From Tom Cruise to Brad Pitt: 10 celebrities who have estranged relationships with their children

Tom Hanks to Anthony Hopkins: 10 celebrities who don't speak to their children

Fame has the power to strain relationships and even spark seemingly endless feuds. Some celebrities have made the conscious decision not to have children, while others have fully embraced parenting and raised children. But there's a widespread misconception that celebrities have it easy when it comes to raising their children. Here are 10 celebrities, including 50 Cent to Tom Cruise, who avoid talking to their children.

1. Tom Cruise

For many years, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' relationship was the subject of tabloid speculation. Holmes and Cruise had a daughter named Suri when they were together. Since Holmes was granted complete custody, Suri and her father have hardly spoken to each other at all. Recently, a source informed Page Six that Cruise has "no part" in Suri's life because he continues to practice Scientology, while Suri and Katie do not.

2. Brad Pitt

It was evident during the protracted and acrimonious divorce between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that he didn't have the finest relationship with all of his children. After Angelina accused her ex-husband of abuse, their son Maddox testified against Pitt in Jolie's case against him. A source earlier informed Us Weekly, "He doesn't use Pitt as his last name on documents that aren't legal and instead uses Jolie. Maddox wants to legally change his last name to Jolie, which Angelina has said she doesn't support."

3. Anthony Hopkins

In 1968, actor Anthony Hopkins had a daughter he never brought up. In an interview with Radio Times in 2018, Hopkins—who has been distant from his daughter Abigail Hopkins for years—spoke candidly about the state of their relationship. "People break up. Families split, and you get on with your life. People make choices. I don't care one way or the other," he said when asked if he had any grandchildren.

4. Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is regarded as one of the kindest men in Hollywood, yet his son Chet Hanks has a terrible criminal past and is a popular opponent of vaccinations. Although Hanks has tried to avoid being involved in his son's shenanigans, there is probably a lot of animosity between them because Chet still believes in Covid-19 conspiracy theories even though his father contracted the virus in 2020. Hanks gets along well with his other son Colin, who is now a successful actor in his own way.

5. Jackie Chan

Following the public uproar that erupted when it was discovered that Jackie Chan had cheated on his wife in the 1990s, the actor decided to put his love child with former beauty queen Elaine Ng behind him. It is reported that the two have never met. Etta Ng Chok-lam, the 22-year-old daughter of Jackie Chan, was reportedly seen in the queue for free meals in late 2022, leading to accusations that she is impoverished in Toronto.

6. Britney Spears

After divorcing Kevin Federline in 2006, Britney Spears shared joint custody of her two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James. TMZ claimed that by January 2007, she had sole physical custody of her children, but by October of the same year, she had entirely forfeited her parental rights due to a string of allegedly unpredictable actions. Federline and Spears' two sons moved from California to Hawaii in May 2023, per a source who told Daily Mail, "Britney loves her children, has always supported them, and wants them to be happy."

7. Cher

From her prior marriages to Sonny Bono and Greg Allman, the American singer has two children: Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman. However, it wasn't an easy childhood for the children—Elijah supposedly spent most of his time at boarding school. He said to Entertainment Tonight, "When you go to boarding school at seven years old, it’s kind of hard to feel like you’re not being shunned." Elijah also admitted that he and Cher had decades-old unsolved problems.

8. Woody Allen

Together with his former partner Mia Farrow, Woody Allen had two biological children and several adopted children. Dylan Farrow, his daughter from a previous marriage, has accused the director of raping her in her childhood. Her brother, writer Ronan Farrow, supported the narrative. When Allen divorced Mia Farrow to marry one of his adopted children, he severely strained his relationship with his other children. The claims and the strange union have irreparably damaged Allen's once-respected comedic reputation.

9. Courtney Love

Courtney Love and the late Kurt Cobain only had one child together before the Nirvana frontman passed away. Born in 1992, Frances Bean Cobain had to grow up with her mother's troublesome behavior. According to CNN, Love battled addiction, had suicidal thoughts, and was even imprisoned for attempting to break into her ex's home. A young Frances Bean was given to Cobain's mother, Wendy O'Connor, in both 2003 and 2005. In 2015, Frances Bean told Rolling Stone, "[We] have resolved a lot of our issues," implying that the two of them had at least partially made up.

10. 50 Cent

The rapper—whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III—had a difficult time raising Marquise, his first child by Shaniqua Tompkins. Everything was good until Marquise reached 15. Following that, the two are said to have fought so much that 50 Cent texted his son to declare he "[doesn’t] have a son any more." In 2022, Marquise Jackson expressed his desire to have a face-to-face meeting with his father, but the rapper questioned whether his intentions were sincere, per TMZ.