Yahoo Lifestyle 15 Celebs Who Have Opened Up About The Good (And Bad) Of Watching Their Siblings Grow Up In The Spotlight
1.First, when asked about watching his brother Macaulay Culkin become the biggest child actor in the world after Home Alone was released, Kieran Culkin said, "Poor fucking guy." He said he always felt bad for Macaulay's level of fame at such a young age.
"He was little and having to try to accept that level of fame as reality," Kieran told Esquire. He said as Macaulay's fame grew and he was unable to do anything without paparazzi or people following him home, Kieran remembered thinking, "That sucks for him." Kieran even recalled writing a note to a court requesting media be banned from covering the family's custody fight in 1995.
2.Elizabeth Olsen said that she "felt very clear about how [she] was going to navigate lots of things" after watching her sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen grow up in the public eye. She's also said that their fame made her not want to start working as a professional actor before she was 18.
"Their fame made me more determined to study. I knew I wanted to be an actor, but I also didn't want to start working when I was under 18," Lizzie added.
3.Gemma Styles penned an essay in 2018 about watching her brother Harry Styles become one of the biggest musicians in the world and deal with fame, saying, "One thing Harry's ascent has taught me is that suddenly you're not seen as a normal person any more, but some famous 'thing' who simply came into being when a camera was first pointed at you."
"None of us wanted him to fail but we never dreamed things would go the way they did. That call never came," Gemma wrote when talking about watching Harry and One Direction continue on in The X Factor. "He has just kept on winning and winning – maybe not The X Factor, but there’s no denying he’s golden. My baby brother never came home again. He grew up, and all of our memories became his origin story."
4.Solange said that growing up "in a household with a master class" like Beyoncé only made her want to pursue writing her own music and master incredible stage performances. Solange also added that by watching Beyoncé she learned how to be in control of her career, voice, and more.
In conversation with Beyoncé, Solange elaborated, saying, "I think it’s been an interesting thing to navigate, especially watching you do the same in all aspects of your work: Society labels that a control freak, an obsessive woman, or someone who has an inability to trust her team or to empower other people to do the work, which is completely untrue."
5.Noah Cyrus said watching her sister Miley Cyrus grow up in the spotlight impacted how she saw herself. "Everyone gave me such a hard time for having a hard time being Miley's little sister," she explained. Noah even alluded to Miley's fame in a song, with the lyrics, "My sister's like sunshine, bringing good light wherever she'll go / and I was born to rain clouds, blessed in her shadows."
She continued, saying, "I always felt like I was that person that no one gave a shit about due to what people said to me online."
6.Haley Joel Osment said watching his sister Emily Osment go through being on Hannah Montana and Disney Channel was hard, and he admits she had "a way tougher path" as a child star than he did. He explained, "That show was squarely aimed towards creating a mania in that age group. She had to deal with a lot more strange invasions of privacy, not being able to have a normal school life."
Haley added, "And what exacerbated all of that was she had to be on social media. I resisted until I was, like, 27."
7.Elle Fanning grew up in the spotlight alongside her older sister Dakota Fanning and said that during the height of Dakota's fame as a child star she said it was wild to see her older sister get recognized on the street by fans. "If one person saw Dakota, it was a spiral effect."
Like any younger sibling trying to annoy their older sibling, Elle would purposefully add to the chaos, saying, "I wasn’t getting recognized, but I was part of the madness. I’d be like, ‘Dakota! Dakota!’ to try and make it happen. I was the worst."
8.Musician and actor Toby Sebastian has praised his sister Florence Pugh's ability to handle the level of fame she's achieved. "Obviously with success in this industry comes fame and people recognize you and all that stuff. I don’t live with it on a day-to-day basis but she rises to the task of everything that she does," he explained in an interview.
He also said he doesn't "know a more professional person" than Florence and he loves collaborating with her. The duo recently recorded the song "Midnight" together.
9.Janet Jackson spoke candidly about how she was always impressed with her brothers' fame, particularly Michael Jackson. However, she said there was a "shift" in her relationship with Michael around the time his solo career took off in the early 1980s. His newfound success was around the time they started to grow apart.
"I remember really loving the Thriller album, but for the first time that's when I felt it was different between the two of us, that a shift was happening," Janet explained. "He would always come in my room and we'd talk, and this particular time, he came in my bedroom. Neither of us said a word to each other, and then he got up and left. That's the time Mike and I started going our separate ways. He just wasn't as fun as he used to be."
10.Frankie Jonas has talked a lot about watching his older brothers Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas become famous and, as a result, being dubbed "the Bonus Jonas." It greatly affected his mental health and he was expected to become a "mascot-like character" for his brothers. Their fame led to Frankie wanting to step away from Hollywood, and his brothers encouraged him to find something he loves to do.
"I always hated that nickname," Frankie explained. "A lot of my problem with being in the public eye was that I was seen as this commodified vision of myself."
11.Finneas has said that after watching Billie Eilish's fast and massive rise to fame, and how her day-to-day life can be "challenging," he has "no desire" to be more famous than he currently is. He added, "Seems like a huge drag."
"By and large, throughout the Billie journey, I've been in that role," Finneas continued. "I get to go to the party, but I don't get followed home by the paparazzi."
12.Beauty blogger Doniya Malik said it was "surreal and wild" to watch her brother Zayn suddenly become famous practically overnight. She said, "As time goes on you get used to it [but] yeah it is overwhelming — it's something that doesn't really hit you." She added that it was just something she had to adjust to and "go along with."
13.Chris Hemsworth talked about how wild it was to watch Liam Hemsworth be swarmed by paparazzi early in his career because of The Hunger Games franchise and his relationship with Miley Cyrus. "It's sort of is what it is. At times you're a target and at times you're not. If you have a film coming out or who you are dating and what have you," Chris said. "But, we've been lucky, my wife and I."
Chris noted the paparazzi were once again heightened when Miley and Liam ended their relationship in 2019.
14.Bella Hadid has spoken candidly about how Gigi Hadid's fame impacted her growing up, saying she would often compare herself to her sister, just like others did. "I was the uglier sister. I was the brunette. I wasn’t as cool as Gigi, not as outgoing. That’s really what people said about me," Bella explained. "And unfortunately when you get told things so many times, you do just believe it."
In a separate interview, Bella added, "I just have to remind myself that she's been doing this forever. I can't keep comparing myself to her because we're so different."
15.And finally, Kendall and Kylie Jenner said that although being famous is "normal" for them, their older siblings, in particular Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney Kardashian, have "taught [them] so much about growing up in [the spotlight]."
"It's something that we've grown up with," Kylie once said when referring to thousands of fans who lined up to see her and Kendall. They explained their fame as it being "as normal as it can be."
