox shared her whirlwind relationship with Kanye West, whom she referred to as “the artist.”
Julia wrote that a friend asked her a few days after Christmas in 2021 if he could give her number to the artist.
According to her account, they conversed for hours over the phone, and he extended an invitation for her to join him in Miami for New Year’s Eve.
Initially declining, citing pre-existing plans, he suggested flying the author down on a private jet, and Julia ultimately agreed, with the condition that she could also bring the friends she had originally intended to spend the evening with.
The Uncut Gems star revealed that her group faced a delay in gaining entry to the party venue, and as a result, she didn’t encounter Kanye until the early hours of New Year’s Day.
However, Julia vividly remembered sensing an instant connection at that moment.
After they talked for a while, she continued, he brought her outside while he took a quick pee in a parking lot behind the club and then kissed her “passionately.”
Image credits: Jimmy Kimmel Live
#13 Kerry Washington’s “Thicker Than Water”
In her recently published memoir, Thicker Than Water, Kerry Washington shed light on her struggles with an eating disorder while she attended George Washington University in the 1990s.
The Scandal star wrote: “By the time I got to college, my relationship with food and my body had become a toxic cycle of self-abuse that utilized the tools of starvation, binge eating, body obsession, and compulsive exercise.”
Image credits: kerrywashington
#14 Simu Liu’s “We Were Dreamers”
In his memoir, We Were Dreamers, Simu Liu delved into the intricate dynamics of his relationship with his parents.
It’s reported that his parents had left him with his grandparents in China when they emigrated to Canada.
Although they were reunited when he was four, this decision had a lasting impact on their relationship, causing strain.
The Shang-Chi hero also candidly shared his experiences of enduring physical and emotional mistreatment from both his mother and father.
It wasn’t until Simu landed his first main role as Jung Kim on CBC’s Kim’s Convenience that the actor and his parents began their path to healing.
He wrote: “We weren’t fighting, but at the same time we hadn’t collectively chosen to dive back into our trauma and how we were all individually affected by it.”
Image credits: Peacock
#15 Jada Pinkett Smith’s “Worthy”
In her memoir, Worthy, Jada Pinkett Smith disclosed that she resorted to engaging in drug-related activities as a means to secure financial resources for herself.
“I knew that anything that I needed was something I needed to provide for,” the actress wrote.
Jada continued: “I decided to sell drugs.
“Growing up, the drug dealers were the ones that had affluence.
“That’s what we readily saw as success. And so for me, considering my circumstances at the time, my mother was not doing well. She was a high-functioning heroin addict. We didn’t have the things that we should have.
“The home we lived in was not taken care of.”
Image credits: Jay Shetty Podcast
#16 Gabrielle Union’s “You Got Anything Stronger?”
In her second book, You Got Anything Stronger?, Gabrielle Union conveyed the profound sorrow she experienced when she discovered that her partner, Dwyane Wade, was expecting a child with another person.
This revelation came at a particularly challenging juncture, as she was already grappling with her own fertility difficulties.
The Cheaper by the Dozen star recalled the couple’s emotional journey to welcoming daughter Kaavia James Union-Wade via surrogate in 2018, and how the retired NBA star welcomed son Xavier Zechariah Wade with another woman in 2013.
She wrote: “It should go without saying that we were not in a good place at the time that child was conceived.
“But we were doing much better when he finally told me about the pregnancy. To say I was devastated is to pick a word on a low shelf for convenience.”
She added: “There are people — strangers I will never meet — who have been upset that I have not previously talked about that trauma.
“I have not had words, and even after untold amounts of therapy I am not sure I have them now.”
Image credits: gabunion
#17 Colton Haynes’ “Miss Memory Lane”
In his memoir, Miss Memory Lane, which was published last year, Colton Haynes admitted that he almost lost his role on Teen Wolf after MTV found out he had done a photo shoot for gay magazine XY as a teenager.
Colton recalled that his manager told him: “‘Look what almost happened, Colton. The head of MTV almost didn’t hire you because of that XY photo shoot we’ve been working our asses off to extinguish. Thank god [showrunner Jeff Davis] fought for you to get that role’.”
While Colton openly identified as gay during his teenage years, he recounted being pressured to conceal his sexuality when transitioning from modeling to acting.
Upon securing his pivotal role in Teen Wolf, the actor alleged that his manager advised him to “stay in character both on and off set,” in order to project a heterosexual image to the industry.
Image credits: coltonhaynes
#18 Constance Wu’s “Making A Scene”
In her memoir, Making a Scene, which was published last year, Constance Wu opened up about a time in her 20s when she was raped by a man she’d been on a few dates with.
The Crazy Rich Asians star wrote: “And then one day, more than ten years later, it all came back to me.
“I was on a plane from Singapore, where I had finished filming Crazy Rich Asians.
“I’d just woken up from a nap when the realization hit me like a flood. Ty raped me.
“He raped me, and I hadn’t done anything about it.
“A strange sound involuntarily croaked out of my throat, almost a squawk.
“Embarrassed, I hoped no one on the plane heard me. My heart was pounding. For a split second, I panicked. But then I talked myself out of the panic.”
Image credits: ABC News
#19 Jodie Sweetin’s “Unsweetined”
In her memoir, unSweetined, which was published in 2009, Full House star Jodie Sweetin shed light on her drug and alcohol addiction as a teenager.
She revealed that she was “high as a kite” after snorting meth in a bathroom stall during the 2004 premiere of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s movie New York Minute.
“I was pulling off the deceit. It was hard for people to believe I was doing that much drugs,” Jodie wrote.
“I look at photos from that event, and I didn’t even look strung out!”
The actress also admitted that she got so drunk at her costar Candace Cameron’s wedding in 1996 that she vomited and had to be carried out.
She wrote: “I probably had two bottles of wine, and I was only 14.
“That first drink gave me the self-confidence I had been searching for my whole life. But that set the pattern of the kind of drinking that I would do.”
Image credits: E! Entertainment
#20 Minka Kelly’s “Tell Me Everything”
In her memoir, Tell Me Everything, Minka Kelly reminisced about the unhealthy relationship she experienced with her high school sweetheart, Rudy, and how he wanted to make a sex tape.
The 43-year-old actress wrote: “I hardly even remembered making the tape,” calling it “raunchy.”
She continued: “I’d become such a master at leaving my body when things were uncomfortable.”
Under Rudy’s influence, she was persuaded to have a tattoo of her own lip print inked “on the side of my pubic mound.”
Of the tattoo, she wrote: “Little did I know I’d spend the rest of my life explaining to new lovers what the mark was, lying to everyone … I was too ashamed to admit the truth.
“I’d been so dependent on a man I’d let him brand me as [if] I was a member of the NXIVM cult.”
Image credits: People
#21 Molly Shannon’s “Hello Molly!”
In her 2022 memoir, Hello Molly!, Molly Shannon shared the heart-wrenching account of the car crash that tragically claimed the lives of her mother, cousin, and younger sister.
The SNL comedian also remembered those haunting first days after the crash — and how she and her widowed father, who struggled with alcoholism, moved forward.
Shannon was just four years old on the June night in 1969, when the lives of her mom, 3-year-old sister Katie, and cousin Fran ended.
She wrote: “The car was mangled badly on impact. A man passing the scene stopped. My mother was lying on the ground beside our car and she asked him, ‘Where are my girls?'”
“She wanted to gather her three little girls and she couldn’t. Her heart must have broken at that moment. And those were her final words.
“My baby sister, Katie, and cousin Fran were killed instantly.
“Since Mary and I were in the very back of the station wagon, we just had a concussion and a broken arm, respectively. Katie was buried in the wreckage.”
Image credits: theofficialsuperstar
#22 Selma Blair’s “Mean Baby”
In her 2022 memoir Mean Baby, actress Selma Blair disclosed that she grappled with alcohol addiction over an extended period, sharing that her initial experience of getting “very drunk” occurred during a Passover celebration when she was merely seven years old.
She wrote: “When I drank, I didn’t know what drama I would find, but I knew it was drama that I would feel.
“I needed it. I looked forward to it. It was always my way out.”
The 51-year-old multiple sclerosis advocate described how her struggle with alcoholism undermined her control over her own sexuality during her youth, leaving her particularly susceptible to the distressing ordeal of sexual assault.
This included a traumatic incident during a college spring break trip to Key West, Florida, when she experienced a violent sexual assault.
She wrote: “I have been raped, multiple times, because I was too drunk to say the words ‘Please. Stop’
“It was always awful, and it was always wrong, and I came out of each event quiet and ashamed.”
Image credits: CBS Mornings