Celebrity Children Who WON’T Reap the Benefits Of Nepotism
As outsiders looking in, it’s easy to see children of celebrities and think ‘They’re set for life.’ However, that isn’t
Victoria Liotta
As outsiders looking in, it’s easy to see children of celebrities and think ‘They’re set for life.’ However, that isn’t necessarily true for all children of Hollywood. Many stars including Ashton Kutcher, and Daniel Craig, have been transparent about not setting up a trust fund for their kids. And, before you jump ahead, this isn’t being done with malicious intent but instead to set them up for something better – a life that they create themselves which earns them money to appreciate.
In a 2021 interview with Candis, Craig asked, “Isn’t there an old adage that if you die a rich person, you’ve failed?” Continuing to say, “I think Andrew Carnegie gave away what in today’s money would be about 11 billion dollars, which shows how rich he was because I’ll bet he kept some of it, too. But I don’t want to leave great sums to the next generation.”
“Get Rid Of It Or Give It Away”
Daniel Craig has three children. Ella, born in 1992, is shared with his ex-wife Fiona Loudon. Rachel Weisz, who Craig married in 2011, shares his second daughter and a son, Henry, who is Weisz’s son from a previous relationship. And, although Craig loves his kids dearly, he has openly called inheritances “quite distasteful.” He explained, “My philosophy is get rid of it or give it away before you go.”
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis share similar views to Craig about not passing large fortunes down to their children. The couple shares a daughter, Wyatt, and a son, Dimitri who will also not be opening up their banking app to a bunch of money when they turn 18.
“I’m not setting up a trust for them,” Kutcher explained during an “Armchair Expert” podcast episode with Dax Shepard in November 2019. “We’ll end up giving our money away to charity and to various things. My kids are living a really privileged life, and they don’t even know it. And they’ll never know it because this is the only one that they’ll know.”
Kutcher and Kunis are raising their children with the intention of them becoming “really resourceful.” “As long as they know what to do when they don’t have things … hopefully they’ll be motivated to have what they had, or some version of what they had,” the Punk’d creator explained. “If my kids want to start a business, and they have a good business plan, I’ll invest in it. But they’re not getting trusts.”
Children Whose Last Name Won’t Come With A Payout
Most of your favorite stars who have chosen to not go down the path of raising a nepotism baby are in it for the same reason which is to avoid greed and lack of appreciation for things.
Gordon Ramsay is another dad putting his foot down on passing down funds. In February 2021 he told The Telegraph “[My money is] definitely not going to them, and that’s not in a mean way. It’s to not spoil them.”
Anderson Cooper will also not be passing on an inheritance to his son, Wyatt. “I don’t believe in passing on huge amounts of money,” Cooper said during an interview on the “Morning Meeting” podcast. “I’m not that interested in money, but I don’t intend to have some sort of pot of gold for my son. I’ll go with what my parents said: ‘College will be paid for, and then you gotta get on it.’”
And, Marie Osmond said it beautifully in 2020, “I’m not leaving any money to my children. I think you do a great disservice to your children to just hand them a fortune because you take away the one most important gift you can give your children, and that’s the ability to work.”
Osmand backed up her positioning on this subject again in 2023 telling Us Weekly, “Honestly, why would you enable your child to not try to be something? I don’t know anybody who becomes anything if they’re just handed money.” She continued, “To me, the greatest gift you can give your child is a passion to search out who they are inside and to work. I mean, I’ve done so many things from designing dolls [and much more]. I love trying [and] I wanna try everything. I’m a finisher. That’s one of my rules with my kids. If you start it, you finish it, you don’t ever have to do it again, but you gotta finish.”