These Celebs Experienced Homelessness Before Making It Big

News By TooFab Staff | 11/12/2021 2:01 PM PT

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Before some of the world’s most famous celebs made it big, they had to make it through tough times. On their rise to fame, they experienced bumps in the road that left them with little to their name and no place to stay. Thankfully, stars like Jennifer Lopez and Jim Carrey, who were both unhoused for a period of time, found a way to persevere despite their circumstances. They went on to have incredibly successful careers and there’s no doubt that their past shaped them into the resilient people they are today. Scroll on to find out what celebs got candid about their difficult past...

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Kelsey Grammer

While Kelsey Grammer was attending Juilliard, he cut back on expenses by sleeping in the park for a few weeks. Even though he had a scholarship to the university, he still had a very small budget from the money he had made working two jobs the summer prior to starting school. While the situation sounded tough, Kelsey looks back on it in a light hearted way. “It was still warm enough so I could sleep there. Only for a few weeks really. I could sneak behind a certain bush and cover myself with newspaper and I was fine. I would shower over at Juilliard...It was absolutely safe...Nobody was around. You really didn't see anybody,” Kelsey said on “In Depth With Graham Bensinger.”

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Carmen Electra

Carmen Electra may have danced for Prince but when the gig ended, she paid off debt she accrued to record her first solo album and had just a few thousand dollars left. Then, when a boyfriend stole her slim savings, she found herself broke with nowhere to go. “I had a couple of years of being homeless in Hollywood...I remember sitting on a park bench in the valley. I was crying because I was stranded. It was over 100 degrees outside...I remember crying and watching cars drive by and thinking, ‘I would do anything just to be able to get from here to there — to get down the block!’ I was, like, ‘I can’t walk anymore,’” she told the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2009.

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Shania Twain

Growing up, Shania Twain and her family ended up in a homeless shelter after escaping her abusive household. In her memoir “From this Moment On,” Shania wrote that once they made it out of the toxic situation, they were referred to a homeless shelter in Toronto. “Mom got out of the car to use a pay phone while we sat and waited in the car, returning a few minutes later with a piece of paper on which she’d scribbled the address of a homeless shelter. That night, we slept in a crowded, sweltering place on cot-like beds spread out along the walls of a series of spacious, open rooms designed for large groups,” Shania wrote.

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Steve Harvey

Steve Harvey found himself homeless after splitting with his first wife Marcia. He says he was sending the majority of his paychecks home to his children and after a few gigs didn’t work out, he ended up without a place to stay. He began living out of his 1976 Ford Tempo and wasn’t able to get back on his feet until he finally got his big break on “Showtime at the Apollo” three years later. “It was so disheartening. A week is really the maximum you can do. This was three years! It was rock bottom. But even in my darkest days I had faith it would turn around,” Steve told People.

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Jim Carrey

When Jim Carrey was a teen, he and his family experienced homelessness after his father lost his job. The family lived in a van which they would park in different trailer parks and campsites around his hometown in Canada. At one point they even lived in a tent on his sister’s lawn. While Jim says he was angry at the time, he’s thankful for how hard his parents tried for him. “For a while [I was angry] but my dad was cool...I mean in certain ways, they made me grow up fast but the list of what they did for me was so enormous...I have a very positive attitude about those sorts of things,” Jim said on “The Howard Stern Show.”

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William Shatner

William Shatner may have been on “Star Trek” but after the show ended, he found himself in the middle of a divorce and so broke that he couldn’t afford a place to stay. ‘[It was] a pickup truck. It was the early 1970s and I was recently divorced. I had three kids and was totally broke. I managed to find work back east on the straw-hat circuit – summer stock – but couldn’t afford hotels, so I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell,” William said.

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Dr. Phill

As a teenager, Dr. Phil and his father were homeless after moving to Kansas City. They lived in their car for a period of time before getting a room at the YMCA and eventually moving into a small apartment. "The summer before I became a teenager, I was homeless, living in a car with my dad in Kansas City while he was going to school...We eventually got a room at the downtown YMCA for five bucks a week, and then we put together some money for a deposit on a one-bedroom apartment that had no running water, electricity, heat, or air-conditioning,” he told Parade.

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Drew Carey

When Drew Carey was a teenager, he struggled with his mental health and decided it would be best for him to visit his brother in California. During the bus trip from Ohio, he found himself homeless in Las Vegas and struggled to gather money to buy food. While speaking at a Celebration of Youth Luncheon, Drew admitted that he sold plasma for $40 just to make it through.

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Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank grew up in a trailer park and when she moved to Los Angeles with her mother to pursue acting, they didn’t have any place to stay. They lived in their car for a couple of weeks before a friend offered to let them sleep in their empty house that was up for sale. “We had a friend who was selling their house. And so they said, ‘You know, there’s no furniture, but you can stay there at night. And then, during the day, you have to leave so we can try and sell it.’ So we got air mattresses. Blew the air mattresses up. Slept on the air mattresses. And left in the morning,” Hilary told “60 Minutes.”

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Jewel

Before Jewel made it big as a musician, she found herself homeless after she turned down a former boss’ sexual advances. When he refused to give her her final paycheck, she missed her rent due date and was kicked out of her apartment. She ended up living in her car for a month, all while struggling with health issues. "For me, the hardest thing was being treated as if I was sub-human — as if I didn't matter. I remember washing my hair at a bathroom sink in a Denny's, and I was using the hand towels to dry my hair. And people looked at me like I was absolutely disgusting. I wanted to yell at them and say, 'I'm human! I may not have a house, but I matter!'” Jewel told Today.

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Halle Berry

When Halle Berry was just beginning her career, she moved to New York City after making some money modeling. Unfortunately, the money ran out quickly and within three months she was calling her family for help. When her mom turned her down, she had to figure out things on her own, which involved staying at a homeless shelter for some time. “That was rough. Some fine hours…Giving up was never an option. It was to prove to her and everybody else. It took me right back to my high school years. ‘You say I can’t, watch me. I’m going to figure this out.’ And shelter life was part of figuring it out for a minute until I could get a waitressing job,” Halle told People.

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Jennifer Lopez

Right before Jennifer Lopez got her big break, she found herself living on the couch at her dance studio. Jennifer explained that she and her mom hadn’t seen eye-to-eye about her future and she decided it was time for them to take a break from each other. “My mom and I butted heads. I didn’t want to go to college – I wanted to try dance full-time. So she and I had a break. I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. I was homeless, but I told her, ‘This is what I have to do.’ A few months later, I landed a job dancing in Europe. When I got back, I booked ‘In Living Color.’ I became a Fly Girl and moved to L.A. It all happened in a year,” Jennifer told W Magazine.

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These Celebs Experienced Homelessness Before Making It Big

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