Celebrities Who Have Been Candid About Complicated Relationships With Their Parents: Jennette McCurdy, Macaulay Culkin and More

Over the years, stars including Jennette McCurdy and Macaulay Culkin have discussed hitting rock bottom with their parents.

Jennette broke down the abuse she faced because of her mother, Debra McCurdy, in her memoir, I Am Glad My Mom Died.

“Of course, there are moments where I fantasize that my mom would’ve apologized or that we’d have a turnaround in our relationship, but that’s fantasy,” she told Vogue in August 2022. “That’s a lot of what the book is about to me, not needing to romanticize the dead and validate our own experience with them.”

She continued: “I feel very confidently that if my mom were still alive, I’d still have eating disorders. I’d still be having a lot of mental health struggles. I’m sure she and I would still live in the same place and I would have no chance of being in a relationship or having any friends. I have no doubt my life would still be very controlled by her if she were alive.”

Culkin for his part, also reflected on his decision to take a step back from the spotlight amid issues with his parents. “People assume that I’m crazy, or a kook, or damaged. Weird. Cracked. And up until the last year or two, I haven’t really put myself out there at all. So I can understand that,” Culkin told Esquire in March 2020. “It’s also like, OK, everybody, stop acting so freaking shocked that I’m relatively well-adjusted.”

After legally removing his mother and father from his trust fund as a teen, the actor chose to hire an executor for his finances. For Culkin, the decision came with some public misconceptions.

“It’s always misconstrued, that I ‘emancipated’ myself from my parents,” he said at the time. “The story was that I divorced my parents. I just thought I was doing it cleanly — taking my father’s name off, taking my mom’s name off, so my opinion is unbiased. And when I did that, the whole thing kinda ended a lot faster.”

Scroll down for more stars who have had rifts in their family:

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Kristin Cavallari

“My dad is a narcissist. Typical narcissist,” the reality star said on  Bunnie XO’s “Dumb Blonde” podcast in December 2024. “There’s so many layers to it. It’s so complicated…. It really is disgusting.”

Cavallari revealed she “cut” her dad out of her life. “It is the best thing I’ve ever done, quite honestly,” she added. “I had a narcissistic dad growing up, and then parents’ divorce, stepfamilies, some sexual trauma with a couple different guys in my life, and just, you know, just like one thing after another.”

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Dwayne Johnson

In a June 2023 Father’s Day post, the actor reflected on his “complicated relationship” with late dad Rocky Johnson.

“My old man died suddenly a few years ago. Unfortunately, we got in a fight about a month earlier and I never reconciled with him or even had a chance to say goodbye. So for me, every Father’s Day has become very tricky because there’s a lot pain,” Dwayne wrote via Instagram at the time.

He added: “To my guys out there, if your old man is still around — consider it a blessing. Even if you and your dad are working thru some complicated s—t. I’ve been there and I understand. But do your best to reconcile and get that drama behind you and get right with your dad. It’s important. Because the alternative is regret and I don’t want that for you.”

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Cole Sprouse

In March 2023, Cole revealed he was estranged from his mother, Melanie Wright, after ups and downs throughout his childhood.

“My mother was, still is, the tortured artist type. She struggled with, in many different ways, her place in the world,” he explained on the “Diary Of A CEO” podcast. “I think she found a tremendous amount of self-identity through motherhood and tried to turn it into a profitable business at the same time, which for identical twin boys going into acting is [an] economic loophole — there are labor laws that can be incredibly profitable, so that’s what she did.”

The Riverdale star said his father, Matthew Sprouse, was granted sole custody of him and twin brother Dylan Sprouse when they were children.

“And as I grew older, in my case the court had to step in and send my brother and I towards my father, who’s an incredible guy,” he continued. “But that selfishness is something the legal system also observed, and said that she was unfit, and I think as I have aged I’ve looked back on a lot of circumstances of that entire environment and I see a person that grapples with mental illness, drug abuse, but primarily narcissism.”

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Jennette McCurdy

Following her mother’s death in 2013, Jennette opened up about their tumultuous relationship in her memoir, I Am Glad My Mom Died. According to the Nickelodeon alum, her mother was emotionally abusive, introduced her to several eating disorders and forced her into acting as a child.

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Ariel Winter

The Modern Family alum won emancipation from her estranged mother, Crystal Workman, in 2015 after a three-year-long custody battle. Winter was first removed from Workman’s home in November 2012 amid allegations of physical and emotional abuse, and her sister, Shanelle Workman, was named her legal guardian in May 2014.

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Matthew McConaughey

The actor previously opened up about becoming estranged from his mother, Kay McConaughey, for eight years after she allowed cameras into his family home.

“I was trying to find my own balance with fame and stuff. And I would share things with her — some of those things I would share might show up in the six o’clock news three days later,” Matthew said on Red Table Talk in November 2020 during his first joint interview with his mom. “My boat was built well enough where I didn’t feel like she could sink it. We healed that up in 2004.”

Kay, for her part, explained that she was “enjoying” her son’s fame more than he was.

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Macaulay Culkin

Amid a custody dispute between his parents, the child star sued his mother and father when he was 15 to remove them as his legal guardians. His family’s accountant was ultimately put in charge of Culkin’s finances until he turned 18.

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Mariah Carey

In her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the singer broke down her complicated relationship with mom Patricia.

″I had to stop making myself available to be hurt by [my family]. It has been helpful. I have no doubt it is emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact with my [siblings],” she wrote. “The situation with Pat, on the other hand, is more complicated. I have reserved some room in my heart and life to hold her — but with boundaries. Creating boundaries with the woman who gave birth to me is not easy — it is a work in progress.”