Celebs Who've Abandoned Their Wholesome Image
In the entertainment world, it's all about image because most times, there's a huge gap between a star's public persona and who they really are. Take "Curb Your Enthusiasm" creator Larry David, for example. On the show he's a curmudgeon, but in real life a nice guy, which he once talked about with Vanity Fair. But some actors, singers, and other celebs have made a conscious decision to change their image and it could be said their overall brand became unrecognizable afterward. And to be more specific, some of these people once had a wholesome public identity but they later abandoned it.
The change makes sense for some, however, since they were children when they began. But others seemed to do away with their innocent image because they discovered another side of themselves and wanted to express it. In other cases, celebs have displayed some pretty bad behavior, and their public persona changed after people began viewing them differently. There are all kinds of reasons why celebs abandon their wholesome image so keep on reading to find out why.
Rihanna played the role of good girl gone bad
If you look at the video to Rihanna's 2005 single "Pon de Replay" and the visuals to "Pour It Up," a single off her 2012 "Unapologetic" album, you'll notice a night and day difference. The former shows a young Ri Ri breaking out some dance moves while rocking a Britney Spears-like half-shirt. The latter shows the Barbadian singer sporting bedazzled underwear while sitting on a throne. Rihanna obviously ditched her wholesome image in between those two videos and her career, as well as her brand, changed entirely.
Plus, when Rihanna began promoting her Savage X Fenty lingerie company, it was one thirst trap photo after another, which only elevated her sex symbol status. She spoke about her much-talked-about image during a 2012 interview with Oprah Winfrey, not too long after Esquire called her "The Sexiest Woman Alive." "That's not my goal, that's not something, like, 'Oh my gosh! I had a great achievement here with this title,'" said Rihanna before disagreeing with Esquire. "It's flattering. Yes. It's inaccurate but flattering ... I thought it was cute."
Rihanna spoke to GQ about her sex symbol image as well, saying she was initially confused as to why people thought of her that way. But she understood it more as time went on.
Maitland Ward put her Disney days behind her
In 1998 Maitland Ward must've been excited about joining the cast of "Boy Meets World." But it turns out that she didn't find playing on the ABC, Disney Channel sitcom fulfilling. For one, she thought her character Rachel McGuire didn't have enough to do. Plus, there was another side of her that she wanted to express. The actor went into detail about those things in her book "Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood," where she writes about going from mainstream acting to adult entertainment. The New York Post says she announced the career switch on Instagram. She then spoke about it with In Touch Weekly in 2019.
"It started slowly," Ward explained. "It all started when I started doing cosplay, which I really genuinely love doing and people started giving me attention for it, and I wore sexy outfits. I have always sort of been an exhibitionist, like always. I love dressing sexy in public and things like that." Ward — who played on "The Bold and the Beautiful" before "Boy Meets World" — told Us Weekly in 2021 that someone told her she'd always play a sitcom girl or soccer mom type. And those words also fueled her journey into adult entertainment.
Chlӧe Bailey received backlash for her image change
A lot of people online have said that Chlӧe Bailey all but shredded the wholesome image she had in the group Chloe x Halle. If one were to head over to the singer and actor's Instagram page, they'd see a good deal of bikini photos and pics of Bailey standing in seductive poses. Of course, that's not uncommon for artists to do but since Chloe x Halle had this good girl image going for them, fans were taken aback by Bailey showing another side of herself. The image change coincided with the launch of her solo career. "Put some clothes on and grab the mic and sing," one person wrote underneath one of Bailey's Instagram photos. "Good is self discipline, good is self mastery."
Then when Chloe appeared in a raunchy sex scene in Donald Glover's show "Swarm", many of her fans lost it, with one Instagram user writing, "Girl I'm disappointed. That can't be you in Swarm. You are soooo much better than that." Chloe later told People the backlash hurt and confused her. "I never understood it," she confessed. "I'd look at my peers and be like, 'We're all the same age. They're showing as much as me, if not more. But if I do it, I'm ridiculed to the max.' As much as I would see it and try to act like it didn't affect or bother me, it would."
Justin Bieber had a bad boy period
One moment you're a seemingly innocent guitar-strumming kid with a famous haircut, the next you're posing for a mugshot. That's how some of Justin Bieber's career can be described. Let's start with his first song "One Time" where he sings about having butterflies in his stomach and his heart going "knock, knock" because he met his dream girl. Pretty wholesome, right? Now let's jump to 2013, which was a rough year for Bieber since he got into all kinds of trouble then. That was the year he tried to fight a member of the paparazzi in London. He was also seen urinating in a bucket inside of a club while insulting former President Bill Clinton, shown by TMZ. On top of that, the Daily Beast reported that Bieber was seen coming out of a Brazilian brothel.
Then in 2014, he was arrested in Miami for not only drag racing but being intoxicated while doing it. And that was right before he turned himself in to Canadian authorities after being accused of assaulting a limousine driver, reported by CBS News then. The "Baby" singer once talked to Seventeen about his wild behavior and gave a reason for it. "I was rebelling a little bit. I was getting cockier and cockier. I didn't have people to check me. I looked back and I was disappointed in myself," he said in part.
MC Hammer underwent a makeover
MC Hammer was accused of taking the wholesome image that he started out with and hurling it into the sea. It happened in 1994 when he released his album "The Funky Headhunter" because he seemed to adopt a gangsta rapper image. On the album's cover, the Oakland artist is sporting all black and a black skull cap, a look that might remind some of N.W.A. — the controversial rap group from Compton, California. Hammer also dropped the "MC" from his name, which seemed to be another sign he wanted the rap crowd to take him more seriously.
Years before "The Funky Headhunter" album, Hammer became an international superstar with his family-friendly style of rap music. He was famous for his clothing as well, usually performing in super baggy pants, now known as Hammer Pants. But along with that success, came backlash, especially from rap purists, who believed Hammer wasn't making real hip-hop music but commercialized pop instead.
The "U Can't Touch This" creator spoke about his new look with journalist Davey D in 1997 and denied that he'd changed his image. "Well, when we say image, we have to understand that clothing does not change a person's character, so I've never done what they call gangsta rap that's not my thing," Hammer explained. ... "No one is wearing what they wore in '88 or '89. ... but the music remained the same."
Miley Cyrus angered a bunch of people
By the time 2013 rolled around, it seemed like the innocence that was associated with Miley Cyrus for playing Hannah Montana was a fuzzy blur. That's the year her newly developed bad girl image was on full display at the MTV Video Music Awards. Just ask Robin Thicke, who she twerked in front of and danced around seductively. Many thought the former Disney Channel star went way too far with her behavior, including the Parents Television Council. "MTV marketed adults-only material to children while falsely manipulating the content rating to make parents think the content was safe for their children," their statement read in part, which was shared by Entertainment Weekly.
The responses were pretty much the same after Cyrus launched her 2014 "Bangerz" tour because many found it overly racy. That's because during shows, she expressed her love for weed by having a dancer dressed as a joint, shown by Pop Sugar, she wore skimpy outfits, and did a lot more twerking. Some in her Vancouver show walked out because they were so disgusted, according to Elle. So once word got out that the tour had nothing to do with "Hannah Montana" or Disney, some wanted the entire thing canceled.
Cyrus responded to the backlash on Twitter by posting a photo of herself wearing one of her tour outfits and wrote, "You can't say I didn't warn you. Now sit back relax & enjoy the show."
Beyoncé got racy
Seeing that Beyoncé's group Destiny's Child was managed by her father Mathew Knowles, he probably wouldn't stand for an overly sexy image. That could be why the group's look was rather PG and their songs weren't going to rouse many parent groups. Take a look at the video for Destiny Child's "No, No, No (Part 2)", a song that was released in 1997. Then look at the visuals for Bey's 2014 solo song "Partition." Notice a difference? In the former cut, the singer along with her bandmates, are dressed rather conservatively by music industry standards. The song's subject matter is also on the innocent side since it's about a guy being confused about his true feelings.
Now, let's examine "Partition" a bit, which lives on Beyoncé's eponymous album. It's basically about the singer and her man spending, shall we'll say, a little quality time together in the back of a limousine. Beyoncé pulls very few punches in the lyrics, too, and gets pretty explicit. Let's put it like this: The song isn't one you'd want to play while grandma and grandpa are around.
But more than those two songs and videos can be used to compare Bey's image change because after going solo, it was clear that she wanted to present a sexier side of herself. And the video for her second solo single "Crazy in Love" certainly displays that.
Aaron Carter dealt with a lot of challenges
Sadly, legal trouble, personal tragedies, and addiction would rob Aaron Carter of the wholesome image that he had when his career began. He tragically died on November 5, 2022, in Lancaster, California. In the beginning, he was a clean-cut kid who sang songs that were ideal for his Nickelodeon-aged audience and quickly became a big star.
Some of the first signs of trouble for Aaron came in 2008 when he was arrested for weed in Texas, reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal back then. Another arrest came in 2017 in Georgia for a DUI. Then two years later, Nick was granted a restraining order against his brother after claiming that he wanted to harm his wife and their unborn child.
But it wasn't just his behavior, Aaron's appearance also shifted since his younger, wholesome days because he began sporting face and neck tattoos. He rocked a buzz cut at one point as well instead of the longer blonde locks that he was known for. But again, the difference between Carter and the others on this list is that his image change was related to some very complex factors in his life, as well as having a tough upbringing.
Dee Jay Daniels faced some very serious charges
It's not uncommon for former child actors to go through a rough patch in their personal lives once their fame dwindles, but it's not often that one of them is charged with murder and gang activity. But that's what happened to Dee Jay Daniels after he got into a fight in Stockton, California's Chitiva's Bar and Grill in 2011. The former actor, who played on the ABC sitcom "The Hughleys" as a kid, was arrested and charged with two others, Djuane Nunley and Marcus McCliman, per Recordnet.com.
The man killed was 26-year-old John Joseph Lewis. Daniels and his two friends were also hit with an attempted murder charge related to a woman who was also at the fight. In the end, Daniels was acquitted, as was Nunley, while McCliman was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty. "The Hughleys"' star D. L. Hughley chose to testify for his TV son as a character witness, which probably helped him.
Another sign that Daniels' clean-cut image was behind him was his appearance since he'd gotten a bunch of face tattoos since his kid acting days. During an interview with VladTV, where he spoke about being acquitted of the charges, he also talked about his reasons for getting the face tats, saying he began as a teenager after seeing a lot of people in his neighborhood with the same thing.
Jaimee Foxworth lost family and friends
Jaimee Foxworth started on the ABC sitcom "Family Matters" in 1989, playing the role of Judy Winslow. But by 1993 she was written off the show. It was after the episode "Mama's Wedding," when she was sent to her room for disciplinary reasons and stayed up there for good. After that, the Illinois native appeared on the shows "TV 101" and "Amen" but then left entertainment, partially due to having anxiety attacks, which she once told HuffPost. Foxworth said it's not that the acting jobs dried up, her interest in acting went away.
From there, her family fell on hard financial times, so to help out she got into the adult entertainment industry at 19 years old. "It was, to me, the quickest money," Foxworth told Oprah Winfrey in 2006. "I was so naïve, and I was drinking."
The former child actor eventually left the adult film world and overcame a substance abuse problem after having a son, something she spoke about on "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" Foxworth said the backlash from being in adult film was incredibly tough for her, though. "I couldn't hold my head high. I couldn't walk around and say, 'My name is Jaimee Foxworth' without someone saying, 'Ew' or 'We heard about you'. That's the most degrading part. I lost all my confidence. I lost all my self-esteem. I lost friends. I lost some family members," she explained in that 2006 interview with Winfrey.
Dustin Diamond wanted to make a quick million
Paris Hilton influenced Dustin Diamond to release a sex tape. Huh? You're probably asking yourself but it's true. The late actor, who played the beloved nerd Screech on "Saved by the Bell," released a sex tape in 2006 called "Screeched: Saved by the Smell." And not only did he star in the thing, but he directed it as well.
Diamond admitted that he regretted making the tape, saying on "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" "The sex tape is the thing that I'm most embarrassed about. My buddy was at my house and the rumor I think that had been put on TV was that Paris Hilton had made $14 million off this sex tape. And my buddy said, '$14 million?' ... Where's the Screech sex tape? You got to be worth at least a million.' And I thought, yeah, maybe. And that's as simple as it was."
In 2014 Diamond talked to the Daily Beast about using a stunt double and fake body part in the film. It's possible by sharing that detail, he wanted to lessen some of the backlash that he received for making it but who can say? He also said the tape didn't make the millions that he was expecting. Sadly, Diamond died on February 1, 2021, after being diagnosed with stage four small cell carcinoma, which TMZ reported at that time.
Christina Milian showed another side of herself with Dip it Low
It can easily be said that "Dip It Low" is one of Christina Milian's most recognizable songs, if not the most. The 2004 single is about a woman dancing proactively with her mate to get that person all hot and bothered. When the lyrics and suggestive nature of the song were released, it was enough to say that Milian abandoned the wholesome image she had years before and the video solidified it. Maybe it was Milian rolling around at the start of the clip that did it. Or possibly it was the seductive dance moves or the short, plunging leather bodysuit that she revealed after ripping off her dress.
One of the first times many saw the New Jersey-born actor and singer was on Disney Channel's "Movie Surfers," where she played the host Tina. Let's just say Milian's look and image were light years away from "Dip It Low," which makes sense since she was just a kid back then. Either way, the song did positive things for her career, seeing it grabbed the number five spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The not-so-good thing about the cut, though, at least in Milian's eyes, is that she can't escape it at times. In 2020 she told Insider that people often come up to her and ask her to what else? "Dip it low."