Kristin Cavallari cuts ties with father, joining Jennifer Aniston, other stars with severed family bonds

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By Christina Dugan Ramirez
Published June 05, 2025
Kristin Cavallari made the "best decision" when she cut her father out of her life a few years ago.
"I mean, honestly, and this might sound messed up to some people, but it's the best decision I've ever made, cutting my dad out of my life," the TV personality told People magazine. "Such a weight has been lifted from me. There's not one day where I miss him. I don't know if it was two or three years ago, but I mean, I was an adult, let's say I was 35 [when I decided]. It was 35 years of buildup to that point."
"It was something that I had been wanting to do for a long time," said Cavallari, who shares three children with her ex-husband, former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler, including sons Camden, 12, Jaxon, 11, and daughter Saylor, 9.
KRISTIN CAVALLARI CALLS CUTTING FATHER OUT OF HER LIFE THE 'BEST DECISION' EVER MADE
This strained relationship between father and daughter is one of many within Hollywood.
Cavallari isn't the first celebrity to openly discuss the parental disconnect. Here are a few stars who've been candid about their tumultuous relationships with their parents.
FAMILY FEUDS: JENNIFER ANISTON, MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, DREW BARRYMORE TAKE NASTY BATTLES WITH MOTHERS PUBLIC Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey had a "complicated" relationship with her late mother, Patricia.
In her 2020 memoir, "The Meaning of Mariah Carey," Carey mentioned Patricia in the opening statement that read, ″And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could. I will love you the best I can, always."
Carey said that their relationship was "a story of betrayal and beauty, of love and abandonment, of sacrifice and survival."
MARIAH CAREY SAYS HER MOTHER'S JEALOUSY HAS LIVED 'WITH ME FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE'
"I've emancipated myself from bondage several times, but there is a cloud of sadness that I suspect will always hang over me, not simply because of my mother but because of our complicated journey together," she wrote in the book.
″It has caused me so much pain and confusion. Time has shown me there is no benefit in trying to protect people who never tried to protect me. Time and motherhood have finally given me the courage to honestly face who my mother has been to me."
Carey said it was "excruciatingly painful" to end her relationship with her mother, adding that ″there is no 'artful' way of letting go of my mother, and our relationship is anything but simple.″
She added, ″Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities. It's never been only black-and-white – it's been a whole rainbow of emotions. Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment. A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother's.″
Carey's mother died in August. Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie and her father, Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight, have had a turbulent relationship since the actress was a child.
Primarily raised by her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, Jolie saw her dad sporadically while growing up.
After a brief reconciliation while working together on "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," the two once again went their separate ways in 2002 when Voight told "Access Hollywood" that she needed help for her "mental problems." This especially angered Jolie as she felt it would interfere with the adoption of her son, Maddox.
"I don't want to make public the reasons for my bad relationship with my father," she told "Access Hollywood" in a statement at the time. "I will only say that, like every child, [brother] Jamie and I would have loved to have had a warm and loving relationship with our dad. After all these years, I have determined that it is not healthy for me to be around my father, especially now that I am responsible for my own child."
The two reconciled in 2010 for a few years and then again in 2017 after Jolie's divorce from Brad Pitt. She told the "Awards Chatter" podcast at the time that she and Voight "have gotten to know each other, through grandchildren," and although they still run into bumps in the road sometimes, "through art [they've] been able to talk," calling it "the common language." Jennifer Aniston
In 1999, Jennifer Aniston's mother, Nancy Dow, released a tell-all book, "From Mother and Daughter to Friends."
Within the book, Dow detailed the fractured relationship she had with her daughter at the time. The release of the book led to an estrangement between Aniston and Dow.
"I never thought my mom would not know my husband," Aniston said, referencing Brad Pitt in an interview with The Associated Press in 2004.
In 2015, Aniston described her mom as "very critical" of her.
"She was critical," she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. "She was very critical of me. Because she was a model, she was gorgeous, stunning. I wasn't. I never was. I honestly still don't think of myself in that sort of light, which is fine."
Aniston also said she found her mother to be "unforgiving," adding "she would hold grudges that I just found so petty."
"We're all fine," the "Friends" alum noted at the time.
Prior to Dow's death in 2016, the mother-daughter duo were back on speaking terms. Tori Spelling
Tori Spelling's relationship with her dad, Aaron Spelling, changed drastically when she divorced her first husband, Charlie Shanian, in 2006 after an affair with Dean McDermott. Her parents did not approve.
Tori reconciled with her father before his death in June 2006, but her relationship with her mom, Candy Spelling, turned sour after Aaron's death.
Over the next few years, the two would attack each other through statements in the media, with Candy once saying Aaron's death was caused by Tori's decision not to speak with him.
"My daughter one day decided that she wasn't speaking to my husband, myself and my son, and that's how it's continued for the last … four or five years," Candy told 94.7 WMAS-FM's Kellogg Krew in 2009. "And it was sad. That's what killed my husband, actually. He just didn't want to live after that."
Fast-forward to 2022, their relationship has appeared to have gotten better, with Tori telling Jeff Lewis on his Sirius XM show at the time that while they have "had a good relationship … it's like next-level right now." Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore has been candid about her relationship with her estranged mother, Jaid Barrymore, whom she financially supports to this day.
"All their moms are gone, and my mom's not," Barrymore told Vulture of McCurdy and Brooke Shields in an interview published in 2023. "And I'm like, 'Well, I don't have that luxury.' But I cannot wait. I don't want to live in a state where I wish someone to be gone sooner than they're meant to be so I can grow. I actually want her to be happy and thrive and be healthy. But I have to f---ing grow in spite of her being on this planet."
Shortly after Barrymore's interview comments hit the internet, the actress took to Instagram to clarify what she meant.
"You know what, to all you tabloids out there, you have been f---ing with my life since I was 13 years old," Barrymore said in an Instagram video at the time. "I have never said that I wished my mother was dead. How dare you put those words in my mouth."
"I have been vulnerable, and tried to figure out a very difficult, painful relationship, while admitting it is difficult to do while a parent is alive, and that for those of us that have to figure that out in real-time, cannot wait as in they cannot wait for the time. Not that the parent is dead."
Fox News Digital's Janelle Ash and Lori Bashian contributed to this report. Print Close
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