Jennifer Lopez, Ed Sheeran, Jim Carrey and 7 more celebrities who were homeless or slept rough before finding fame
From Kelly Clarkson to Sylvester Stallone, it’s hard to believe these 10 Hollywood stars and Grammy winners once had no fixed abode to sleep in – luckily their talent and determination turned things around
Nowadays they live a lifestyle of 24/7 glitz, glamour and wealth, but it wasn’t always so easy for all of the world’s biggest movie stars and musicians. The journey to fame is notoriously tough – in some cases really tough. At one point or another, all of these celebrities have found themselves without a roof over their head, proving that there’s hope for all of us, no matter how difficult things get.
Halle Berry
“I took my modelling money and I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve got some cash!’ When you get to New York, three months later I was out of cash and I called my mother and asked her to send me some money and she said no”, Berry told People magazine.
However, the Oscar-winner insists the experience made her stronger, adding: “That’s probably one of the best things [my mother] did for me because it taught me. She said, ‘If you want to be there, then you be there. You work it out.’ And I had to work it out. And shelter life was part of figuring it out for a minute.”
Sylvester Stallone
Before Sylvester Stallone got his big break with Oscar-winning boxing drama Rocky, the actor was forced to spend time living at a bus station after he was kicked out of his New York flat. As the future action legend explained to Total Film: “I was broke and basically sleeping in the Port Authority bus station for three weeks straight. Instead of doing something desperate, I worked for two days for US$200 and got myself out of the bus station.”