12 Celebrities Who Survived Huge Obstacles Before They Were Famous

Charlize Theron

The actress said she grew up with an alcoholic and abusive father. At the age of 15, she witnessed her mother shoot and kill him in self-defense.

Queen Latifah

She said when she was a child, a teen charged with her care “violated” her.

Ashley Judd

Judd revealed in her memoir that she suffered abuse and incest by an unnamed family member growing up.

Hilary Swank

The actress said parents refused to let their kids play with her growing up—all because she was poor and lived in a trailer park.

Halle Berry

The actress revealed her mother was married to an abusive man who beat her mom “day after day after day,” even kicking her down the stairs.

Christina Aguilera

The pop star and her mother said they suffered at the hands of her violent father. “Growing up, I did not feel safe,” she said. She actually ended up using music as an escape from the pain.

Ellen DeGeneres

As a child, she said she watched her mother date men so horrible that she had to kick them out of the house for her.

Tyler Perry

The actor called his childhood a “living hell,” after suffering emotional and physical abuse at the hands of his father.

Naomi Watts

The actress’s divorced parents were just about to have another try at their marriage when a tragic heroin overdose killed her father when she was only 7 years old.

Angelina Jolie

The actress admitted she suffered depression at a young age after her “miserable” childhood in an “unhealthy” hometown of L.A.

Michelle Rodriguez

She moved around so much as a child, while her father spent the majority of her youth serving in the army. She was later expelled from five different schools.

Oprah Winfrey

She said she suffered years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of a family member, and had to wear potato sacks as clothing because her family was so poor.

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