Meet the A-list 'nepo babies' whose famous parents publicly refused to fund their lavish lifestyles

Dakota Johnson's famous father, Don Johnson, wasn't a fan of his daughter's decision to drop out of college and follow him into show business, so he cut her off financially.

"It was difficult, but I figured it out," the Materialists actress told Today. "He said to everybody – by 'everybody,' I mean all of my siblings...he calls it the 'payroll.' It's an allowance."

She continued: "He said if you go to college, you still get an allowance. And I was like, 'Well, I'm going to be an actress,' so he was like, 'Alright, well, you're on your own." 

Thankfully, Dakota was able to get by thanks to a handful of modelling jobs and help from her mother, Melanie Griffith.

"For a couple of years it was hard to make money. There were a few times when I’d go to the market and not have money in my bank account or not be able to pay rent, and I’d have to ask my parents for help," she later told Elle UK.

"I'm very grateful that I had parents that could help me and did help me. But it certainly was not fun,” the star added. "The auditioning process…is the f****** worst."

Gwyneth Paltrow is an Oscar-winning actress who has built a veritable empire from her wellness brand, Goop, and she did it without financial help from her parents, director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner.

"People think, 'She's just a rich kid.' Until I was 18, I was. Then I was broke. I've never taken a dime off my parents. I'm completely self-made," she told Glamour. 

When Gwyneth dropped out of college to pursue an acting career, Bruce made it clear that she would have to find her own way. "My dad was like, 'That's great, but I'm not gonna help you.' I was like, 'Yeah, right.' And he was like, 'No, I'm not,'" she told the publication. 

"So I got an apartment with a roommate. I worked as a hostess at a restaurant; I would scrounge quarters to buy Starbucks – and walk there to save gas."

She continued: "I remember once asking my dad for money, like, 'Please, I'm really stuck. Can you help?' And he said, 'You're more than welcome to come over for dinner.' That was it." 

Gwyneth is one of the loudest critics of the term "nepo baby" in Hollywood, and shared with HARDTalk that she resented the perception that she never worked for her wins.

"I never had any supplementation; he never helped me with my rent, I never had a trust fund. So the idea that I am spoiled or that I didn’t work for what I have, that’s just not accurate," the mother of two said. "But I can see how somebody might have that perception."

Tori Spelling was blindsided in 2006 when her father Aaron Spelling, the super-producer responsible for shows like Charlie's Angels, Dynasty, Beverly Hills: 90210 and Melrose Place, died and left her just 0.16% of his $500 million fortune, amounting to $800,000.

"It could be worse...[But] what if he'd given me $50 million, and what if, with that $50 million, I had changed the world? Like, what if I am the fierce hustler and businesswoman I am today, but with that?" she later shared on Overserved with Lisa Vanderpump.

Tori has a well-documented spending habit and is in significant debt according to court documents, but her mother, Candy Spelling, has not let her daughter sink. 

"I’ve been helping her out; I’m paying all her bills now," Candy told TMZ. "I’m not paying any back payments, just for the house and the kids' school and the food."

The celebrity chef was adamant that his six children, Megan, Holly, Matilda, Jack, Oscar and Jesse, would not receive an inheritance in the event of his death, despite his $220 million net worth.

"It’s definitely not going to them, and that’s not in a mean way; it’s to not spoil them,” he told The Telegraph in 2017. “The only thing I’ve agreed with Tana is that they get a 25 per cent deposit on a flat, but not the whole flat.”

"I’ve never been really turned on about the money," he added. "That’s not my number one objective, and that’s reflected in the way the kids are brought up." In addition, he also doesn't pay for his kids to sit in first class on flights, as they "haven't worked hard enough" yet.

"I turn left with Tana and they turn right and I say to the chief stewardess 'Make sure those little f***** don’t come anywhere near us, I want to sleep on this plane’. I worked my f****** a** off to sit that close to the pilot and you appreciate it more when you’ve grafted for it."

The Kardashian sisters were not always the ultra-rich TV stars that we know today; in fact, they were cut off financially by their dad at a young age to teach them a lesson about hard work.

"I was cut off when I graduated college," Kourtney shared on Inside Edition. "My dad was like, 'You need to get a job. You have a month; I’ll help you find one. But then you have to make money and support yourself.'"

Kim added that it was hard to go from a lavish lifestyle to a penny-pinching one. "I just think that it’s actually probably harder; we did grow up with this privileged life, but knowing that at a certain age we’re gonna be cut off, and we can’t ask our parents for anything," she explained.

"Already having that lifestyle growing up, we wanna maintain that…And we were taught at a very young age that we’re gonna have to work, and we’re gonna have to fend for ourselves – and whatever lifestyle we want, we have to make that on our own. We’ve all worked since we were about 16 years old."

Shirley MacLaine had a famously fraught relationship with her only child, Sachi Parker, who wrote all about her absent mother in her bombshell 2013 memoir Lucky Me: My Life with – and Without – My Mum.

Sachi claimed in an interview with the Hartford Courant that Shirley cut her off as soon as she finished high school at 17 years old, and refused to pay for her to attend college.

"She doesn’t see the importance of it because she didn’t go [to college]. Neither did my father," Sachi said. Shirley also demanded significant interest on the loan given to her daughter to help her buy a car.