Stars Who Famously Fought With Their Kids
Raising kids in the spotlight isn't easy for these celebrity parents; it's tough dealing with bad teenage attitudes while cameras and social media trolls are following your every move. In some cases, the rift between these parents and children date back decades. While some relationships have been healed over time, others are just as inflamed as they were years ago. From Rosie O'Donnell's tumultuous relationship with her daughter Chelsea to Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean Cobain's never-ending mother-daughter drama, see which stars famously fought with their kids.
Rosie and Chelsea O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell's strained relationship with her adopted 19-year-old daughter Chelsea is enough for a bad Lifetime drama. The famous pair seemingly first began suffering problems in August 2015 after Chelsea, then just 17, went missing from their family home in Nyack, New York, reports Page Six. She was later found in New Jersey with an alleged heroin dealer she met on Tinder. Since then, their relationship has gone through its ups and downs, including an instance in which Rosie publicly said her daughter is mentally ill.
Speaking with The Daily Mail nearly two years after the situation, Chelsea claimed her adopted mother is abusive, alleging Rosie threatened her with a wine bottle after learning she had gotten a tattoo. "She had spyware on my phone so she could see pretty much everything I did," Chelsea said. "She asked me to take off my clothes – she didn't know where it was – to show her and I refused. She picked up a wine bottle and started chasing me, trying to take off my clothes. She told me if I didn't show her, if I tried to leave, that she would hit me with the wine bottle, call the police and tell them that I attacked her."
"Chelsea is mentally ill," Rosie said in response to Chelsea wine-bottle story. "[She] has been in and out of hospitals most of her life. Born addicted to heroin... She is very sick. She is not capable of truth or reason."
Madonna and Rocco Ritchie
Having Madonna as a mother isn't what it's cracked up to be. Just ask her son Rocco Ritchie, 16, who set off a firestorm of drama after refusing to come back to the United States to be with his mother in 2015, reports The New York Daily Daily News. Rocco was keeping himself in London with his father, the director Guy Ritchie. While it's unclear what exactly caused the rift between this mother-son duo, Rocco first blocked Madonna from viewing his social media accounts then deleted them all together.
Madonna tried every way to get her son back into her care and even went to court in London and Manhattan to get it accomplished. Unfortunately, under international law, a child of 16 years has a legal right to state where he or she would like to reside. In a desperate attempt to get her son's attention and to show how much she cares, Madonna posted several touching Instagram photos saying how much she missed him, according to E! News. She captioned many of the snaps with sad thoughts like, "Love Conquers All" and "seems like yesterday."
By September 2016, more than nine months after the custody struggle began, Madonna and Guy reached a custody agreement regarding their only child together. Under the new terms, Rocco will continue to live and attend high school in London under his father's care. Ritchie's lawyer told The New York Daily News, "Everybody is happy to have the litigation behind them."
Alec and Ireland Baldwin
Alec Baldwin won the worst father of the year award in 2007 for calling his then 12-year-old daughter, Ireland, "a rude, thoughtless pig" in a hot-headed voicemail. The voicemail was leaked by TMZ. Alec can also be heard foaming at the mouth, "Once again I've made an a** of myself getting to a phone to make a phone call ... I'm tired of playing this game with you. You have insulted me for the last time... You've made me feel like sh*t – and you've made me feel like a fool over and over again ... I'm going to straighten your a** out." At the time, Alec was engaged in a bitter custody battle with ex-wife Kim Basinger.
He later released a statement attempting to clear his name and to justify his poor parenting skills. "Although I have been told by numerous people not to worry too much, as all parents lose their patience with their kids, I am most saddened that this was released to the media because of what it does to a child," he said.
Ten years later, Alec is still being thrown under the bus for his "pig" comment. "It's thrown in my face every day," he told Good Morning America. "There are people who admonish me or attack me and use that as a constant spearhead to do that. It's a scab that never heals, 'cause it's being picked at all the time."
Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie
Jon Voight's public fight with daughter Angelina Jolie is one of the great family feuds. As the story goes, the famous father-daughter duo experienced a great rift in their relationship in 2002 after he claimed Angelina had "serious mental problems." This was also during a period in which Angelina slammed Jon for having an affair behind her mother's back.
The pair didn't talk for nearly 10 years, according to The Daily Mail. That changed in 2011 after Jon experienced a shift in thought. "I suddenly saw things differently and everything shifted. That one moment changed my whole life," he told the website. "It gave me back my daughter and my family. Being reunited with my Angie is very precious to me."
He's also in love with his grandchildren. "I adore my grandchildren, they are my great love. It makes me so emotional and grateful," he dished. "When my daughter sees me with them she says she sees another energy in me which takes over... It makes Angie so happy too."
Angelina was completely honest about their rocky relationship, telling CBS (via The Daily Mail) the details. "I thought about my brother only having one parent and only one family member alive and I thought about my father being alone and discussed that the best thing we could do would be to meet and talk, but that we would only be able to do this if we never spoke about the past again," she said.
Nancy Dow and Jennifer Aniston
Being the daughter of a well-known model and actress can be brutal. The famous Friend was estranged from her mother Nancy Dow for nearly 10 years, reports Us Weekly. The rift between the pair began after Nancy released the memoir From Mother and Daughter to Friends, which was published in 1999. The fallout from the book was so severe, Jennifer didn't invite Nancy to her 2000 wedding to Brad Pitt. The pair would remain estranged for years until Jennifer divorced Pitt.
"She was critical," Jennifer said of her showbiz mother to The Hollywood Reporter. "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. She was also very unforgiving. She would hold grudges that I just found so petty." Jennifer also said Nancy had a nasty temper that often exploded into fights. "I can't tolerate that," she said. "If I get upset, I will discuss [things]. I will never scream and get hysterical like that." She recalls a time where things got bad. "One time, I raised my voice to my mother, and I screamed at her, and she looked at me and burst out laughing. She was laughing at me [for] screaming back. And it was like a punch in my stomach."
The pair eventually mended their broken relationship a few years before Nancy died in 2016.
Bill and Kate Hudson
Over the years, Kate Hudson has endured a toxic relationship with her biological father and famed musician Bill Hudson. Kate has said many times that her father wasn't really in her life growing up and she considers her mom Goldie Hawn's longtime party Kurt Russell to be her father. Kate's feud with Bill was sparked in 2000 after she told Vanity Fair that her father wasn't around. Bill, who was pissed at her comments, told The New York Daily News (via ABC), "It's infuriating. I'm not going to take this on the chin for my daughter anymore."
Their drama was ignited yet again in 2015 after Kate's brother Oliver posted a zinging Instagram on Father's Day, reports Us Weekly. "Happy abandonment day... @KateHudson," Oliver captioned the old snap with his sister and their father Bill. Bill later told The Daily Mail that Kate and Oliver were dead to him. "I say to them now, 'I set you free.' I had five birth children and I now consider myself a father of three. I no longer recognize Oliver and Kate as my own ... [Oliver] is dead to me now. As is Kate."
A year later, Kate appeared to have moved past the drama. "I think forgiveness in any aspect is something that is complex," she told Howard Stern (via E! News). It is the greatest tool to be able to separate that attachment. That must be painful for him and I forgive him."
Courtney Love and Frances Bean Cobain
Courtney Love's relationship with daughter Frances Bean Cobain has been rocky at best. Frances is the only child from Courtney and late rocker Kurt Cobain's marriage. According to The Daily Mail, the pair experienced a six-year estrangement after Courtney lost custody of Frances.
An example of their bitter fighting through the media came when Courtney accused her daughter of flirting with her dead father's bandmate Dave Grohl, according to People. "I hear from Frannie's roommate that Dave Grohl hit on Frances and that she was curious," Love tweeted. "I'm not mad at her. Him, I am about to shoot dead." Frances, on the other hand, was much more composed in her response to the allegations, which she slammed. "I'm generally silent on the affairs of my biological mother," she said. "[But] her recent tirade has taken a gross turn." Grohl also dodged the accusations calling them "upsetting" and "absolutely untrue."
Per another Daily Mail report, at age 19, Frances landed a restraining order against her mother for alleged domestic abuse. Frances claimed in court that her mother killed their family pets as well. The site adds that Frances told the court that Courtney was on drugs and was also a conspiracy theorist during their time together. "She basically exists on ... Xanx, Adderall, Sonata and Abilify, sugar and cigarettes," the rock heiress said.
Today, they've patched up their drama and forged a new beginning; they walked the 2017 Met Gala red carpet arm-in-arm.
Ryan and Tatum O'Neal
Ryan O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal rocky relationship began when she was just a child star in Hollywood. The pair shot to fame in 1973 as they co-starred in Paper Moon, which earned Tatum an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Tatum, at age 10, was the youngest actresses in history to be given the award, according to IMDb. Tatum says that after earning the Oscar nod, her father hit her, thus starting many years of turmoil and jealousy between the two. Soon followed a dark spiral complete with drugs, neglect, underage drinking and more drugs.
Decades later and their drama is still going strong. In 2011, Ryan blamed Tatum for his longtime love Farrah Fawcett getting cancer and dying. "There was turmoil during my love affair with Farrah, a lot of it caused by my family, by my kids, all of them, but particularly Tatum," he told Piers Morgan (via Inside Edition). "And I just think if she had never met us, would she still be alive today? Because nobody knows what causes cancer, do they?" Unapologetic for his comments, Ryan added, "Sorry Tatum, but you probably know it, too."
Tatum responded on Twitter saying, "I am having a hard time swallowing what my dad said. Wow. My dad is both the aggressor and the victim. You can't be both." She also blasted her dad on radio, telling Howard Stern, "He could've driven me to kill myself. I have [tried]."
Candy and Tori Spelling
Candy Spelling's difficult relationship with her actress daughter Tori has continued well beyond the death of her late husband, television legend Aaron Spelling.
"There's not currently much of a relationship," Tori told Access Hollywood (via Us Weekly). "Yeah, there's not much communication either way ... she hasn't called me, either. You always want that relationship, and you keep wanting to attain it, even if it's not something you can't ever get... And it's hard. I think the biggest thing in a mother-daughter relationship is accepting the relationship for what it is, not what you want it to be. And I haven't gotten there yet. I still want that mother-daughter relationship that I hope it can be."
The drama seemingly began when Tori was just a kid and she forged a close bond with her father. "I was very much a daddy's girl," she added. Tori said her father often played "good cop" while her mother was the "bad cop." "I think he created a lot of competition between us," Tori said. "He was a good guy, so everyone vied for his attention, and a lot of that attention went from her to all me."
Tensions got even worse after Tori received only $800,000 in inheritance for her late father whose fortune was near $500 million. Candy says she's attempted to offer to pay for her kids' private school bills.
Dina and Lindsay Lohan
This mother-daughter feud has turned dark and violent over recent years. In 2012, the pair got into a heated altercation in the back of a limousine leaving a New York City nightclub, according to the TMZ. Dina and Lindsay started fighting over a $40,000 loan, which Lindsay gave to help save Dina's Long Island home. In an audio recording, Lindsay is heard talking with her father, Michael, saying, "She's saying disgusting things to me ... I'm dead to her now ... This is what you do. You ruin people. She's like the f*cking devil right now." Lindsay also claims her mom was on cocaine and says she's suffered an injury on her leg. By time Lindsay and Dina reach Long Island, officers are waiting for them.
The police department said it was a private argument. "It was an argument between Lindsay Lohan and her mother," a spokesperson said. "The police responded, and no further police action was taken. The New York Daily News reported the schism was over whether or not Lindsay would stay in Manhattan after leaving the club or go back to Long Island with her mother.
Fast forward to 2016 and Lindsay publicly announced that she's "done" with her mother after years of bickering and fighting, reports People. In a since-deleted Instagram, Lindsay writes, "@DinaLohan Sometimes it sucks when your mom isn't there for you." The post was a photo of falling cell phone with the words "we're done" scrawled across it.