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- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Celebrities Who Spoke Candidly About Odd Upbringings
We all know childhood can be tough, and parents can be even tougher at times. But these celebs have some seriously wild stories from their childhoods that reveal the rather unconventional ways they were raised. From religious cults to hippie communes, here are 11 celebrities' stories of their unique upbringings that'll make you sit and ponder for hours. Drew Barrymore grew up going to nightclubs with her parents early on as a child star, which quickly resulted in alcohol and drug addiction. Born into stardom with a front row seat to the entertainment industry, Drew Barrymore didn't have much of a say in her childhood or career. Both her parents were actors well-mixed up in the wild schemes of Hollywood, making it difficult for Barrymore to get away from the spotlight. "I used to get high with my mum's friend at like 10. I thought she was so cool, she would give weed to me and her son," the former child star shared. By the time she was 11 months old, Barrymore's mother started her in commercial acting, a path that seemed set in stone from the beginning. Then, by the age of seven, Barrymore booked her first of many huge roles in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She began clubbing with her mother at Studio 54 shortly after, partaking in various drugs and alcohol at the young age of 9. From partying with rock stars 24/7 and getting into all sorts of trouble, Barrymore checked into rehab by the time she was 12, relapsing a year later and landing in a mental institution the following year. Barrymore stated that her childhood and early life were "not normal…and I needed some severe shift." She went on to seek emancipation from her mother and father at 14, trying to escape the harsh life of childhood stardom and the many hardships that followed. Looking back on her harsh childhood, Barrymore shared, "Having a 10-year-old daughter now… it's unfathomable." Joaquin Phoenix was born into a religious cult known as the "Children of God" that his parents left early on after learning of their eerie practices. Joaquin Phoenix had quite a strange upbringing, as he was born into what he described as a deeply disturbed cult disguising itself as a religious community group. His parents were highly religious individuals who sought a community of like-minded people to discuss their beliefs, unaware of the deranged practices of the group that forced them to leave shortly after. The "Children of God" cult was reportedly a very sexualized environment full of unorthodox practices and reports of sexual abuse of children. The actor claimed his parents never partook in such undertakings, and as they learned more about the religious group, they went, "Wait a minute. This is more than a religious community. There's something else going on here, and this doesn't seem right... And so they left very early on," Phoenix said. Rose McGowan also grew up in the Italian chapter of the "Children of God" cult before escaping years later. Coincidentally, Rose McGowan was also a part of the "Children of God" cult as a child. Her father was the head of the Italian chapter, and McGowan traveled to various of their communes throughout her childhood all over Europe. Described as a religious group with "hippie" ideals, McGowan and her family soon realized the dangers of the cult and left before any mistreatment plagued them. Winona Ryder had a bit of an unconventional childhood, where her parents moved around a lot, even living in a commune in North Carolina at some point. Winona Ryder was born in Winona, Minnesota, on a farm to beatnik parents who loved hanging out with poets, authors, and other artists. Her mother, a past projectionist at the University of Minnesota, would help tie a sheet to the barn so Ryder could watch movies, which is where she remembers truly falling in love with them. By the time she was seven, Ryder had already lived in Minnesota, California, and was headed to North Carolina to live on a commune called "Rainbow." She wouldn't quite describe the place as such, but they lived among seven other families with no electricity and no television. It's reported that the commune was based on the principles of nonviolence and egalitarianism that involved lots of meditation, prayer, and hope for world peace. Then, at age 10, Ryder moved back to California, where she continued to be an outsider and struggled with bullies. Keanu Reeves moved schools so much as a child that he eventually dropped out altogether, finding work in the entertainment industry at just age 15. Keanu Reeves grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, yet had an unconventional childhood with education and schooling in his early adolescent years. He moved schools four times within five years, which caused him great disarray. Reeves eventually dropped out of school completely to focus on his dreams of working in film and television. Despite not having a formal education, Reeves still sought out the entertainment industry as his next venture. At age 15, Reeves had already gotten a gig working as a production assistant on low-budget films. By the time he was 16, Reeves had worked in music videos, and by age 19, he had started getting serious film roles that launched his career into stardom. Glenn Close grew up in the controversial Moral Re-Armament cult, where she lived in their Swiss headquarters during parts of her childhood. Glenn was in the cult, Moral Re-Armament, from age 7 to 22. She's repeatedly spoken out about the emotional and psychological trauma she had to deal with during her time with the group. "I mean, it's astounding that something that you went through at such an early stage in your life still has such a potential to be destructive. I think that's childhood trauma," Glenn said."Because of the devastation — emotional and psychological of the cult — I have not been successful in my relationships and finding a permanent partner and I'm sorry about that. I think it's our natural state to be connected like that," she continued. Tilda Swinton was a child of the Scottish aristocracy and was a part of the "owning class" until being sent off to boarding school at age 10. Tilda Swinton grew up in the lowlands of Scotland, where her father was a Major General in the military. She belonged to an aristocracy of Scotland that her parents pushed her out of to attend boarding school. With her social position and status, Swinton could've continued her rich family history, but chose differently instead. "I think they realised fairly early on that I was not going to marry a duke," Swinton shared, which caused her parents to send her to boarding school, where she didn't speak for five years. Jared Leto grew up in hippie art communities, traveling all over the country with his family. From Wyoming to South America, Jared Leto moved around all over as a child, often living a bohemian lifestyle within various communal places with hippie artists. His mother always strived for Leto and his siblings to have strong, vivid imaginations and access to musical instruments. Leto shared, "Just having the art communal hippie experience as a child, there wasn't a clear line that was drawn." However, Leto has expressed immense gratitude for his mother and childhood, claiming, "She encouraged her kids to be creative and work hard and do something special." Zooey Deschanel grew up traveling the world with her famous parents, which led to lots of bullying as a child for never being at school. Zooey Deschanel revealed that she spent most of her childhood traveling with her parents to whichever countries they were filming their movies in at the time. Her parents were both industry professionals. Her father was a cinematographer, and her mother was an actress, which meant she traveled to places like the Seychelles and Yugoslavia, too young to appreciate them. "I hated it at the time. I was miserable. If you're eight and you live in Los Angeles and everybody has toys and you go to a country that has a Marxist dictatorship and there's no toy stores, and nobody speaks English and, like, you know, it's blazing hot every day (and) they only have fish, which you don't like." Deschanel also recalled lots of bullying because of all the traveling, in which she return home and would be faced with "nobody likes you because you were weird and you went away." Jaden and Willow Smith grew up in the spotlight due to their famous parents, but we're given no punishments and free will to do whatever they wanted as kids. The famous children of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith grew up quite differently from your average kid on the block. From red carpet premieres and movie set visits, Jaden and Willow had various opportunities in the spotlight within the entertainment industry. Their unconventional parenting tactics allowed Jaden and Willow to be rid of any sort of consequences or restrictions for their actions. Both kids moved out of the Smith household at ages 16 and 18 to be on their own. They jump-started their modeling, acting, and music careers — never really looking back. And finally, Brooke Shields began modeling at just 11 months old, growing up in the harsh spotlight of Hollywood, which led to decades of sexualization and exploitation. Brooke Shields' mother put her into modeling when she was just 11 months old, jumpstarting what would be a tumultuous Hollywood career with not as much glamour as you might think. Her mother was an alcoholic at the time, but managed Shields throughout her childhood. Shields recalls the two partying at Studio 54 together, then having to go to regular school the next day. However, she claimed her mother "had her issues, but I felt loved by her." Then, at age 11, Shields starred in the extremely controversial film Pretty Baby as a child prostitute. Sadly, Shield's time as a child star was subject to lots of exploitation and sexualization of her body. Yet, now championing a 55-year career in the industry, Shields is telling her own story on her terms.
CBC
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Weekend power outage in Yellowknife an expensive frustration for some businesses
It was shaping up to be a busy spring weekend for businesses and events in Yellowknife, until a power outage shut almost everything down on Saturday afternoon. Some residents say they were without power for up to seven hours. The outage was a significant blow to many local businesses. Mark Henry, president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce and co-owner of Copperhouse restaurant, says power outages aren't unusual, but the biggest concern for many business owners is the impact that a prolonged outage can have on some equipment. "There's quite often fried equipment that can run thousands and thousands of dollars, and then impact your ability to execute on your business operations," Henry said. Henry says outages during one of the busiest times of the week are especially disruptive for the service industry. He says he received phone calls and texts from several businesses expressing their frustrations. "There's impact on the lost revenue, the stress on staff that goes on. They're not quite sure what to do in a restaurant setting. You have a packed house, they've all ordered, and there's no way to execute on," Henry said. Naka Power says a faulty circuit breaker caused the city-wide power failure. The outage also affected Behchokǫ̀, N.W.T., leaving residents there without power for about an hour Saturday afternoon. Jay Massie, the utility company's vice president, earlier told CBC News that the failure of the "integral" breaker, which was located at Naka Power's Niven Lake substation, was the "root cause" of both the Yellowknife and Behchokǫ̀ outages. Performance of musical cancelled A local performance of a touring play at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre was also cancelled on Saturday evening. It was the only scheduled performance of Children of God, a musical by Corey Payette, in Yellowknife. It was set to run at 7:30 p.m. at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre but just before showtime, organizers had to pull the plug. Kacie Hall, the centre's communications manager, says it's never had a cancellation of this nature before, and Hall is grateful that audiences were patient and understanding. "This was a pretty big loss for our community and even for the presenting company, Urban Ink. They brought 20 people to Yellowknife between their cast and crew, which we don't often have such large shows in our programming," Hall said. Hall says it's especially frustrating, since the play was originally scheduled in Yellowknife in 2020 but was also cancelled then, due to the pandemic. "This show in particular was a tough loss for us... it's been twice that we've tried to bring it to Yellowknife and haven't been able to," Hall said. Chris Wood, general manager at the Capitol Theatre, says the power outage had a "horrendous impact" on his theatre, costing around $10,000 in revenue — and more. "It also took down our computer system, which took 24 hours to come back online. It corrupted files, it took out backups, and only now are we starting to get our figures entered from the weekend," Wood said. Wood says customers were understanding during the ordeal. He adds that they're used to power outages, though usually shorter ones. "They're usually 20 minutes to 40 minutes at the most. But now when we have power outages, they seem to last a lot longer than they used to," Wood said. For others, Saturday's outage was not as disruptive. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN) held its spring carnival over weekend in Dettah, where an estimated 700 to 1,000 people visited and participated. Jennifer Charlo, the recreation coordinator at the YKDFN, says with the help of a backup generator, things were able to go on as planned. She says the power outage may have even brought more people out to the event at the local hall. "They were, like, telling me the power was out. They're like, 'oh well, might as well go back to the hall,'" Chor said.
