How Celebrity Kids Found Out Their Parents Were Famous
While being a parent means having countless uncomfortable conversations over the years, most of us don't have to deal with the awkwardness of celebrity revelations. It's difficult to imagine how one might start a conversation with their kids that ends with explaining Mommy and Daddy are kind of a big deal.
Maybe the fact that such a conversation is so inherently hard is the reason many celebrity parents wait to clue their kids in — and that, subsequently, the kids find out from someone else before their famous mom and dad have even figured out how to broach the subject. After all, when the whole world knows who you are, can you really have any secrets?
Although that must be a tricky adjustment for children of stars, the resulting stories can be downright comical. Keep reading to find out the (often funny) ways in which celebrity offspring like Brooklyn Beckham and Moses Martin found out their parents are famous.
Ricky Martin's twins saw a new side of Dad
The rest of the world has always known Ricky Martin lives la vida loca, but the global pop star's twin sons Valentino and Matteo had no idea their dad was a top international artist — until, that is, he let them watch one of his shows from a different perspective.
Typically, Martin would keep his kids backstage. During his shows, they watched from the wings and only saw him singing. "One day, when I thought they were big enough, I said, 'Go to the front of the house,' and they see the lights and the whole spectacle," Martin told People in 2016, noting that was the moment it all dawned on Valentino and Matteo.
"When the show was over, they came to me and said, 'Papi, you're Ricky Martin.' I said, 'I'm not Ricky Martin, I'm your father.' They said, 'No, no, no, you're Ricky Martin,' and so it changed," Martin revealed.
Kaia Gerber made the discovery at Disneyland
One glance at Kaia Gerber, and it's clear she inherited her supermodel mom Cindy Crawford's DNA. So it didn't come as much of a surprise when the teen followed in her mother's footsteps and started booking modeling gigs with major fashion houses like Marc Jacobs, Young Versace, and Miu Miu. What is surprising, though, is the sense of everyday normalcy Crawford managed to maintain for her daughter in the years preceding the prodigy's debut.
"I think it was only on my eighth birthday, at Disneyland, that I started to understand what was going on. I wanted to take pictures with the princesses, and everyone wanted to take pictures with her!" Gerber shared with Teen Vogue in 2017, laughing.
According to Gerber, Crawford kept her home life and work life separate — and the ingenue is grateful for her mom's wisdom on the matter. "She told me that she would support me regardless of what I decided," Gerber told Teen Vogue of her initial interest in modeling, adding, "but I'm so glad that I actually got to be a kid before having to grow up."
Football and Barbie dolls made it clear for the Beckham kids
Although Victoria and David Beckham's son Brooklyn is now a celebrity in his own right, the budding photographer confesses to being pretty darn clueless about his family's fame for most of his life. It was at a sporting event (go figure) that he realized perhaps he didn't have "normal" parents.
"I didn't actually know that they were big until I was about 13," he told Wonderland in a 2017 interview. "I went to a football game and people were shouting my dad's name and I was like, 'What?! Oh my God.' I don't look at them like that."
In 2017, Brooklyn's little sister Harper had a similar revelation about their mom's fame. In a series of photos on her Instagram Stories, Victoria showed her daughter playing with a set of '90s Spice Girls dolls. "When u find out mummy was a pop star!!" Victoria wrote on one picture before cheekily quoting the girl group's "Spice Up Your Life" anthem on another (via People).
Gwyneth Paltrow's son put two and two together
As the creator of the luxury lifestyle site Goop and an Oscar-winning actress, Gwyneth Paltrow rightfully earned her spot as a household name. When she isn't hanging out at home with her daughter Apple and son Moses, this A-lister is shooting scenes alongside the likes of Robert Downey Jr. for the Avengers movies, or hosting sold-out Goop In Health summits with speakers like Drew Barrymore and Lake Bell. However, it still took a while for her son, Moses, to catch onto the scope of her celebrity.
"I just had this incident where we were going to see Justin Bieber, and my son put together that Justin Bieber or someone else might know who I am — like someone that he thinks is great, that might know who I am from Iron Man," Paltrow told Home Business in 2013 about the moment her fame finally dawned on Moses. "It's recent for him where he goes, 'Oh, you are in movies.' They didn't make that connection for a while."
Pamela Anderson's sons got clued in at surf camp
In the '90s, Pamela Anderson was impossible to miss. She was on our screens as C.J. Parker in Baywatch and Lisa on Home Improvement. She was married to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. But after having sons Brandon and Dylan in the late '90s, Anderson gradually began to focus less on film work and more on advocacy — becoming an outspoken supporter of PETA and other animal welfare organizations.
So it wasn't until a fateful trip to surf camp that Anderson's fame came into focus for Brandon and Dylan. "They came up to me and they said, 'Mom, are you Pamela Anderson?' And I said, 'Yeah,'" she shared with People in 2016. "They were like, 'What is that?' And, 'Why are people saying these things? Are you Pamela Anderson for real? Like, what is going on?'"
Anderson also amusingly recalled that her sons basically grew up not really knowing what her career was. On school career days, she said, the boys would tell the class that Dad was a rock star "and my mommy rescues animals."
"Some little rascal" spilled the beans to Hilary Duff's son
Hilary Duff's celebrity status got outed to her son, Luca Comrie, in a way the Younger star was least expecting. It wasn't the paparazzi that often trail her that tipped her little boy off. Rather, Duff revealed on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2017 that she suspects it was "some little rascal" at Luca's school.
Of course, it's not as though Luca lives in a bubble. He has been exposed to his mom's star power before — he just didn't realize it at the time. "He's seen me on the cover of, like, magazines in a grocery store, and I really think he just thinks the next day, like, Shane's mommy is gonna be on the magazine," Duff told Meyers.
Duff seems content to know her son doesn't seem too interested in fame, though. In a 2017 interview with E!, the actress said she hopes her son doesn't follow in her footsteps. She'd rather Luca not have to deal with "the public scrutiny or the pressures of this industry."
Jack Quaid found out that acting isn't a "normal" parental profession
You've got pretty big shoes to fill when your parents are America's sweetheart Meg Ryan and equally beloved actor-slash-musician Dennis Quaid. But Jack Quaid certainly hasn't let it intimidate him — he has built his own thriving career onscreen, co-starring in the 2018 Dwayne Johnson blockbuster Rampage. But it's possible Jack didn't let his parents' fame affect him growing up because he wasn't actually all that aware of it.
"When I was a kid, I didn't really know having parents that are actors were in any way different from my friends' parents, who were lawyers," he told ET in 2016. It wasn't until Jack mentioned to his friends that he had been "on set" and saw their reaction that he kind of figured it out. "They were like, 'Yes, it's cool.' I think that was the moment I realized it was slightly different than what most parents do," he shared, adding, "I had a very normal childhood considering."
Going on tour with Dad gave it away for Georgia Jagger
Mick Jagger isn't just any rock star — he's the iconic lead singer of The Rolling Stones. And his ex-wife Jerry Hall, is just as known for her time with Jagger as she is for her modeling and acting careers. But if you'd asked their daughter, Georgia May Jagger, to weigh in on her parents' status during her childhood, she probably would have shrugged it off. In fact, she might still downplay their fame to this day.
When asked by Interview magazine whether or not she knew growing up that her parents were famous, Georgia replied, "Not really. When I went on tour with my father, I knew he was a musician. But they were my parents. I still think of my mum as being kind of a dork — a cooler one, but still a dork."
Still, even when her parents were together, they both traveled extensively for their jobs. "In that way, it wasn't a normal family life," Georgia told Harper's Bazaar in 2010. "We'd go and stay for a few weeks with Dad on tour and bring a tutor with us."
Alexa Ray Joel just thought people really liked her parents
Alexa Ray grew up with not one but two celebrity legends in her household. Her mom is '90s supermodel Christie Brinkley, and her dad is the "Piano Man" Billy Joel. Considering that Alexa has enjoyed the occasional screen gig, and is a successful singer-songwriter and pianist like her father, she clearly understands the trappings of fame.
Growing up, though, she had the source of the attention surrounding her family pegged all wrong. "I just thought they were popular," she told the NY Post in 2010. "I thought I was the star. We were always putting on plays, and dad would do the accompaniment and mom would dress me up like a Disney princess and be filming everything."
Over time, as she did begin to understand the celebrity dynamic in her household, Alexa Ray admits that she felt overshadowed. "It was never, 'I hate my parents.' It was more, 'I hate myself,'" she confessed.
Michael Jackson's son Prince realized his dad made people faint
Despite the fact that it has been nearly a decade since his death, Michael Jackson remains a musical legend. However, in a candid interview with Good Morning America, the King of Pop's son Prince revealed that it never occurred to him or his siblings that their dad was a big deal. "Even to this day, I don't think it holds the same weight to us that it does to other people, because he was our father," Prince told GMA's Robin Roberts.
What solidified Michaels' superstar status in his kids' minds was not in watching how women reacted to him but in how men did. "I guess when we kind of realized it was when we saw videos of him performing. I've been used to seeing most females pass out when they see their [favourite] artist. What blew my mind was when I saw these big muscle-bound dudes fainting and having to be dragged out... so I was like, 'okay, there's something else going on here,'" Prince said, laughing.