Celebrity Kids Who Disgraced Their Parents

Being the child of a major celebrity can’t be easy. There’s a lot of baggage that comes with being in the public eye and having people follow you around, wherever you go. And then there’s all the drugs, their money, and too much time on one’s hands that makes doing bad things so easy. But that’s not to say that being a celebrity parent is easy either.

Whether you see them as rich and spoiled, or victims of their environment, celebrity kids sometimes have a tough time keeping as straight as an arrow. While their parents might have worked hard to get where they were when it came to fame and money, the kids really had no say in the matter.

Nevertheless, we all make our own choice: the good and the bad. With that said, the following celebrity kids have certainly managed to mess up their lives, much to the chagrin of their parents. And while some of these kids have managed to turn their lives around, not all of the kids are alright.

From partying to doing the crime and paying the time, some of these kids really be wildin'. Here are just some of the celebrity kids who disgraced their parents. Let’s take a look!

You don’t hear much about this son but Chet Hanks is one of Tom Hanks’s and Rita Wilson’s two sons. He works as a rapper going by the name of Chet Haze. He’s done quite a few naughty things, much to the embarrassment of Mr. Tom Hanks, including using the n-word on Instagram and threatening Howard Stern.

On top of that, he ended up getting his parents sued for an accident that he allegedly caused, and he’s also dealt with cocaine addiction that got him sent to rehab. The good news is that Chet is trying to get better and looking back at his mistakes with regret, saying in an Instagram video, “I just really had to take a look at myself and my life and the way s**t was going and all the crazy stupid s**t I was doing and just finally admit to myself that it wasn't working.”

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have had problems with several of their children over the years, and they all seem to revolve around alcohol. Like her sister, Tallulah, Scout Willis found herself in some legal trouble while under the influence. She definitely didn’t do her parents proud. 

In 2012, when she was only 20, Willis was arrested after drinking in public and giving the NYPD a fake ID. She was charged with two misdemeanors but did not face jail time. Instead, she managed to get out of it with only two measly days of community service. 

Oliver Hudson is the brother of Kate Hudson and, of course, the son of Bill Hudson. When Kate was just 13 years old, Bill declined his custodial rights, to her and Oliver, in order to focus on his new family. Ever since then, the siblings had built up quite a resentment towards their father.

Not afraid of hiding his feelings, Oliver Hudson took to Instagram to post a photo of his father, himself, and his sister together with the caption “Happy abandonment day…” And Bill did not take kindly to this personal attack, responding, “Oliver's Instagram post was a malicious, vicious, premeditated attack. He is dead to me now. As is Kate. I am mourning their loss even though they are still walking this earth."

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WWE Champion Hulk Hogan is a household name in the world of wrestling and has maintained a relatively clean image throughout the years. Still, the same cannot be said for his son Nick Hogan, who was involved in a DUI accident that caused irreparable harm to his friend John Graziano.

Nick’s friend now requires 24-hour care as a result of the injuries from the accident. They had been drag racing, lost control of the vehicle, and hit a tree. For Hulk Hogan, this was devastating, particularly while also mentally processing his divorce. He told People how abused pain pills and even contemplated suicide.

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Laurence Fishburne’s name comes with a lot of prestige. He’s been in a number of classic films, including Apocalypse Now, The Matrix, Mystic River, and The Color Purple. But the kind of acting that his daughter Montana Fishburne wanted to get into wasn’t quite what he expected.

In 2010, she made an adult video in an attempt to launch a career in the same vein as Kim Kardashian. Laurence Fishburne had attempted to block the video's release with friends' help but was unsuccessful. He was embarrassed by his daughter and immediately disowned her, allegedly shunning her from his life. And then, in 2017, she was busted for DUI and urinating in front of police officer, which I’m sure Laurence Fishburne wasn’t thrilled with either.

When you have a huge reputation like the Hiltons, it's hard to keep your daughter in check. Paris certainly earned a long rap sheet in her younger years, being arrested for drug position when she was caught with cocaine and marijuana. Stories soon surfaced of her shoving drugs...into herself to get it through the airport. Yikes.

Can't forget the DUIs and the lawsuits she gets on a regular basis. It seems like the hits keep on coming for Paris — although she's recently cleaned up her act. Hilton's parents have publically stated they're disappointed in her because they gave her everything, and in response, she blew it all away. They also went as far as to say she "brought shame on the Hilton name." 

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Miley Cyrus started out as Billy Ray Cyrus's little girl, starring on Hannah Montana. However, like most Disney stars, she wanted to break out of her good-girl persona. She did it in a huge way. First came, the single "We Can't Stop" where it shows her doing drugs, and then came the VMA performance where she was grinding against Robin Thicke on TV. 

Billy Ray was obviously upset about this and disappointed. It didn't help that Miley made fun of the situation, pushing it further. Finally, she posed for Rolling Stone shirtless. She's also known to take various drugs like mushrooms, ayahuasca, and sometimes harder substances. Billy Ray and Miley have periods where they don't talk, both stubbornly refusing to discuss their issues.  

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College is a time that a lot of kids go wild, and that includes those with famous parents, too. During his time playing football for Notre Dame, Nate Montana, son of legendary quarterback Joe Montana, just couldn’t seem to stay out of trouble, and it’s safe to say that his dad probably wasn’t pleased!

After being busted for underage drinking at a Notre Dame party, Montana found himself in even more legal trouble a few months later. While, appropriately enough, in the state of Montana, Montana was arrested for driving under the influence in 2011. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison, but this sentence was eventually suspended. 

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Ozzy Osbourne is certainly no role model but Kelly Osbourne didn’t have to go off the rails too. Nevertheless, in 2008, she definitely did, getting his with an assault charge after attacking a journalist, Zoe Griffin, at a nightclub. The arrest occurred one year after the incident.

Prior to that, she also faced drug addiction, going to rehab after admitting to an addiction to painkillers. A year later, she went to rehab again, and again in 2009. While Ozzy Osbourne is no stranger to the drug addiction world, he must have been disappointed that his daughter went down the same path.

Nicole Richie is the daughter of the iconic Lionel Richie, and he’s had to endure several embarrassing moments caused by her. While she may be famous for being an attention-seeking reality star, that’s not the embarrassing part. She’s also had some serious legal trouble and drug problems she’s struggled to shake. 

In 2003, Richie was arrested after police officers found heroin on her during a routine stop. Despite checking into rehab afterward, she found herself in even more trouble after being charged with driving under the influence. Richie admitted to having marijuana and Vicodin in her system at the time of the arrest. 

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While he blames himself to a certain extent, Michael Douglas was definitely jarred when his son Cameron Douglas was caught dealing large quantities of meth. Cameron plead guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2010, plus additional time for smuggling drugs into prison.

During Michael Douglas’s Emmy acceptance speech in 2013, he spoke of Cameron, saying, “At first I was certainly disappointed with my son, but I've reached a point now where I'm disappointed with the system….If you happen to have a slip, they punish you. In my son's case, he has spent almost two years in solitary confinement." Since then, Cameron is out of prison and now pursuing a career in acting, which is better than meth.

In the late 2000s, Marcus Jordan shamed his basketball legend of a father, Michael Jordan, when he broke a contract with Adidas by refusing to wear anything other than Nike Air Jordans. Then in 2012, he made a fool of himself on Twitter when he publicly propositioned an adult film actress on Twitter.

That same year, he was also arrested after allegedly getting in a drunken altercation with two women outside of a hotel. Nevertheless, that’s all in the past it seems. Marcus Jordan is now a successful entrepreneur with his very own sneaker store called The Trophy Room. And surely dad must be proud of that.

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Jon Bon Jovi has several kids, but none have had as much trouble as his daughter, Stephanie. When she was in college in 2012, she was arrested for possession of heroin after she was discovered overdosing. While the charges were eventually dropped, it was clear she had a problem. 

Bon Jovi described the incident as “my worst moment as a father”, and we’re inclined to agree. Thankfully, it appears that Stephanie has been making good progress in the last few years and seems to be getting her life back together now. 

Tommy Hilfiger built a fashion empire, but we imagine that he won’t be passing the family business on to his son, Richard. Some of the celebrity kids on this list did some genuinely bad things, both legally and morally, but Richard seems to be more of a wannabe bad boy than anything. 

Hilfiger, who raps under the name Rick Hill, was arrested in 2015 after punching a nightclub security guard in Miami. He was allegedly denied entry to the club for not wearing the proper dress code, which we imagine was a particular embarrassment for his fashion-conscious dad. 

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Action movie star Jackie Chan has long been an anti-drug advocate, so it must have been quite a shock for Mr. Chan to discover that his son Jaycee Chan was serving prison time for “sheltering others to use drugs.” Although he faced a three-year sentence, he cooperated with authorities, which led to the seizure of 100 grams of marijuana.

Jackie Chan was definitely less than thrilled over the incident, saying, “As a public figure, I feel very ashamed; as his dad, I'm very sad and disappointed. But the person who feels heartbroken the most is his mom. ... Jaycee: you've done something wrong and you have to be responsible for the consequences." 

Upon his release six months later, Jaycee put out a public apology, expressing regret over what had happened.

Nicolas Cage isn’t exactly the most normal dad you could ask for but as eccentric as he may be, he does have a code he lives by and he’s still pretty Zen. Nevertheless, his son Weston Cage has failed to live up to his expectations when he was arrested for a violent crime—much to his embarrassment.

In 2011, Weston was arrested after getting into an intense fistfight with his personal trainer at a public restaurant, allegedly after being told he could not order a certain item from the menu. Weston received a full psychological evaluation after the incident. Then in 2017, he went even more off the rails, leading a police chase that ended in him crashing into a tree and getting slapped with a DUI charge.

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Robert Downey Jr. has suffered from drug addiction for much of his life. After being arrested multiple times for charges related to cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, and going through multiple drug treatment programs, he has been sober since 2003. Unfortunately, his son Indio Downey seems to be struggling with the same problem.

In 2014, Indio Downey was busted for cocaine and charged with a felony for being in possession of the drug. Undoubtedly disappointed that his son went down the same path that he worked so hard to get off of, Robert Downey Jr. had his son sent to rehab. Indio is currently working as an actor and musician.

Christian Brando is the son of the late Marlon Brando – well, one of nine children. But of all of Brando’s kids, Christian was definitely the wildest of the bunch to put it lightly. In 1990, he shot and killed Dag Drollet, who was his sister’s boyfriend at the time. While it was in defense of his sister, it was also allegedly an accidental shooting.

However, according to some sources, Drollet was shot in the back of the head, indicating that we’ll probably never know the truth of what happened that day. After the incident, Brando came to his son’s defense, blaming himself for his failures as a father. Christian ended up pleading guilty in exchange for a sentence of voluntary manslaughter. He served 10 years in prison. Christian died at the age of 49 in 2008 from pneumonia.

Chelsea Belle O’Donnell and Rosie O’Donnell certainly don’t have a rock-solid relationship as mother and daughter. Chelsea even went out of her way to publicly ridicule her mother to the Daily Mail, talking about how she smokes weed excessively and is neglectful as a mother, among other things.

Chelsea claimed that she was mostly raised by nannies and was sent off to two boarding schools before returning home at the age of 17, only to be kicked out within a year. However, Rosie tells another story: one about her daughter’s mental health issues and going missing. But at the same time, she’s not showing much support for her daughter, saying, "My teenagers are a nightmare, they're horrible."

NeNe Leakes is no stranger to making a scene in public thanks to her seasons on the drama-filled reality show The Real Housewives of Atlanta. However, you'd never catch her shoplifting or with drugs on her. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about her son, Bryson Bryant, who has had multiple run-ins with the law. 

His first arrest came in 2011 after he was caught shoplifting razors from a store, but there was more trouble to come for him. 2013 saw him arrested for driving while intoxicated, and he again faced trouble in 2014 for a probation violation. More recently, he was arrested again in relation to a check forgery scheme in Georgia. 

Presley Gerber is the son of supermodels Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber. He, too, is a supermodel and, at the age of just 19, is getting into deep legal trouble. On New Year’s Eve 2018, he was pulled over for DUI. Being both underage and driving under the influence sent him straight to jail. Either his mother or father had to bail him out.

He went on to further embarrass his mother by getting a face tattoo that read “Misunderstood” just below his eye. And the tattoo was met with a negative reaction. On an Instagram live video, he said, “If I thought this was going to ruin my face or I didn’t want this, I wouldn’t have done it.” Nevertheless, he did end up having it removed.

Something just didn’t turn out right with Tallulah Willis, the daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, and while they certainly love their child, I’m sure they wish things turned out differently.

The biggest wake-up call happened at the age of 17 when Tallulah was arrested for drunk driving, which led to Demi Moore promptly sending her to rehab.

Tallulah had started drinking at the age of 14, and by 15, she allegedly almost died of alcohol poisoning from drinking too much champagne. And on top of that, she also dealt with drug abuse, including cocaine and codeine. In recent years, she’s been suffering from a number of mental health issues, including anorexia.

Sean Stewart, son of Rod Stewart, got into a drunken fight with a man who spit on his car window. He punched the man repeatedly and then “kicked him until he was unconscious,” according to The Telegraph. Sean Stewart ended up in jail for three months for this incident, much to his father's shame.

In another incident, Sean faced assault charges again after being denied entry into a private party, according to a report from The Daily Mail. Overall, Sean seems to have an estranged relationship with his father and did not even attend his father’s recent wedding.

The Royal family is probably none too happy with Prince Harry now that he and his wife, Meghan Markle, have distanced themselves and shirked their royal duties, but it’s probably not the most embarrassed that Prince Charles has been at his son’s behavior. He was a bit of a wild child back in the day. 

Prince Harry’s most scandalous moment came in 2012 during a trip to Las Vegas where he definitely wasn’t attending to royal business. Paparazzi photographers managed to snap photos of Harry partying hard, snuggling up with scantily-clad women, and literally baring his butt for the world to see. 

As crazy as it is to think of him as a family man, Hugh Hefner actually had four children. And he took his sweet time with them, too—his first was born in 1952, while his youngest was born in 1991. However, not all of them have led lives that made dear old dad proud. 

In 2012, Hefner’s third child, Marston, was charged with assault after allegedly attacking his girlfriend, who also happened to be a Playboy Playmate. He pled no contest to the charges and was sentenced to almost a year of domestic violence classes. 

Charlie Sheen has been a grown man for quite a while now, so it’s not like he’s some rebellious teen causing problems for his parents. However, we can only imagine that his father, fellow actor Martin Sheen, has been pretty embarrassed by his son, regardless of his age. 

By now, most people are familiar with Charlie Sheen’s very public mental breakdown in the early 2010s. However, the actor has had some serious charges leveled against him through the years as well. His ex-wife, Denise Richards, left him after allegedly finding Sheen looking at pictures of boys she claims were underage. 

Theodora Richards is the daughter of rock and roll legend Keith Richards. While her dad no doubt had plenty of his own crazy experiences, he probably wasn’t thrilled when Theodora discovered her own wild streak. It seems like bad behavior probably runs in the family! 

In 2011, Richards, who was 25 at the time, was found scrawling graffiti on the wall of a nun’s convent in SoHo. After questioning her, police officers also found drugs in her purse. It may not be the worst thing a famous kid has ever done, but you have to admit it’s probably the weirdest! 

Hollywood icon Ryan O’Neal had four children in his life. His youngest was Redmond, who O’Neal had with fellow actor Farrah Fawcett. However, his life wasn’t a Hollywood success story by any means, and Redmond has struggled with drug abuse issues for much of his life. 

In 2015, O’Neal spent almost three years in prison after having his probation revoked for an earlier charge. Then, in 2018, he was arrested once again—this time for attempted murder and robbery. Later, in 2019, O’Neal was declared unfit to stand trial and has been housed in a state mental health facility ever since. 

Actor Nick Nolte has had his own fair share of legal trouble. From multiple arrests to a 45-year prison sentence (later suspended), Nolte has had more than a few run-ins with the law. And it seems like legal trouble might run in the family, because his son, Brawley, has also found himself on the wrong side of the law. 

In 2009, Brawley was arrested in Los Angeles for driving under the influence. And, like his father, he got his very own embarrassing mugshot plastered across the media. However, since then, it seems like the younger Nolte has been on the straight and narrow and hasn’t had any more run-ins with the law. 

You would think that if your mom was a famous and successful actress, you'd have no reason to steal anything. But that's not how things worked out for Cybill Shepherd and her son, Cyrus. Apparently, Shepherd came down with a bad case of sticky fingers on a flight across the country.

While on the flight, Shepherd allegedly stole several items from another passenger's carry-on luggage, including money and a digital camera. It seems the incident was alcohol-related, as, while he didn't do any jail time, he was sentenced to attend several Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as part of his punishment. 

Rapper Rev. Run of Run-DMC may be an ordained minister, but his son, Jojo, might not be as much on the straight and narrow as his dad was hoping. In 2009, Simmons was caught by police buying marijuana and later running from them. Not a great look when your dad is a man of God! 

While he may not have a spotless record, it doesn't seem like Jojo fell into anything heavier. Since then, he hasn't had any more run-ins with the law. It might be ancient history at this point, but we bet his dad was none too pleased that he was bringing negative attention to the family at the time.