Lately, more than a few celebrities have been forthcoming about one of the most intimate issues of their lives: their parents’ divorce. Though some fared better than others, talking about it seems to be the common denominator.
Selena Gomez
Teen queen Selena Gomez was only five years old when her parents divorced. Her mother, who gave birth to Gomez when she was just sixteen, raised the actress on her own while juggling college and several jobs. Of the divorce, Gomez says: “I blamed my mom a lot because I wanted a family so bad. I wanted to have my mom and dad together. I remember just being really angry with my mom. I still feel really bad about that.”
Justin Bieber
Fellow child star Justin Bieber has much in common with his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez. Bieber was also born into a household with a teen mother. Patricia Lynn Mallette, was 18 when she became pregnant with her pop prodigy son. She raised Bieber as a single parent, working low-paying jobs to make her rent, but her son remained in close contact with his father. And Bieber is grateful for his parents’ maturity. He told Seventeen that they, “were open, honest…they treated me like an adult but loved me like their kid.” And despite Ms. Mallette’s constant presence by his side, Bieber says he “has a great relationship with [his] dad.”
Hillary Duff
Despite her parents’ painful divorce, Disney star Hillary Duff took things in stride. Duff was able to keep things under wraps and away from the public eye as long as she could. She told Seventeen: “I’ve dealt with [the divorce] It’s news to people that don’t know me so they think it’s just happened but it hasn’t, I’ve known about it for a year and we’ve been dealing with it quietly!” Unfortunately, the two-and-a-half year divorce case was bitter, so much so that one hearing ended with Duff’s father in handcuffs.
Jamie Lee Curtis
The actress was born to two very famous parents: Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Her parents split when she was just four years old. Curtis refers to herself as a failed “save-the-marriage baby.” It was far from an easy childhood for Curtis, who says that her mother fared far better post-divorce than her children. Nor was the divorce the dream big happy family of some of today’s Hollywood couples: “There was no amicable divorce or joint family vacations for us. No love was left between them.”
Justin Timberlake
The star’s parents, Lynn and Randy Timberlake, divorced when he was three, a fact to which Timberlake attributes many of his problems. But the musician-turned-actor has a positive attitude: “I’m finding more and more that…I’m going to break the chain because that’s what you want to do, break the chain of your parents.” Despite his parents’ split, Timberlake is grateful for his unconventional family, saying, “At the age of five, I did see a man come into my life, my stepfather, and show me the value of stepping in and really being a man and falling in love with a woman, and bearing the responsibility of being a father figure to her son. And, by the way, all of my parents are great.”