Netizens With Celebrity Relatives Share 30 Brutally Honest Stories About What It Really Costs Them

My great great great whatever grandfather was Orson Hyde. He was one of the original big shots in the Mormon church that knew Joseph Smith. It doesn’t effect me at all because I think that it’s all a bunch of malarkey and I’m not Mormon, but it’s a *huge* part of my grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins lives. My grandfather is some high ranking person in the church. Well I say “church” but it’s more like a cult, aaaaand now you know why that side of the family hasn’t talked to me in years.

Tony Hawk is my uncle. He's the absolute coolest person you'll ever meet.

Our family's famous person is known for their bigotry and being a horrible human in general so our experience is different than someone related, say, to Mr. Rogers

Edit:spelling.

My uncle was in a very popular band in the 70’s. He was very generous with his money back then but I think he regrets it now. Living off money he still gets but by no means rich. Has some funny stories…from what he can remember.

Cool and awkward.

I have a multi-Grammy winning musician first cousin and another first cousin (once removed) who has been on hit TV shows and a few movies (co-starred with Eddie Murphy in one of his lesser-known films).

Cool part is to name drop (which I rarely do and won't here) but the awkward part is family reunions. I'm not close to either but we're blood so when they're sitting two picnic tables over, do I go by and say, "Hi, how's life?" Those that are close will get free concert tickets and hang back stage after a show. The actor travels a bunch with her mom/manager (my cousin) so my Mom will forward me pictures of them on camels in front of the Great Pyramid or smiling with the Eifel Tower in the background.

The family is proud of their accomplishments, but we're all doing OK for the most part, so there's no jealousy or issues to my knowledge. They just happen to be rich and famous.

I have a couple of somewhat famous actors for grandparents. It is sometimes fun to tell stories about them and the other famous people they’d hang out with and that I’d sometimes get to meet. People seem very entertained by those anecdotes.

On the other hand, I very much missed out on a lot of typical grandparent stuff. No grandma baking cookies, no days at the park together, etc. They were immersed in their extraordinary lives. My mother often said “they belong to the world more than to our family.”.

I have a family member who's more infamous than famous, and it s***s. They're known for doing something that ripped off and negatively impacted thousands nationwide, and everyone else in the family was shocked and horrified when the news broke. Now, we take great pains to distance ourselves.

My dad was a relatively well known person in sport in our city and nationally. Didn’t really affect me apart from everyone chatting to him when we went out to the shops or whatever. And my dad loved to chat!

My cousin was a runway model and every time she came home to visit it was like she expected a parade. If you wanted to hang out with her you had to schedule a time slot. All the while she was saying how nice it is to be home and back to normal living.

My brother-in-law is a youtuber and it doesn’t really affect me all that much but its funny when my friends see he’s following me and go crazy about it.

My stepbrother is a little over 6”10 and plays in the G league. Not many know him but the amount of stares and people asking him questions in public is so annoying - how tall are you? Do you play basketball? What size do you wear? Were you tall like this as a child? - I don’t know how he does it.

I have some extended family members and friends in the music industry. I don’t talk about it very often. A few friends have figured it out because of social media. I have had people call me to see if I could get them some free tickets to a legendary venue. I don’t even ask because that’s just not something I am willing to do. Otherwise, it’s easy to be supportive and happy for them.

Well he’s like a brother. But whenever I’m around him, people are like ants on an ice cream cone. They treat him like a god. It’s really funny when they start talking about things he has done. I end up just telling everyone that he’s not that good or start making fun of him.

In Japan he is like The Beatles, there will be a line 1/4 mile long just to get a view.

He had painted one of my snowboards and a couple people asked me if they could see it. I ended up waiting around for 20 minutes because they were taking pictures.

1st cousin is a former world champion mountain bike racer who was well known in the community in the mid 1990’s, and was an Olympic alternate.

Great grandfather was a known bootlegger during Prohibition, running booze from Chicago throughout the upper Midwest, especially along the Michigan shoreline. Used the pretty lucrative profits to buy a large farm (and a number of other parcels in the area) which are now county parks.

My grandfather’s brothers side of the family, and thus my last name, is the reason I get followed by the FBI a few times a year. Never even been to New York!

My grandfather and Muhammad Ali’s father were cousins. Grew up in Louisville together. My dad told me Muhammad Ali would always make it a point to stop by their house when he was growing up on the south side of Chicago. Said the whole block would stare not just because it was Ali, but also the 100 or so Muslims he’d have with him (huge south side of Chicago presence).

Haha I have a slightly different take, my dad is a super stylish man and he looks almost identical to Johnny Depp (in fact he has these rare glasses where only three exist, and Depp has a pair too!). So whenever we are out people want to get a pic or signature. He also never has to wait in lines and gets into any club, it’s pretty hilarious

My cousin is also infamous and literally everyone in my hometown knows them because they were an elected official. Thankfully they’re much older and we don’t share a name but I still have to give the disclaimer that the things they did were HORRIBLE and the rest of the family doesn’t claim them either.

It’s cool. His fame also brings immense wealth. I have lived a life I wouldn’t have otherwise. My parents grew up in the roughest parts of the country. But he got famous and so I grew up in the wealthiest. Every year all the families hopped on a private plane and went away for weeks together for vacations. I’ve gone to tons of movie premieres, grand openings of major theme parks (in which it’s only open to celebrity families), anniversaries. He paid for all of the kids college tuition, so that’s $250k I didn’t have to think about. He bought me my first car. I live a normal looking life in a normal house (in a very HCOL area) and can go to his house whenever to get away from it all. His house is like a vacation with private chefs and beautiful views. Other famous people will likely be there, so wear real pants. It’s amazing because my whole family is so talented. I have one incredibly famous relative but also other less famous but still famous relatives. It’s neat to see talent like that. It’s neat to be around people I’m not related to that are also talented in their respective fields. It’s a reminder of how impressive humans are - all of us. I live in fear of a relative dying or experiencing some trauma and I find out through the news. I think that must be really tough. It’s hard when people talk s**t and you want to correct them, but you can’t spend your life correcting everybody. Edit: I also had a stalker when i was younger. She wanted to meet my relative and figured harassing my family was the way. She showed up at my house and my school. It was scary. Eventually she went to jail for something related to a g*n but I don’t know much about it because I was young then. The experience was scary and formed me in a big way.

My nephew is an MLB player, so mildly famous in the cities where he’s worked. He’s a d**k and even his mother (my sister) dislikes him. She only maintains a relationship with him so she can see her grandchild.