Born Tiffany Renee Darwish and known simply as Tiffany, the American pop star had two US No 1s and made it to the top of the UK charts with I Think We’re Alone Now in 1988, when she was 16. Since then Tiffany has posed for Playboy as well as featuring in reality TV shows including Celebrity Wife Swap, Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling and the Australian version of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
Now 54, she has been married twice, has one adult son and is a serial entrepreneur living in Nashville, Tennessee with her fiancé.
How much is in your wallet?
There is $1,500 because I’m on the road and paranoid about emergencies. It’s harder now we’re a cashless society but I like having back-up.
Are you a saver or a spender?
I’m a saver now but I remember my accountant quizzing me after a $14,000 shopping spree. I was 17 and I’d just done a TV appearance. I said to my bodyguard, Frank, “Let’s go to Beverly Hills!”
I bought everything. I’d done a tour of shopping malls to promote my music and that turned me into a shopaholic. I bought jeans, tops, jewellery, handbags — if it blinged, it was mine. I bought presents for my mum and my sisters and handed it all to Frank. I loved it. I was feeling really good to be Tiffany that day.
Then I had a sit down with my accountant. He said: “If you keep doing this, you’ll have a problem.” I kind of understood but I ignored that first warning and there were more shopping trips like that before it sunk in.
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Do you own a property?
Yes. I bought my first house in 1989 for $1.6 million — a beautiful rustic home with four bedrooms, huge windows, open beams, white carpets and black slate floors. There were eucalyptus trees, a koi pond and Japanese grass that had to be cut by hand. The French doors opened on to a lake.
It was in a gorgeous setting in California, with its own studio and guesthouse. I bought it from Chuck Norris when I was 18 and it cost $12,000 a month to maintain it. I sold it three years later for $500,000 or $600,000.
I loved living there but as soon as I bought the house I stopped touring, so money wasn’t coming in and it became a challenge to meet my mortgage payments. I became pregnant at 20 so I did a quick sale back to the bank.
Tiffany bought Chuck Norris’s house in 1989, complete with a koi pond and its own studioAlamy
Since then I’ve only bought modest homes because I don’t want the stress or the upkeep. I don’t want to be in a position where I could lose my home if I take a break from work. The house I have now is in rural Nashville — three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a recording studio in the basement. I bought it 17 years ago for $192,000. It came with over eight acres but I sold two and a half acres to a neighbour. I didn’t want to but I needed the money for my divorce. Now I’m planting an orchard on the land I have left.
Are you better off than your parents?
Definitely. I grew up in east LA, where my mum was a housewife and my real father floated in and out of jobs. He sold cars and was entrepreneurial with electronics. He was also an inventor but he never patented things and nothing really happened with them.
He floated between California, Detroit and New York, and even moved to Saudi Arabia for a while, but he was always in my life. My parents divorced when I was two, and my mum and I moved into my grandparents’ house, where we shared a room.
Tiffany spent childhood holidays camping at Big Bear Lake in CaliforniaAlamy
My mum and stepdad married when I was nine. He had his own construction company and before that he was in the army. We lived with him in a two-bedroom house and I had my own room until my sister came along. My stepdad was huge on camping so our holidays were in the Big Bear mountains in California. This was real camping in a tent and I learnt how to fish. That’s probably why I love nature.
How much did you earn last year?
Around $180,000. That’s from everything, including merch, but I didn’t tour much last year.
Have you ever been hard-up?
Definitely. I’ve had to rent places and scrape for the rent. When I first moved to Nashville, at 24, I was a new mum and wasn’t sure if I’d go back into the music industry. So I got a job at Pier 1, a home decor company that sold candles, working in the back with the stock. I’d start at 6am and I was on minimum wage earning $200 or $300 a week. My then husband was a freelance make-up artist, and this was our one income at the time, so bills were tight.
What’s been your most lucrative work?
Touring. I toured extensively, worldwide, making $100,000 to $110,000 a night. The tours were back to back and I did this for three years, from the age of 16 to 19. I didn’t get the full amount because there’s a ton of expenses, and as a kid I didn’t get involved in this stuff. Looking back now, I’d say I got $30,000 to $35,000 a night.
Do you invest in shares?
I had investments in pharmaceuticals but I’m into holistic health and alternative ways so I don’t like this addictive society that’s always “take a pill”. I felt bad so I pulled out a lot of my money. It was probably a dumb decision but it was a moral one.
I’ve reinvested that into technology, but even then, I don’t want AI to take over the world.
What’s been your best business decision?
I’m thankful I recorded I Think We’re Alone Now. The music industry is not profitable, and there’s very little profit in TV and film, but I’ve been able to turn that stardom into many different things. I have an online cooking club, Let’s Food with Tiffany, and I brought out a cookbook called Breakfast with Tiffany. I have a new cookbook coming out called Pop Life: The Ultimate 80’s Kitchen Encore and I’ve just launched the lifestyle platform Let’s Zen My Friend.
After Tiffany’s hit single featured in the TV series Stranger Things she had a surge in followers on social mediaAlamy
I’ve always loved Stranger Things so it was amazing when I Think We’re Alone Now was featured on it. I don’t own the publishing rights of the song so I’ll just get a royalty eventually, for maybe $4,000. But because of the show I got an increase in followers on social media. I’ve seen increased interest in my businesses and brands wanting to partner with me so there’s more money to come through that.
What was your worst business decision?
To stop touring in the early part of my career. I should’ve kept going.
What’s been your best investment?
I invested $40,000 of my own money opening Tiffany’s Boutique. Someone suggested that I open a boutique because I’d shopped all over the world while I was touring. I’d collected vintage pieces and I had a closet to die for.
My friends who were stylists would say, “What are you doing with these pieces, because they don’t fit you and you don’t wear them!” They borrowed clothes for photoshoots and I started renting them out. I’d kept the idea of a boutique, then my stepfather got cancer. He said, “Honey, life is so short. I thought I’d do lots of things that I put on the back burner and it never happened. You have to do what you want to do.”
When he died, I opened Tiffany’s Boutique in 2012, and a second in 2013. I sold vintage, last season from some designers, and funky finds from wherever I’d travelled. We’d tailor the clothes for customers and put garments like Spanx underneath. So many girls would say, “I didn’t know I could wear this.” It was profitable but I closed both boutiques at the end of 2015 because I went on the road. You can’t do both because having a store is so hands-on.
What was your worst investment?
When I was 16, I spent $800,000 on attorney’s bills trying to get emancipation from my mum. I come from a family of alcoholics and they were wonderful people but it was an unstable environment. When I got a record deal and and I was touring, it was put upon me that “this is your job now. It’s not just fun and games. You have a contract and obligations to fulfil”. And I wanted to — this was a dream come true for me — but then I’d call home and I’d hear my aunt was missing or my uncle had stabbed my grandfather. It was crazy stuff.
I got to a point where I was like, “I can’t live in this environment and do ‘Tiffany’ at the same time. As much as I love you guys, I worry all the time and I want some stability. I want to stay with my grandmother because I feel safe there.”
The people working with me could see how much it was messing me up because I’d miss studio sessions after being up all night with drama and worrying about people going to jail. So I got an attorney, and I didn’t want to hurt or expose my family, but they used whatever they could to fight the emancipation case and it got a little bit tit-for-tat.
The headlines said: “The parents want money!” And: “Tiffany thinks she’s too big for her britches — now she’s suing her parents!” It was never about money but everything was out there in public, which felt terrible. That was the first time I understood that I was a celebrity. Everybody’s in your business. You can’t hide things.
The end result was that my auntie became my conservator and I got to live with my grandmother but I had a legal bill of $800,000 and I also had to pay my mother’s legal bill of $300,000 to $400,000. My money was put into a trust and I had to pay my mother $5,000 a month until I was 21. It was expensive and my mother felt betrayed. That’s why now I’m all about: “Before we get ugly, let’s come to the table to try and resolve things. Let’s sit down with a coffee or a glass of wine and talk it out.”
What’s your money weakness?
I love cars. My first car was my Saab, a black convertible with cream interiors. When I was 19 I paid $80,000 for a Porsche 911 Carrera. I think you’d get a Nissan for that now … When I was pregnant at 20, I thought: “I need a sensible car.” I sold the Porsche and bought a Bronco. Then I decided I still wanted fun so I bought another Porsche, just like the first one.
Tiffany at her 18th birthday celebrations in October 1989Getty images
Then I started buying classic cars. I bought a classic Mercedes and a Thunderbird I couldn’t drive. It was way too big for the highway, like driving a boat, so I sold it after a couple of months.
What’s been your most extravagant purchase?
My first real luggage set was beautiful soft brown leather with gold clasps, a stunning set of six or seven pieces. I bought it for $8,000 in Italy while I was touring there when I was 17. I loved it but when I came back to America, it arrived on the baggage claim completely busted. I realised that soft Italian leather was for posh people who fly on private jets, not for people whose luggage gets thrown on the tarmac.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt about money?
You have to spend money to make money. You have to look at it long term and believe in yourself — and sometimes you have to roll the dice.
Tiffany’s cookbook Pop Life: The Ultimate 80’s Kitchen Encore Cookbook is available to pre-order