Kate Hackett
We all know the old adages, fame and money change you. But is it true? Who better to know if fame alters our personality than the family of famous people?!
We have 20 stories for you all about how fame has altered famous people, courtesy of u/joeygreco1985, who asked: “People who are related to celebrities, how has their fame affected family gatherings and events?”
Keep in mind these are unverified stories from Reddit, so take them with a grain of salt.
1. J.K. Rowling
I’m relatively closely related to JK Rowling, and to be honest it doesn’t affect family gatherings at all. Either people whisper about her from afar, or go up and have a conversation with her. Most people don’t make a big deal of it and she does the same and just chats to anyone that speaks to her. The biggest reaction I ever get is when someone finds out I’m related to her haha!
2. Keanu Reeves
Related to Keanu Reeves. We have a Reeve’s ohana gathering every year in Hawai’i and he never comes. Which I don’t blame him at all, his dad was not a good father so I assume, besides being a busy actor, he doesn’t come because that burned the bridges with our family. My dad sometimes mentions Keanu when the reunions happen, about how he doesn’t visit. It’s not in a bitter way or anything, just sometimes the little cousins ask. I haven’t met all my family in Hawai’i yet cause I live in the mainland, but I do know at least a few people are salty about it. Other than that, my cousins look up to him and get excited when he’s in a movie. Even if the kids aren’t allowed to watch cause of violence they see a movie poster and look all awe-struck. So cute.
3. Dr. Demento
My uncle is Dr. Demento. He’s a really cool guy. Insanely knowledgeable about music and music history. He is totally cool at family gatherings.
4. Megan Fox
Megan Fox is my first cousin once removed (her mother and my grandfather are brother and sister).
She’s six years older than me, so there are plenty of pictures of us playing together while growing up, but once she got to the point of puberty, she quickly shifted into modeling and moved from Tennessee to Florida to pursue it. She then got into movies and as you know, made it rather big.
The last time she was in town to visit was about twelve years ago. She came for Christmas and everything seemed normal until she whipped out the stack of headshots she had brought to sign for us to take to back to our friends and such.
She did make it a point to call my grandfather when he had his heart attack back in 2014, so not all is lost in fame. The headshots thing was just a tad comical.
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5. Sinbad
My uncle is Sinbad (the comedian/actor). He is married to my biological aunt on my dad’s side, so I am not his blood relation, but his kids and wife are blood related to me.
It actually hasn’t. We go on vacations with them every summer, and have for the past 6 or so years. We didn’t for a while when him and my aunt were separated, but after they got back together we see that family at least once a year. Just got back from a vacation with them on Sunday actually, we went on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
At first it was a little annoying having to stop every couple minutes because someone asked for a picture, but eventually he stopped posing for pictures while with us. He just says “sorry, I’m with my family” now.
Nothing terribly exciting, but he has been famous since I was born, so I didn’t get a before and after experience.
The coolest thing was definitely going to Disney/universal with him. We got the VIP treatment and skipped every line. We rode dueling dragons probably 5-7 times back to back. 3 of us barfed, it was great.
6. A good dude
Not really a celebrity, but my uncle is one of the first dozen people Bill Gates hired to start Microsoft. He’s stupid rich now but spends his time being super generous with his money to family and advocating for the protection of national parks and a healthy environment. Probably the nicest and most down to earth people I’ve ever met. He never buys anything unnecessary if he can help it. He does all he can to make his house 100% environmentally friendly. He’s pretty awesome. You’d never know that he helped change the world
7. Cage the Elephant
My cousins are in the band Cage The Elephant. My cousins are so down to earth that their fame doesn’t really affect our family. We are all so close (even though we live so far away) and they invite us to their concerts when they’re in town. I will say when we plan family reunions, everyone’s first question is “Will the boys be on tour then?” Of course this is because everyone wants all the family there and my cousins are usually the most busy out of everyone with schedules that are pretty finite. Overall, it has brought us all closer having such successful people who worked hard in our family.
8. Viggo
My wife is childhood friends with family of Viggo Mortensen. She got to hang out with him after he shot Lord of the Rings but before it was released. Said he was a very cool guy, extremely laid back, and fun to have a beer with. Her friend spent her childhood hanging out with him on summer vacations and has yet to have a bad thing to say about him.
9. Peanuts
My grandfather was Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts (Charlie Brown). I don’t really know how it affected my family gatherings because my family hasn’t been together for a long time for other reasons. But I do know that for a few members of the family the comics are really important to them and they really pride themselves in their involvement with them.
10. OITNB
My girlfriend’s cousin is on Orange Is The New Black, got to watch her place in New York once. She can’t get me Kate Mulgrew’s autograph so she’s dead to me.
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11. A porn actor
My uncle is a retired hall of fame porn actor. He’d come to Ohio for xmas every year and my mom would give him AND his sexy Porn Star girlfriends my room since it was the biggest. One Christmas morning my mom had me go in to wake him up and LOW AND BEHOLD his girlfriend was completely naked on my bed. I stared for a minute then woke them up. I was 12. My voice changed 3 Octaves that year.
12. Hockey Player
Kind of unheard of but Alex Pietrangelo (professional hockey player) is my step brother. Usually see him during the summer, and we go out on his boat. Swell dude.
13. David Tennant
Spouse is related to David Tennant. I did not know this until after we were married (spouse born in America). Not impacted life at all except I got to meet him during my first trip to London. Their family scored us tickets to Much Ado About Nothing and we saw David Tennant and Cathrine Tate after the show. Nothing bad to say about either of them; they were both lovely and effusive and Tennant gave us both a hug even though neither of us had ever met him before. Spouse had a brief chat about mutual acquaintances in the family and then we left.
14. Tommy Mattola
My dad is first cousins with Tommy Mattola (formerly Mr. Mariah Carey). Tommy used to provide free tickets to concerts for the various stars he represented (Carly Simon, Hall & Oates), but as more and more people had their hands out, the more he retreated.
15. The Night Stalker
My ex-wife is related to Richard Ramirez, yes, The Night Stalker. He come up at EVERY single family gathering big or small. They would talk about him for hours. Same stories same reactions. As the years went by he slowly started to disappear from the conversations. Then he goes and makes national news when he died.
We were already divorced when it happened but that did not stop her family from reaching out to me and telling me, in detail, all about his life and death. It still comes up every time I come across any of them. Can’t tell if its pride or sorrow.
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16. Robocop
My uncle is Peter Weller, AKA Robocop, every time we go out to dinner he tells these really cool stories about all the other famous people he has met and how he’s friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger and it’s really cool to listen to his stories for hours on end
17. Irish poet
My ex was related to Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet that was very famous in Ireland, from what I understand. We stayed at his house a few years ago and I had never heard of him. He was just lovely, like a grandpa you would love to have. Very humble and normal house. Ex’s mum kept bigging him up but Seamus and his wife were just normal people. The weird thing was walking into bookstores and seeing his face everywhere, then going back home to have lunch with him or chat to him about life.
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18. Matchbox 20
My neighbor when I was 12 was the guitarist for Matchbox 20 around when they were all over the radio. My dad plays a lot of guitar so he would go over and they would play for a few hours and chill. Got to meet the rest of the band and they were all really cool down to earth guys.
19. She was always terrible
My cousin is Dani Mathers, the playboy model who took that picture of the woman in the gym. We hate her.
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20. Matthew McConaughey
Matt McConaughey is my 2nd cousin. He acts normal with us but the bastard has yet to deliver me a Buick for the bully I beat up for him 38 years ago… Though he does always bring the best booze to the parties.
