While these Hollywood stars and famous musicians were born to take the stage, they certainly didn’t seem cut out for parenthood. From horrific neglect to absolute abandonment, these celebrity parents are sure to leave a sour taste in your mouth. Behind closed doors, there are no red carpets and dazzling smiles—only secrets, betrayal, and resentment.

1. Loretta Young and Clark Gable: A Secret Child

Loretta Young and Clark Gable met on the set of Call of the Wild, and the consequences of their meeting led to a secret child and some of the most questionable parenting imaginable. In fact, their entire relationship was a horrifying mess. According to Young, Gable forced himself on her without her consent while aboard an overnight train back to Hollywood. The consequences?

A child that neither of them ever planned on having…

2. She Couldn’t Sin

When Loretta Young discovered that she was pregnant with Clark Gable’s child, she was devastated. They’d only been together one time, but the damage was done. Afraid to tell her production company for fear that they’d want her to have an abortion, Young made a drastic decision. She decided to keep the pregnancy and the baby a secret.

Abortion, after all, was a mortal sin in her books, and she was determined to do the “right thing.” And so, Young set out to fool them all.

3. She Had To Make A Choice

Young gave birth to her Daughter and named her Judy after St. Jude—the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes. According to rumors, an anonymous sender sent Clark Gable a telegram notifying him of his daughter’s birth. His reaction was chilling. He allegedly tore the notice up, letting the pieces fall to the ground. He wanted nothing to do with her.

Young, on the other hand, now had a living, breathing child to consider and a difficult choice to make.

4. She Gave Her Up

In order to ensure that nobody found out about Judy’s true parentage, Loretta Young did the unthinkable. She placed her daughter in an orphanage, and then 19 months later, went back and adopted her biological child. She craftily manipulated the system and reunited with her daughter without causing a public scandal. This was the lie that Young worked hard to conceal for the rest of her life.

However, if Young thought that Gable would eventually step up and provide for his daughter, she was sorely mistaken…

5. She Never Swayed Him

Loretta Young invited Clark Gable over to see his daughter, but she could only recall him visiting Judy once. She even opened up a bank account to allow Gable to discreetly provide for his daughter, but he never deposited a single dollar. Despite her efforts to allow some Father-daughter connection, her main goal remained the same—nobody could ever discover that Gable was Judy’s real father.

And as Judy grew older, this feat became harder and harder.

6. She Couldn’t Hide Her Forever

With mounting unease, Young watched as Judy grew into a spitting image of her father, with his high cheekbones, large ears, and a mischievous grin. To hide Judy’s tell-tale ears, she made sure to always dress her in frilly bonnets. But soon, certain features became too obvious to conceal, and within Hollywood circles, dangerous rumors began to circulate.

7. She Approved Of Plastic Surgery

When Judy turned seven, Young took her to a plastic surgeon to pin back her ears. After all, they were Gable’s ears, and this procedure was a fix-all. Then, the lies became deeper and more elaborate. Years later, Young deception came around to haunt her. When Judy finally discovered the truth about her father, their relationship was never the same again.

Secrecy defined Loretta Young’s relationship with her daughter, however, these next Hollywood stars allowed poor parenting to define their legacies…

8. Ryan O’Neal and Joanna Moore: A Traumatizing Train Wreck

Ryan O’Neal and Joanna Moore were some of Hollywood’s worst parents. Their two children, Tatum and Griffin, grew up in Hollywood—the land of excess—but O’Neal and Moore spent more time drinking and doing drugs than they did with their own children. But their problems went beyond neglect…There was something much more sinister happening at the O’Neal household.

9. His Homelife Was A Disaster

O’Neal and Moore’s partying spun out of control. It didn’t help that Moore tried to patch up her failing career with even more booze and drugs. Everything about their marriage fell into a downward spiral. There were also shocking allegations against O’Neal claiming he battered his wife. Life at the O’Neal residence became overwhelmingly toxic and Moore finally got the courage to pack up the kids and leave. But after leaving their father, the children faced an even darker nightmare. 

10. His Children Lived in Squalor

When O’Neal and Moore split, it left Moore—struggling with addiction and now, depression—alone with the kids. Tatum O’Neal has some harsh memories of having little food and using the floor as a bathroom. But her worst memory of all?…Her mother’s teenage boyfriend beat her frequently. Finally, it became clear that Moore was unfit to care for her two children.

It was time for Ryan O’Neal to step up to the plate, but as a father, he was a massive disappointment.

11. He Let Her Down

Ryan O’Neal and his daughter starred together in Paper Moon—but their relationship took a sour turn when the Academy nominated Tatum and not Ryan. Although Tatum went on to win Best Supporting Actress award, her parents still managed to ruin her special night. When she took to the podium and looked across the sea of adoring peers, she couldn’t help but notice a glaring omission.

Neither of her parents attended the ceremony. Still, that was only the tip of the iceberg. After his daughter won the Academy Award, O’Neal used her as arm candy at celebrity events. He took Tatum out on the Hollywood circuit, exposing her to a party lifestyle she wasn’t prepared to deal with and which left lasting scars. O’Neal even took his daughter to the bastion of overindulgence—Hugh Hefner’s mansion.

From then on, their unconventional relationship became even more questionable…

12. He Couldn’t Protect Her

The O’Neal household overflowed with all sorts of bad influences for children. O’Neal’s drug habit meant that sketchy dealers frequently visited the home. On one occasion, a dealer came upon Tatum unsupervised. That’s when something terrible happened…The drug dealer molested Tatum. Devastated and distraught, she mustered up the courage to tell her father the terrible truth.

When Tatum told her father about her horrific run-in with the dealer, O’Neal blamed his daughter, insisting that she must have led him on. And then O’Neal made matters worse—much worse…He kept the accused drug dealer on the payroll. In O’Neal’s mind, daughters were a dime a dozen, but a good dealer was hard to find. But believe it or not, this wasn’t even the worst part.

13. He Was An Enabler

O’Neal’s parenting advice wasn’t just abhorrent, it was downright dangerous. When teenage Tatum O’Neal started to put on a few extra pounds, O’Neal swooped in with some fatherly advice. Since there were so many contraband drugs lying around the house, he suggested she snort some of them for weight loss. Her father’s poor judgment led Tatum down a dark and dangerous path.

14. He Didn’t Care

O’Neal’s daughter struggled with many things—her crazy father, her addiction to drugs, and her unstable home life. In a moment of despair, she made a life-threatening decision: To take her own life by slitting her wrists. Luckily, her attempt proved unsuccessful. To add to devastation, O’Neal failed to offer Tatum a single shred of empathy. Instead, O’Neal criticized her attempt, saying, “You cut the wrong way.”

Sadly, O’Neal’s daughter wasn’t the only victim of his neglect…He also had it in for his son.

15. He Used His Son For Boxing Practice

O’Neal liked to play pool with his son, Griffin, but he didn’t like to lose. Griffin recalled that whenever his father lost a pool game, he’d beat him up. At one point, it got so bad that O’Neal punched his son’s teeth out. Griffin didn’t hold back when describing life with his father—”He was violent all the way through my upbringing. He was a very abusive, narcissistic psychopath.”

But O’Neal was more than a bully, he was also an enabler.

16. He Claimed Innocence

O’Neal didn’t learn much from his abysmal shortcomings. Griffin O’Neal maintains that when he was 11-years-old, his father offered him substances. O’Neal absolutely denies this, claiming he’d never share his expensive gear with anyone, let alone Griffin. But whether the claim is true or not, O’Neal’s track record speaks for itself. For O’Neal, his children were never the main concern and unfortunately, they always paid the price.

Even though O’Neal and his daughter Tatum have tried to reconcile, O’Neal realizes that he just wasn’t father material—”I don’t know why. I don’t think I was supposed to be a father. Just look around at my work—they’re either in jail or they should be.” O’Neal was spot on with this comment as his terrible parenting produced a legacy of heartbreak.

And when it comes to heartbreaking legacies, this next celebrity couple is absolutely unforgettable.

17. Marlon Brando and Anna Kashfi: A Divorce Gone Wrong

Marlon Brando’s marriage to Anna Kashfi was a full-blown mess, and before long, their son Christian found himself caught in their volatile crossfire. The brutal custody battle that ensued was not won overnight, and by the time Brando finally came out on top, his son was already 13 years old. Of course, as Brando soon learned, being a father was much harder than he ever expected.

18. He Was Fiercely Protective

Brando’s determination to protect his son may have had something to do with the terrible hatred he had for his own father. In fact, Brando fiercely proclaimed this sentiment: “I didn’t want my father to get near Christian. The day he was born I said to myself with tears in my eyes, ‘My father is never going to come near that child because of the damage he has done to me.’”

But no matter his good intent, Brando’s career always took him far away from Christian…And sometimes, he just couldn’t protect him.

19. He Was A Disappointing Father

By the time Brando had full custody, his son’s dysfunctional upbringing had already severely affected him. It didn’t help that Brando was almost never around, and instead, hired nannies to raise Christian. In 1972, while he was away filming in France, Brando’s ex-wife took his absence as the perfect opportunity to get her son back…

20. He Lived A Real-Life Nightmare

Anna Kashfi took it upon herself to take Christian from school and shuttle him over the Mexican border. In a deal gone wrong, her friends hid the boy away where nobody could find him. When Brando caught wind of his ex-wife’s scheming and missing son, he hired a slew of private investigators to bring him home. Caught in every father’s worst nightmare, Brando could only sit and wait and hope.

21. He Finally Found Him

To Brando’s relief, the private investigators finally found Christian. But this experience had definitely taken a toll on the young boy. He’d been found living in a tent, wracked with pneumonia and clearly terrified. However, despite Brando’s trying time with his first child, it didn’t stop him from going forth and procreating willy nilly.

Now, while Brando didn’t quite have a handle on fatherhood, our next mother found herself caught in a scandal so outrageous—it dealt her daughter an awful hand.

22. Lana Turner: Her Daughter Took The Fall

1958 bore witness to one of the biggest scandals ever to rock Old Hollywood. Johnny Stompanato, known gangster and infamous boyfriend of renowned actress Lana Turner, was found stabbed to death in Turner’s home. Turner’s daughter, 14-year old Cheryl Crane, confessed to the act after he had attacked her mother in the midst of a vicious argument.

Cheryl’s actions were ruled to have been justified, proving once again that being in the Mafia doesn’t pay off in a court of law. But even though it seem like an open-and-shut case, dark and disturbing rumors began to circulate.

23. It Could Have Been Much Worse

As shocking as it was that Cheryl Crane had murdered Johnny Stompanato, a few rumors persisted that things had gone down differently than was claimed by those involved. The most common of which was that Lana Turner had actually been the one to off her boyfriend, and her daughter only took the fall because the court would look more favorably on murder if it was a minor who did it. But that wasn’t all.

A more twisted rumor claimed that Turner hadn’t actually been threatened by Stompanato; she’d actually caught him in bed with her daughter. In her rage, she’d run Stompanato through and forced Crane to take the fall. Frankly, we’re doubtful that this version is true, and we really hope that it isn’t.

Now, just as Lana turner helped move Old Hollywood’s rumor mill, this next infamous father/daughter duo continues to rule today’s gossip columns.

24. Jon Voight: The Sting Of Abandonment

Angelina Jolie’s life turned upside down after her father brutally threw her under the bus. Jon Voight decided to betray Jolie by talking about her personal life with Access Hollywood. He openly shared his thoughts on her recent marriage to Billy Bob Thornton and how he knew it was doomed from the very beginning. But that was only the tip of the iceberg.

25. He Endangered Her Child

Voight also went on to say how Jolie had “serious mental problems.” These comments enraged Angelina Jolie and made her fear for her newfound claim to motherhood. She had only reason adopted her first child, and later said, “The most difficult thing, in him doing that, is that it could have affected my relationship with my child. They could have decided: ‘He’s right, she’s crazy, let’s remove that child from her custody.’ And that’s unforgivable.”

But as horrible as this situation was, Angelina Jolie and Jon Voight’s feud had actually started years ago—and their story is utterly heartbreaking.

26. She Tried To Make Peace

Right from the get-go, Jolie’s knowledge of her father’s infidelity, as well as his decision to abandon his family, poisoned their relationship. However, in 2001, the two of them saw a brief reconciliation after starring alongside one another in Tomb Raider. It was Jolie herself who sought to mend old wounds and reached out to him with the part.

She thought the invitation was a great way to reconnect, and that because it was about an absent father, the story would resonate with both of them. Before long, Jolie and Voight had embarked on a healing and emotional journey…They had no idea that it would end in disaster.

27. They Wrote Their Lines

In one of Tomb Raider’s most touching scenes, Jolie and her father got to write their very own lines. Onscreen, Jolie utters the words she’d always wanted to say to her father, “You let me down,” while Voight responds with, “I did what I thought was right.” But even as they flaunted their newfound love and appreciation in promotional interviews for the film, it was never meant to last.

28. He Slipped Into His Old Ways

After filming on Tomb Raider, the glow of Jolie and Voight’s joyous time together began to fade. Voight was always extremely critical of his daughter, and it wasn’t long before he opened up his mouth and ruined things all over again. He was especially unhappy with Jolie’s UN trips because he worried for her safety. Unfortunately, he took the role of overprotective dad to a whole new and despicable level…

29. He Gave Her A Heartless Letter

Right before Jolie was about to set off on a UN mission to Cambodia, her father decided to destroy everything they’d worked so hard to build. He gave her a letter and said, “This is my truth, this is unchanging.” Daddy dearest was being a little dramatic, but Jolie didn’t have any negative suspicions about the letter. Considering what happened next, Jolie’s response was absolutely devastating.

30. He Ruined Her Character

After taking her father’s letter, Jolie locked eyes with her father and said, “That’s wonderful, I love you, see you later.” But when she opened the letter, her world practically imploded: Her father’s words viciously criticized her character, and she later said, “He’d written that I was a bad person.” This was the nail in the coffin. In the end, Jolie thought the best way forward was to cut ties with her toxic father—and in more ways than one.

31. She Refused To See Him

Even though Jolie didn’t want anything to do with her father, it certainly took him a long time to take a hint. When they accidentally crossed paths at an LA party, Voight tried to embrace her, but to no avail. One of her representatives immediately stepped in, barring his way, and sternly saying, “Get back. She doesn’t want to see you.”

But did this discourage Voight? Absolutely not.

32. She Ran Away From Him

Jolie’s father tried to corner her every chance he got, even showing up at her London hotel. The second Jolie spotted him, she grabbed her son Maddox and made a mad dash for the nearest cab. In her hurry to escape Voight, she even left her luggage behind. Their relationship was a mess, and it was only about to get worse.

By the time Voight slandered her name on Access Hollywood, Jolie was at her wit’s end.

33. She Cut Him Out

Jolie no longer considered Voight her father and took action to remove “Voight” from her name. But although her relationship with her father was at an end, Jolie had a greater concern on her mind—raising her son Maddox. As rocky as other parts of her life were, becoming a mother saved Jolie from spiraling into a dark place.

She later said, “I knew once I committed to Maddox, I would never be self-destructive again.” While Jolie overcame her demons and devoted herself to motherhood, this next diva struggled to leave her past behind her.

34. Whitney Houston: The Price Of Addiction

In March of 1993, Whitney Houston gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who she named Bobbi Kristina Brown. Both Houston and Bobbi Brown had yearned to start their own family, and they’d finally done it. But whether these two eager stars were cut out for parenthood was another question entirely. Plagued by scores of her own demons, Houston wasn’t ready to sacrifice her vices for the sake of her daughter.

35. She Saw Them At Their Worst

Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina was a witness to some of her mother’s worst years of substance use, sometimes helping to take care of her mother during a time when her mother should have been taking care of her. An anonymous family remembers recalls visiting the Houstons and Bobby and having a preteen Bobbi Kristina answer the door, advising that Bobby Brown had to put Whitney to bed.

The room was covered in dirty clothes and dishes, and the family source could only describe it as “the bedroom of a junkie.” Still, the heartbreaking consequences of Bobbi’s upbringing became even more magnified after Houston’s tragic passing…

36. Like Mother, Like Daughter

Following the loss of her mother, Bobbi Kristina frequently made tabloid headlines for all the same reasons Houston had—substance use, unstable relationships, and dramatic weight loss. There was also a dispute about her relationship with a man named Nick Gordon, who she’d grown up with and had, according to rumors, married. Tragically, the eerie similarities to her mother’s troubles didn’t end there.

37. She Followed In Her Footsteps

On January 31, 2015, Bobbi Kristina’s friend and rumored partner Nick Gordon found her floating face down in a bathtub in her home. They called an ambulance and performed CPR, but the damage was done. She spent the next six months in and out of a coma before ultimately passing away at the age of 22 on July 26, 2015.

Addiction plagued the Houstons and brought about their tragic ends. Quite similarly, this next mother fell prey to an entertainment industry that destroyed her from the inside out.

38. Judy Garland: The Most Competitive Mother

Nowadays, Judy Garland’s dysfunction—including her addiction to pills and her erratic behaviors on set—is Hollywood legend. But for her daughter Liza Minelli, it was a nightmare she woke up to every day. As a child, Liza even had to empty out her mother’s pills and replace the contents with sugar, just to curb the legend’s habit. It was a harsh way to grow up, and it would only get more tragic.

39. Her Mother Made Horrific Threats

According to Liza, one of her earliest memories was that when Garland was upset, she would constantly announce that she was going to overdose in the family bathroom, then lock herself in. One day, Garland had been in there so long that the girl cut through the screen window with a pair of scissors to check on her mother. That’s when she made an incredibly adult discovery.

Luckily, Garland was still alive, and Minnelli found that her mother had simply dumped the bottle of aspirin she was planning on using down the toilet. However, instead of viewing this as a cry for help, the immature girl only treated it as a game, believing this somehow meant, “All she wanted was attention!” No wonder she got so screwed up…

40. She Didn’t Have A Home

Liza’s entire childhood was filled to the brim with show business. She spent more time on the road or running around MGM studios with her mother than she did anywhere else—especially after her parents divorced in 1951. Indeed, her itinerant little life was actually the inspiration behind the children’s character Eloise, who famously lives in a hotel. If that sounds like a fairy tale for a child, it was more of a horror story.

During her romps around on tour with her mother, Garland expected Liza to be little more than an assistant to her. Later, Liza recalled how Judy would travel around with dozens of luggage bags, while Liza herself was always responsible for her mother’s “personal ice bucket” because Garland hated hotel amenities. Even so, Judy always knew how to keep reeling her daughter in.

41. Her Mom Gave Her A Cruel Putdown

By the time she was three years old, Liza had already appeared in her mother’s film In the Good Old Summertime, and she grew ravenous for more. Her mother’s reaction was disturbing. When Liza announced her intention to follow in her footsteps, Garland’s first response was, “Now don’t get upset because of the way they may compare you to me.” Um, thanks mom. But then this got weirder.

42. She Had A Shaky Debut

When Liza was 18, the coltish teenager was finally ready for the full force of the spotlight, and she convinced her mother to let her go on stage with her during Garland’s performance at the Palladium in London. She wasn’t an instant hit: When Garland purred, “And now, Miss Liza Minnelli,” the crown gave only polite applause. Little did they know, Minnelli was about to blow their minds.

43. She Threatened Her Own Mother

Liza may have gotten her foot in the door because of her family connections, but her incredible voice was all her own. She gave the performance of a lifetime at the Palladium that day, winning over the audience by the end of her song. Afterward, the crowd erupted in thunderous clapping for the new star. Only, instead of being happy for her daughter, Garland’s dark side came out.

It seems that Judy Garland was just as surprised as anyone that Liza had that kind of star power in her. One friend describes how taken aback the veteran performer was after watching her daughter—and how uncomfortable. Reportedly, Garland yanked Minnelli right off stage after the curtain call and pushed her into the wings, a “big, steely smile” on her face all the while.

Suddenly, Liza looked like competition. The consequences? Absolutely heartbreaking.

44. Her Mother Missed Her Most Important Performance

Minnelli has often declined to discuss her true relationship with her mother Judy Garland, and we have only found out some of their highs and lows in dribs and drabs. Even so, perhaps no incident illustrates their dysfunction more than Garland’s actions on Minnelli’s first major opening night, when she was performing in the off-Broadway show Best Foot Forward.

The first uncomfortable detail? Garland didn’t even show up, something the newspapers caught wind of immediately and criticized. But the worst of it went on in Minnelli’s dressing room that night.

45. She Made A Frenzied Phone Call

Minnelli had been so certain her mother would show up that when she didn’t see her face in the audience, she took her first opportunity to track her down. At intermission, Minnelli called her mother’s hotel. She then listened as the legend picked up the phone from her room. When Minnelli asked Garland why she bailed when she clearly didn’t have anywhere else to be, things got complicated fast.

According to Minnelli, her mother explained that she had thought that opening night was the next night, as if that was an excuse for missing your daughter’s big day. Still, the saddest part happened next. In remembering this call, Minnelli insists that her mother did this all on purpose. According to her, Garland didn’t want to take away her daughter’s thunder on the first day. Although Garland did indeed show up the next night, we may never know her true motives.

This next star also ushered his daughter into the acting world—but few know his darker history.

46. Henry Fonda: A Raging Temper

Henry Fonda was one of Hollywood’s greatest stars, and with his piercing blue eyes and formidable acting chops, he captured the hearts of many. However, after he returned from the horrors of WWII, he hadn’t so much changed as crystallized into a hardened, distant man. His family got it worst of all. Firstly, Fonda had extreme difficulty expressing his emotions.

Whenever he felt his wife or children were demanding feelings from him, he would have terrifying “outbursts of anger” that reverberated through the house. And that wasn’t all.

47. He Wouldn’t Say “I Love You”

Fonda did a number on both his children in incredibly awful ways. While Peter Fonda claimed his father never said “I love you” or heard it back until Henry was elderly, Jane admitted that her father instilled in her the idea that, “Unless you look perfect, you’re not going to be loved.” But believe it or not, this wasn’t Fonda’s worst transgression. It was about to get worse…much worse.

48. He Lied To His Family

When his wife Frances Seymour took her own life, Fonda’s children Jane and Peter were only 12 and 10 years old. Thinking he was protecting them, Fonda told them a horrific lie. Instead of admitting the true circumstances of their mother’s passing, Fonda claimed that she succumbed to heart failure. Maybe that’s forgivable, but his next actions sure weren’t.

49. He Gave His Wife A Cruel Goodbye

Fonda was a man who did nothing by halves, and he took his dishonesty about Frances to the next level. Likely afraid of any “unnecessary” outpourings of emotion, Fonda didn’t even let his own children go to their mother’s funeral, instead putting on a hasty affair with just himself and his mother-in-law in attendance. Oh, but that wasn’t all.

50. He Controlled His Children

Fonda’s final turn of the screw was a doozy. In order to completely hide the truth from his children, he canceled all newspaper and magazine subscriptions to their house, lest they stumble across a story about it. Despite Fonda’s efforts, he couldn’t hide the truth. Young Jane found out about her own mother’s tragic end while thumbing through a magazine in a study hall.

However, despite Henry Fonda’s poor choices, his daughter Jane was willing to give him a second chance…

51. His Daughter Gave Him A Heartbreaking Gift

As Fonda became elderly, his daughter Jane bought the film rights to Ernest Thompson’s play On Golden Pond. The reason behind this move was heartbreaking. Jane thought the play, which outlines the relationship between an emotionally distant father to his daughter, was the perfect way for her and her father to work out some of their own issues. One heartbreaking moment on set proved her right.

52. His Emotions Finally Broke Through

During a scene where Jane’s character tells Henry’s character that she wants to be friends, one tiny detail nearly made the notoriously stoic Henry Fonda break down. In the take that appears in the film, Jane Fonda decided to grab her father’s hand. Her gesture was so emotional that Fonda turned away in an attempt to hide his tears. See? Underneath his cold exterior, Henry Fonda did have a heart…unlike this next diabolical mother.

53. Brigitte Bardot: An Unwelcome Surprise

When the 24-year-old Brigitte Bardot found out she was pregnant, her world turned upside down…and not in a good way. At the time, she had absolutely no desire to become a mother, and it was only at the urging of her partner, actor Jacques Charrier, that she kept the baby and agreed to marry him. But from there on out, their relationship turned sour.

Before long, it became painfully clear that, for her marriage, motherhood was the beginning of the end.

54. She Was A Horrible Mother

Already overwhelmed by fame, Bardot had no idea how to properly raise a child. And so when Nicolas was born, she felt completely lost at sea. This was not the life she’d signed up for. But that wasn’t all. The press began to take stabs at her, ruthlessly attacking her maternal deficiencies. And just when Bardot thought it couldn’t get any worse…it did.

55. She Gave Up Her Child

With her marriage already on the rocks, Bardot couldn’t afford for her tenuous relationship to take another hit. Unfortunately, everything came crashing down when her husband Charrier was shipped off to Nice for a two-year stint in the army. His absence only fueled her resentment and her growing unhappiness. Consequently, it was never meant to last.

56. She Felt Trapped

Bardot and Charrier divorced in 1962. But a husband wasn’t the only thing she lost. In the end, Charrier gained custody of her son Nicolas…Brigitte Bardot was finally free. But even with the weight of motherhood off her shoulders, happiness seemed far out of reach. Unfortunately, abandonment wasn’t the only betrayal she dealt her son.

57. She Wrote A Disturbing Tell-All

Years later, when Brigitte Bardot decided to publish an autobiography, she didn’t really give a second thought to the consequences of her actions. She wrote with passion, gusto, and a whole lot of spite. The things she wrote about her husband Jacques Charrier and son Nicolas were so slanderous—it completely destroyed her relationship with them forever.

58. She Slandered Her Ex

Bardot unleashed damaging vitriol on her ex-husband, condemning Charrier as a “vulgar, dictatorial and uncontrolled macho, a gigolo and despicable alcoholic.” But perhaps even more disturbing were her hateful comments about motherhood. In fact, Bardot made it painfully clear that she never wanted Nicolas in the first place.

59. She Wounded Her Son

When writing about her pregnancy, Bardot referred to her baby as a “tumor.” She also wrote, “I looked at my flat, slender belly in the mirror like a dear friend upon whom I was about to close a coffin lid.” But the most disturbing part of all was her heartbreaking attempts to abort her child. She remembers pounding on her stomach and trying to secure a prescription for morphine.

Enraged by his ex-wife’s book, Charrier felt he had no choice but to seek revenge.

60. Her Husband Wanted Revenge

Charrier sued Bardot for the 80 pages of her autobiography wherein she tore down his reputation and scorned their son. But although he claimed over £1 million in damages, in the end, Bardot and her publisher only had to pay £28,000. Her lawyers argued that the superstar had every right to speak openly about her life and that the only privacy in danger was her own.

Like Bardot, this next star thought that a husband and a baby would lead to happiness. But, of course, she was wrong.

61. Nina Simone: Passing On Her Demons

There’s a reason people called Nina Simone “The High Priestess of Soul”—her talent was almost other-worldly. Yet for every demon Simone exorcised on stage, there was always another lurking around the next bend. When Simone fell in love with New York detective Andrew Stroud, she thought she’d found the man of her dreams…

In 1961, Simone tied the knot with Stroud, and before long, he became her manager and then the father of her child, Lisa Simone Kelly. But this was no fairy tale. Not only was Stroud a horrible husband, but Simone was woefully unprepared to take on motherhood.

62. She Abandoned Her Family

In the 70s, Nina Simone’s poor parenting reached an all-time low. As a result of her jet-setting ways, her life became incredibly unstable. Simone was all over the place, moving from Barbados over to Liberia—but all the while, she was hiding a dark secret. During this time, she all but abandoned her young daughter, Lisa, foisting her off onto friends or her father while she went off adventuring.

And when Lisa decided to visit her mother in Liberia, it only got worse.

63. She Hurt Her Daughter

Although Lisa once believed her mother was her “comfort” in the face of her aggressive father, the tables quickly turned. As Lisa confessed, “Now she was the person that was doing the beating, and she was beating me.” The situation was so dire, the girl even considered taking her own life before fleeing back home. In fighting her own demons, Simone bestowed some of them unto her own daughter.

And as far as absent parents go, this next legendary actor was a bona fide disappearing act.

64. Christopher Plummer: Nowhere To Be Found

Christopher Plummer’s legacy is carried on by his daughter, the actress Amanda Plummer. But the actor’s start as a father wasn’t a great one. In fact, it couldn’t have been worse. He actually ditched the birthing room when his wife, and Amanda’s mother, was in the middle of labor. And the reason he left was awful too: He wanted to go out on a bender.

Unfortunately, his disappointing parenting didn’t end there.

65. He Fathered A Star

Plummer admits he was a lousy husband and an even worse father. He barely saw his lovely daughter Amanda after the birth. Once she grew up and embarked on her own acting career, many filmgoers were slow to realize that Pulp Fiction’s Amanda Plummer and Christopher were related. One thing is for sure, though: She definitely inherited her father’s acting chops.

Luckily for Plummer, his daughter made a name for herself despite his many shortcomings—but the same can’t be said for this next heartbreaking story.

66. Edith Piaf: The Resentful Teen

Edith Piaf will always be one of the greatest, and most celebrated, French entertainers. But while her soaring vocals captured her audiences, her mothering abilities were a whole other story…When Piaf found out she was pregnant, she reluctantly made a necessary sacrifice. She sadly conceded to her partner, Louis Dupont, and gave up singing to make wreaths in a factory throughout the course of her pregnancy. Was she bitter about it? 100 percent.

Finally, in February 1933, 17-year-old Piaf gave birth to a beautiful baby girl—Marcelle. But the young mother was in for a rude awakening: Motherhood wasn’t everything she hoped it would be.

67. She Resented Her Daughter

Still a child in her own right, Piaf had no idea how to rear a child, nor was she much interested in doing so. Singing proved far more interesting than a baby and she couldn’t wait to be back on the streets. Dupont detested Piaf’s selfishness and apathy toward Marcelle. During a heated quarrel over her irresponsible behavior, Piaf made a rash decision.

She left him. She and her roommate Momone took the child and moved out. But Dupont wasn’t about to let her get away with it.

68. She Chose Music Over Motherhood

Piaf and Momone frequented the red-light district of Paris—Pigalle, and it was there that she found a job singing at a lesbian club called Lulu’s. Her audience of struggling delinquents reminded her of the family she had growing up. These were her people and they related to her repertoire of songs that spoke to their common struggles—her chansons réalistes.

These supposed lowlifes had far more in common with her than the baby girl waiting for her at home.

69. She Put Her In Danger

Piaf’s and Momone’s new lodging was at the Hôtel Au Clair de Lune, where her neg