Shocking times when celebrities opened up about being estranged from their parents

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a good relationship with their parents. Some are abandoned by their own blood, left stranded and lonely to face the world.

Below is a list of A-list celebrities who have gotten fiercely honest about being estranged from their parents, admitting that the strained relationships have had a lasting impact on their lives.

Take a look:

Keanu Reeves

When the John Wick star was just three years old, his father, Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr., left him and his family while they were living in Lebanon during the 1970s.

“I think it’s definitely traumatizing,” Keanu once told The Guardian about never having a relationship with his dad.

He added, “But it’s hard to know how it affected me because I don’t know what the other life would have been, you know what I mean?”

The Canadian actor also revealed that his estranged father did reach out to him once, but he didn't respond.

"Yeah, in the mid-90s, but I didn’t reach back out,” Keanu said, adding, “I just didn’t.”

Samuel died in 2018 at the age of 76.

Macaulay Culkin

One of the biggest child stars, best known for his breakout role in Home Alone, had a rocky relationship with his father, Christopher Cornelius “Kit” Culkin.

In a 2018 interview with WTF with Marc Maron, Macaulay revealed that his father was abusive both mentally and physically since the start of his fame.

“[He said] ‘Do good or I’ll hit you,'” he recalled in an interview with People.

The actor added, “He was a bad man. He was abusive, physically and mentally — I can show you all my scars if I wanted to.”

Macaulay explained that much of the tension stemmed from his father’s jealousy, as he was also an actor.

“Everything he tried to do in life, I excelled at before I was 10 years old,” he said.

He also told Vanity Fair that he sued his father to get access to his earning.

"I learned how to read court papers at 14,” the Uncle Buck actor shared.

Rihanna

The Diamonds hitmaker opened up to Vogue in 2011 about the deeply strained relationship with her late father, Ronald Fenty.

“Like, what do I even mean to him? It’s really strange. That’s the only word I can think of to describe it, because you grow up with your father, you know him, you are a part of him, for goodness sake! And then he does something so bizarre that I can’t begin to wrap my mind around it.” Rihanna told the magazine.

She added, “You hear horror stories about people going behind people’s backs and doing strange things, but you always think, 'Not my family. My father would never do that to me.'”

The Barbados native singer has also previously spoken about her father’s struggle with drug addiction and the physical abuse he inflicted on her mother.

Rihanna felt especially betrayed when her father lied to the press about having spoken with her following the infamous Chris Brown attack.

“My dad went to the press and just told them a bunch of lies. Because he hadn’t talked to me after… that whole thing… He never called to find out how I was doing, if I was alive, nothing. He just never called. He went straight to the press and got a check. And now he does it again,” she stated.

Ronald Fenty died on May 31, 2025, at the age of 70.

Jennifer Aniston

The Friends alum had a complicated relationship with her late mother, but they patched things up before she passed away in 2016.

“She was critical. She was very critical of me,” Jennifer told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015.

She added, “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.”

“She had a temper. I can’t tolerate that. If I get upset, I will discuss things. I will never scream and get hysterical like that,” the We’re the Millers actress continued.

“But I was never taught that I could scream. 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," Jennifer shared.

Leighton Meester

The Gossip Girl alum’s relationship with her parents has been complicated since the time she was born.

“My family has a crazy history,” she told Us Weekly.

For the unversed, Leighton was born in a prison while her mother, Constance, was serving federal time for drug trafficking. Her father, Doug, was also serving time for drug-related offenses.

For a few months, her mother cared for her in a halfway house, but eventually, the actress was raised by her grandparents.

Over the years, their relationship worsened. In 2010, Constance sued Leighton for assault, claiming her daughter hit her with a bottle. However she dropped the charges the very next year.

The Monte Carlo actress had also sued her mother for spending money on herself which she had been sending for the care of her brother Alexander, who has medical issues, as reported by People.

“I look back now and I see it in a nice light. It wasn’t uncomplicated. But I played outside. I went to the beach. There were happy, fun times,” Leighton said of her childhood.

Matthew McConaughey

The Interstellar actor's relationship with his mother, Mary, turned bitter when he started rising to stardom and she seemed to enjoy his fame more than he did.

“Mother wasn’t answering the phone. A fan of my fame was answering the phone,” Matthew said on Red Table Talk.

He added, “I was trying to find my own balance with fame and stuff. And I would share things with her… some of those things I would share might show up in the six o’clock news three days later.”

One incident that led Matthew to cut off his mother for eight years was when she let reporters into his childhood home for a TV special, without his consent.

Brie Larson

Finally, Brie Larson also had a rocky relationship with her father, Sylvain Desaulniers.

According to the Room actress, her father didn’t make any efforts from his end to be present in her life after divorcing her mother when she was just seven years old.

“When legally I didn’t have to have visitation with him anymore, I jumped on it,” she told Elle about not communicating with her father.

The Oscar winner further added, “As a kid, I tried to understand him and understand the situation. But he didn’t do himself any favors. I don’t think he ever really wanted to be a parent.”