Celebrity Family Feuds That Went Public<\/p>\n
CONTENT WARNING: This post discusses emotional and physical abuse, as well as substance misuse.<\/p>\n
In the unlikely event that you missed it, Brooklyn Beckham<\/a> recently exploded our timelines by airing his grievances with his famous parents, David and Victoria Beckham, in a scathing 821-word statement posted to his Instagram Story. And the public drama is so monumentally messy that it\u2019s giving the Kardashians a run for their money.<\/p>\n Naturally, the chaos got me thinking about other big family dramas in the celebrity world, and as it turns out, there are loads \u2014 tons of which you\u2019ve probably forgotten about, too.<\/p>\n So, without further ado, here’s a detailed roundup of some horrifically messy and super sad times that celebs aired their family drama with the world.<\/p>\n 1.<\/p>\n DEMI MOORE AND HER DAUGHTERS<\/p>\n Around the time of her 2011 separation<\/a> from ex-husband Ashton Kutcher<\/a>, Demi Moore<\/a> broke her 20-year sobriety and began abusing substances, leading to a near-death experience<\/a> at a party in 2012. In her 2019 memoir, Inside Out, Demi wrote about this difficult time in her life and explained how it destroyed her relationship with her three daughters: Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah, whom she shares with her first husband, Bruce Willis<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe girls were angry I’d become so dependent on Ashton,\u201d Demi wrote. \u201cI was addicted to him, is the best way I can put it, and I did all the things that addicts do. I prioritized my addiction over my needs and the needs of my family.\u201d The rift became so bad that Scout and Tallulah didn\u2019t speak to their mom for three years, while Rumer would check in with Demi occasionally when friends of the family would express concern for her well-being.<\/p>\n During a 2019 appearance on Red Table Talk<\/a> alongside Rumer and Demi, Tallulah explained her side of the estrangement, saying: \u201cShe relapsed when I was nine, and no one in our family spoke about it\u2026There were many years of saying she was sober and she wasn\u2019t, and we couldn\u2019t trust it.\u201d In the same interview, Rumer said that her mom\u2019s focus on Ashton made her and her sisters feel that they weren\u2019t \u201cenough.\u201d To this, Demi agreed that her codependency on Ashton was \u201cmore devastating\u201d than her substance abuse, because it took her away from her kids \u201cemotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n Demi went to rehab in 2012<\/a> to seek treatment for addiction and an eating disorder. Demi and her daughters are thankfully in a great place now, with the actor saying in 2021<\/a> that the 2020 lockdowns served as valuable bonding time for the family.<\/p>\n 2.<\/p>\n MACAULAY CULKIN AND HIS DAD<\/p>\n During his child-acting career throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Macaulay was managed by his father, Kit Culkin. Starting in the early 2000s, the Home Alone<\/a> star has claimed that Kit was \u201cabusive<\/a>\u201d and would physically harm him, his siblings, and his mom, Patricia Brentrup. \u201cHe beat our spirits down\u2026You really just had to be there to see what kind of a man he was,\u201d Macaulay told New York magazine<\/a> back in 2001.<\/p>\n After Patricia and Kit split in 1995, Macaulay gained control of his earnings to help his mom financially. In the legal battle, Kit denied<\/a> claims of physical abuse. After Kit\u2019s name was removed from Macaulay\u2019s trust fund, he abandoned the custody trial. Kit and Macaulay have been estranged ever since, and the now-45-year-old actor has maintained his abuse claims<\/a>, making it clear that a reconciliation is not on the cards.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to him in about 30-something years,\u201d the actor said on the Sibling Revelry<\/a> podcast<\/a> in April 2025. \u201cOh, he deserves it, too. He’s a man who \u2014 he had seven kids, and now he has four grandkids. And, none of them want anything to do with him.\u201d<\/p>\n 3.<\/p>\n SHANNA MOAKLER AND HER KIDS<\/p>\n Since Travis Barker began publicly dating Kourtney Kardashian in 2021, Travis\u2019s ex-wife, Shanna Moakler, has made numerous allegations about the Kardashian family and how they apparently \u201cdestroyed<\/a>\u201d her relationship with her kids, Landon and Alabama Barker. \u201cThe Kardashians are buying my kids Prada every other day,\u201d she told Us Weekly<\/a> back in 2021. \u201cThey\u2019re going on lavish trips. They\u2019re doing all these things\u2026I don\u2019t think it\u2019s great when they put a wedge in between their biological mother.\u201d<\/p>\n Alabama and Landon have publicly suggested that Shanna hasn\u2019t always been the best mom to them, with Landon once describing her as an \u201cabsent parent.\u201d Alabama also bashed Shanna via Instagram Stories<\/a> in 2021, asking fans to \u201cstop painting her out to be an amazing mom.\u201d In 2024, the family feud reached new heights when Shanna appeared on the Dumb Blonde podcast and accused Kourtney and Travis of \u201cparental alienation<\/a>,\u201d as well as branding the Kardashian family as \u201cdisgusting.\u201d Giving a direct callout to her estranged kids, Shanna said, \u201cGo do what you guys need to do, and when you\u2019re ready, I will be here loving you unconditionally. And I will be here as your mother, and I will wait.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, Alabama seemed to cryptically respond to her mom\u2019s messy quotes with an Instagram Story<\/a> about distancing herself from people who constantly let her down. That was two years ago, and it seems Landon and Alabama still spend most of their time with Travis. For her part, Shanna has denied accusations that she\u2019s a \u201cdeadbeat mom,\u201d telling People<\/a> in 2024: \u201cI have a very close relationship with my children who are now adults\u2026They have both taken back what they said about me and apologized.\u201d Speaking on a TikTok livestream<\/a> in December 2025, Alabama said that she and her mom don\u2019t see each other often, but regularly talk on the phone.<\/p>\n Before we get into this one, a quick family tree is essential: Tish Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus married in 1993 and raised five children together: Brandi, Trace, Miley, Braison, and Noah. When Tish and Billy Ray divorced in 2022, it was widely speculated that the breakup caused a divide between the Cyrus siblings: with Braison and Noah supporting their dad, and Brandi, Trace, and Miley staying in their mom\u2019s corner.<\/p>\n The feud rumors became a public talking point in August 2023<\/a>, when Tish married Prison Break star Dominic Purcell. Fans noticed that only Miley, Trace, and Brandi attended the nuptials, while Noah and Braison seemed to be shading the wedding<\/a> on social media. By February 2024, the rift became hard to ignore as Miley made a point of not thanking her dad<\/a> in her Grammy acceptance speeches.<\/p>\n As time went on, more and more reports came out about the cause of the divide between the Cyrus siblings, with one insider claiming that it all stemmed from Noah\u2019s alleged past relationship with Dominic<\/a>. None of this has ever been confirmed, but, in June 2025, after literal years of speculation, Miley gave an update on the \u201chard\u201d family feud, describing her parents\u2019 divorce as a \u201cmess.\u201d \u201cHalf of us weren’t speaking to each other at one point, and we cleaned all that up,\u201d she said during an interview with Monica Lewinsky<\/a>. \u201cI had a lot of loyalty to my mom\u2026To get each other in a room to even get to counseling would have been a war.\u201d<\/p>\n After all that, it sounds like Miley is back on good terms with her dad and siblings. But it seems the same can\u2019t be said for her older brother, Trace, who has continued to publicly criticize<\/a> Billy Ray, saying on Instagram in June 2025: \u201cI’m past the point of even caring if I ever speak to him again.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the past few years, Britney has spoken more openly than ever about her family and the roles they played in her 13-year-long conservatorship, which ended in 2021. Though it was her dad, Jamie, who was in charge of her personal and financial affairs during that time, Britney has also criticized her mom, Lynn, and sister, Jamie Lynn, for their apparent abandonment of her while she was under her father\u2019s control, once even claiming that her mom was to blame<\/a> for the conservatorship in the first place. (Both Lynn and Jamie Lynn have publicly maintained that they tried to \u201chelp<\/a>\u201d and \u201csupport<\/a>\u201d Britney.)<\/p>\n As for the sibling feud specifically, Britney and Jamie Lynn\u2019s relationship reached rock bottom in 2022 when Britney called out her sister for allegedly making false claims<\/a> about her in her book, writing on Instagram: \u201cI wish you would take a lie detector test so all these masses of people see you’re lying through your teeth about me.\u201d At the time, Jamie Lynn denied this<\/a>. Then, in Britney\u2019s 2023 memoir, The Woman In Me, the pop icon called Jamie Lynn a \u201ctotal bitch<\/a>,\u201d claiming that she once told her to \u201cstop fighting\u201d the conservatorship.<\/p>\n While a reconciliation seems like an unlikely possibility for Britney and her father, it seems like she\u2019d perhaps be open to rebuilding some kind of relationship with her mom and sister one day. In her book, Britney talked about \u201cworking to feel more compassion than anger\u201d towards the people who have \u201cwronged\u201d her, so who knows what the future holds.<\/p>\n 6.<\/p>\n ALEC AND IRELAND BALDWIN<\/p>\n In 2007, amid Alec Baldwin\u2019s messy divorce from Kim Basinger, a voicemail he left for their daughter, Ireland, was leaked to the media. In the message, Alec can be heard calling the then-11-year-old girl a \u201crude, thoughtless little pig\u201d after she didn\u2019t answer the phone.<\/p>\n Alec apologized<\/a> for the voicemail, publicly and privately, but said in 2017 that it caused a \u201cpermanent break<\/a>\u201d in his relationship with Ireland. \u201cIt’s thrown in your face every day. There are people who admonish me, or attack me, and use that as a constant spearhead to do that,\u201d he said, comparing it to a \u201cscab that never heals because it’s been picked at all the time by so many people. My daughter \u2014 that’s hurt her in a permanent way.\u201d<\/p>\n Luckily, as time has passed, it seems the father-daughter relationship has healed, and they\u2019ve both been able to see the funny side of things. In 2019, Ireland joked about the voicemail during an appearance at Alec\u2019s Comedy Central Roast<\/a>, and more recently, the 30 Rock star told the New York Times that Ireland gifted him a pig-shaped grill<\/a> for Father\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n 7.<\/p>\n THE GALLAGHER BROTHERS<\/p>\n When it comes to sibling feuds, does it really get more infamous than Liam and Noel Gallagher? Unlike some of these other family dramas, the tension between the Oasis frontmen is hard to pin down to a single event and is more a case of their apparent incompatibility as people. From the very early days of Oasis, it was no secret that the brothers would have bitter arguments<\/a> that often ended with one of them threatening to leave the band. But it wasn\u2019t until 2009 that things truly imploded.<\/p>\n By this point in the band\u2019s timeline, Liam and Noel were traveling to Oasis shows separately, with Noel describing their relationship as \u201cexcruciating<\/a>.\u201d Among other things about his brother\u2019s behavior, Noel was frustrated by how Liam was using their world tour to promote his clothing brand, and before they were due to hit the stage at that fateful Paris concert, Liam allegedly started welding a guitar at Noel \u201clike an axe.\u201d The apparent physical altercation was the final straw, and Noel announced that he was leaving the band, writing online: \u201cI simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.\u201d<\/p>\n For the next 15 years, the brothers would get into repeated public spats<\/a> and insult each other via social media posts \u2014 until 2024 rolled around and the Oasis reunion was finally announced. So, maybe there\u2019s hope for us all.<\/p>\n 8.<\/p>\n PRINCE HARRY AND THE ROYAL FAMILY<\/p>\n Prince Harry\u2019s relationship with the rest of the British Royal Family may well be one of the most high-profile family dramas of all time, so let\u2019s just highlight some of the key points. For starters, Harry\u2019s relationship with his dad, King Charles III, and brother, Prince William, had long been a talking point in the UK media, but when Harry got engaged to Meghan Markle in 2017, the scrutiny only ramped up.<\/p>\n Harry and Meghan tied the knot in 2018 and welcomed their first child together, Archie, in 2019. That same year, Harry also sued tabloid publishers<\/a> for alleged illegal reporting practices and invasion of his privacy. (In December 2023, he won 15 claims<\/a> in his case against the Mirror Group Newspapers, but his legal battle with Associated Newspapers Limited is still ongoing.) By the start of 2020, Harry and Meghan had announced their plans to step back as senior working royals<\/a> and become financially independent, but it wasn\u2019t until the following year that we heard their full side of the story.<\/p>\n In March 2021, Harry and Meghan sat down for a high-profile interview with Oprah Winfrey<\/a>, in which they made claims about mental health struggles, safety, and alleged racist concerns within the Royal Family regarding their son\u2019s skin tone. (Prince William has denied that the Royal Family is \u201cracist<\/a>.\u201d) In the following year or so, Princes Harry and William would reunite at the separate funerals of Prince Phillip and Queen Elizabeth II. However, as we\u2019d later find out in Harry\u2019s memoir, tensions between the brothers were still high.<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s book, Spare, came out in January 2023, and among the revelations was an anecdote about an alleged physical altercation<\/a> between Harry and William in 2019. Harry\u2019s legal battles have continued to play out publicly over the past few years, bringing us to 2026, where we have reports<\/a> that King Charles is open to a reconciliation, while William is \u201cstrongly opposed.\u201d<\/p>\n 9.<\/p>\n MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY AND HIS MOM<\/p>\n On a number of occasions, Matthew McConaughey has talked about the \u201csad time\u201d in his life when he had to limit contact with his mom, Kathleen “Kay” McConaughey, after he discovered that she was leaking stories about his life to the press. \u201cI was calling my mom at that time, after I\u2019d gotten famous, needing to talk to my mom,\u201d the Oscar winner said during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show<\/a> in 2020. \u201cAnd my mom was not the only one on the phone. The woman that was on the phone was a fan \u2014 of my fame.\u201d<\/p>\n Discussing their \u201chiatus\u201d from one another in a joint interview in 2025, Matthew said his mom \u201ccouldn\u2019t help herself<\/a>\u201d but leak stories about his life, saying: \u201cWe had about an eight-year period where I had to have short conversations with her on our Sunday phone calls because she was sharing a lot of that information. I\u2019d tell her something on Sunday between son and mom, and Tuesday I\u2019d read about it in the news or see it in the local paper.\u201d<\/p>\n In the same interview, Kay recalled a time that she even let cameras into their home for a tour, showing them \u201cwhere Matthew slept.\u201d \u201cSomeone called him and said, \u2018Are you watching what your mama\u2019s doing?\u2019 But I was so proud that I was just telling the world,\u201d she said, before Matthew revealed how he eventually reached a turning point. \u201cAbout eight years after that, I got stable enough with my own position and fame that I was like, \u2018You know what? My mom can say whatever the hell she wants.\u2019 It\u2019s much more fun now…I\u2019d say we\u2019re closer now.\u201d<\/p>\n 10.<\/p>\n FRANCES BEAN COBAIN AND COURTNEY LOVE<\/p>\n Frances Bean Cobain, the only daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, hasn\u2019t always had an easy relationship with her mom. Following instances of<\/a> drug misuse<\/a>, Courtney lost custody of Frances numerous times in the first decade of her life, during which time she was taken care of by her grandmother, Wendy O’Connor, Kurt\u2019s mom.<\/p>\n During an interview with i-D magazine in 2006<\/a>, Frances described complicated feelings about her mother\u2019s chaotic lifestyle growing up, saying: \u201cSometimes I do think I wish our lives weren\u2019t so hustle and bustle and tabloid and all that stuff wasn\u2019t going on. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so much at home alone and that it wasn’t about nannies and chauffeurs and all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Three years later, in 2009, Frances\u2019s grandmother and aunt, Kimberly Dawn Cobain, were granted custody<\/a> of the then-17-year-old girl. Around this time, Courtney expressed frustrations about her late husband\u2019s relatives, reportedly writing on Facebook<\/a>: \u201cWelcome to the hidden, secret, ugly, white-trash, money-grubbing side of the family. Please don\u2019t judge the Bean by it. She\u2019s a great person, they\u2019re just gross.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear exactly how close the mother and daughter are today, as Frances has continued to express mixed feelings about Courtney. \u201cWhen my mom is on a right and healthy path, she is one of the most fulfilling, beautiful, intelligent, and kind people I ever met,” she said in a 2019 appearance on RuPaul\u2019s What’s the Tee? podcast<\/a>. \u201cI want our relationship to be based on open communication and love and truth and awareness on how our actions affect the other person.\u201d In September 2024, Frances and her husband, Riley Hawk \u2014 the son of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk \u2014 welcomed their first child together<\/a>.<\/p>\n 11.<\/p>\n ARIEL WINTER AND HER MOM<\/p>\n When she was a teen in 2012, Ariel accused her mother, Crystal Workman, of emotional and physical abuse<\/a>. Crystal, who was accused of sexualizing her daughter, as well as hitting, pushing, and slapping her, denied the allegations. However, Ariel\u2019s older sister, Shanelle Gray, was still able to obtain legal guardianship of the Modern Family actor when she was 14, until Ariel became an emancipated minor three years later.<\/p>\n In 2017, she opened up about aspects of the alleged abuse in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, saying that her diet was \u201cvery, very restricted\u201d from the very start of her child-acting career, and that her education was severely neglected.<\/a> Of the sexualization claims, Ariel said: \u201c[My mother would dress me in] the smallest miniskirts, sailor suits, low-cut things, the shortest dresses you’ve ever seen. People thought I was 24 when I was 12. If there was going to be a nude scene when I was that age, my mother would have a thousand percent said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n The week after this interview was published, Crystal attempted to publicly reconcile<\/a> with her daughter, but for Ariel, that was never an option \u2014 and still isn\u2019t. In an interview with People<\/a> in 2025, Ariel opened up about the happiness she\u2019s found since finding independence and stepping away from Hollywood. \u201cIt\u2019s a really deep, painful, sore, sore part for me that\u2019s so much deeper and bigger than I\u2019ve ever felt ready to talk about,\u201d she said of her childhood. \u201cI didn\u2019t leave the industry, I just left the city of LA. It holds some not-great memories for me, and I\u2019m young and never lived anywhere else and thought, \u2018Why not?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n 12.<\/p>\n JENNETTE MCCURDY AND HER MOM<\/p>\n In 2022, Jennette memorably released a memoir titled, I’m Glad My Mom Died. In the book, Jennette opened up about the alleged abuse<\/a> she experienced at the hands of her mother, Debra McCurdy, who died from cancer in 2013. One of the biggest aspects of the mother-daughter relationship was Debra\u2019s apparent desire for control, from pushing her kids into acting to controlling Jennette\u2019s calorie consumption from a young age. Disturbingly, Jennette also claimed<\/a> that her mom would insist on performing vaginal and breast exams on her throughout childhood, and didn\u2019t let her shower alone until she was 17.<\/p>\n \u201cShe says she wants to make sure I don\u2019t have any mysterious lumps or bumps because those could be cancer. I say okay because I definitely don\u2019t want cancer, and since Mom\u2019s had it and all, she would know if I do,” the former iCarly child-star wrote. \u201cI usually just try and think of Disneyland when Mom\u2019s doing the exams…By the time the exams are done, a huge wave of relief washes over my whole body, and I usually realize that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve felt my body since the exam started.\u201d<\/p>\n In light of their complex relationship, it took Jennette a while to come to terms with her mom\u2019s death, which is one of the reasons she went on to quit acting<\/a>. \u201cWith her death kind of died a lot of her ideas for my life,\u201d Jennette said in 2021, \u201cand that was its own journey, and a difficult one for sure.\u201d In 2025, it was announced that Jennette is working with Apple TV to adapt<\/a> I\u2019m Glad My Mom Died into a 10-episode series, in which Jennifer Aniston will play Debra.<\/p>\n So, these family dramas are messy, but let me know your thoughts on all of this in the comments.<\/p>\n