Kelly Clarkson, Chris Pratt, Halle Berry and More Celebrities Who Once Were Homeless

Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson shot to stardom after being crowned the first American Idol — but before auditioning for the show, the “Miss Independent” singer was forced to sleep in her car. 

“I moved from Texas to L.A. with a random stranger,” Kelly recalls. “She just needed a roommate. I was like, ‘I’ll do it!’” 

But the arrangement didn’t last long, because the place where they were living caught on fire! 

“[So] then I slept in my car for a few days and then tried out for a show called American Idol so it all worked out.” 

It definitely did — after she won the singing competition in 2002, the cash started rolling in, thanks to hits like “Since U Been Gone,” a gig as a coach on The Voice and her own talk show. 

“You’ve really got to want your dream,” Kelly, 42, says. “The universe makes you really want it.”

Chris Pratt

The well-heeled hunk’s movies — including the Jurassic World flicks and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy — have earned over $5 billion at the box office. But before Chris Pratt bagged his big break on The WB’s Everwood and got guffaws on Parks and Recreation, he was a homeless beach bum in Hawaii. 

Chris, 45, says after graduating high school, he took up a pal’s offer for a one-way ticket to Maui. 

But he explains the move meant he wound up “camping on the beach for a year” with his friends — and sometimes sleeping in a van! 

The screen stud — who married Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s daughter Katherine in 2019 — had only $60 in his pocket when he was offered a role in Cursed: Part 3, which brought him to Los Angeles and paid him $700. 

Now, Chris is said to be worth nearly $100 million — and has six projects and counting in the pipeline.

Kelsey Grammer

The sitcom star, 69, suffered through trying times while he was studying acting at the famed Juilliard School in New York City. 

Despite taking on two jobs to get by, Kelsey still lacked enough dough to put a roof over his head and slept in a park for a few weeks. 

Fortunately, the weather cooperated. “It was still warm enough, I could actually sleep there … for only a few weeks,” he says. “I could sneak behind a certain bush and cover myself with the newspaper, and I was fine. And I showered over at Juilliard.” 

The Frasier alum considers himself lucky to have avoided any serious problems while sleeping in a potentially dangerous place. 

“Whatever it was,” he notes, “there was always something that kept me safe.”

Sylvester Stallone

Before he scored his knockout success as Rocky, a cash-strapped Sylvester was forced to sleep in New York’s notoriously seedy Port Authority Bus Terminal for three weeks after being evicted from his apartment in 1970. 

Desperate for a quick cash infusion, he accepted a starring role in a porn movie that paid $200 for two days’ work. 

“It was either do that movie or rob someone, because I was at the end — the very end — of my rope.” 

The Golden Globe winner faced several more years of poverty before he started flying high as Rocky. 

At one point, he was so broke he sold his dog Butkus for $50 because he couldn’t afford to feed him. After the movie became a huge hit, the Rambo star never had to worry about money again — and was able to buy his dog back. 

Halle Berry

Just three months after the beauty pageant winner moved to New York City in 1989 to pursue a modeling career, her savings ran out and she found herself living in a homeless shelter. 

“I called my mother and asked her to send me some money, and she said no, and that subsequently led to a year of not speaking to her because I was so upset that she wouldn’t help me,” the Monster’s Ball actress recalls. 

But looking back, the Oscar winner, 58, appreciates her mom’s tough love. 

“That’s probably one of the best things she did for me. She said, ‘If you want to be there, then you work it out.’ And I had to work it out.” And for the X-Men star, “Giving up was never an option,” and her resilience definitely paid off. 

Hilary Swank

The Million Dollar Baby star’s childhood was anything but swanky — her early years were spent in a trailer park in the coastal city of Bellingham, Washington. But that was the lap of luxury compared to what happened next — after her parents separated, Hilary, then 15, and her mom moved to Los Angeles. 

“We first lived in her Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme on quiet residential streets. When we weren’t sleeping in the car, we stayed at the house of a new friend my age whose family had just moved out and were trying to sell their home. We slept on an air mattress.” 

When her mom finally landed a job, they were able to afford to rent “a bedroom from a single mother in Burbank.” 

Despite her many successes, Hilary, 50, hasn’t forgotten her humble roots. “Growing up in a lower-income family … infuses your character with a lot of drive and determination,” she says.  

Shania Twain

Growing up in Ontario, Shania’s family was often strapped for cash. They couldn’t afford boots so Shania and her sisters tied plastic bags over their shoes in winter and would often eat “goulash” — dry bread with boiled milk and sugar — for dinner. 

As an eight-year-old, Shania began performing in bars — between midnight and 1 am — to earn $20 to help pay the family’s bills. 

At one point, her mother fled her abusive husband, taking Shania and her siblings with her to a homeless shelter. 

“That night, we slept in a crowded, sweltering place on cot-like beds spread out along the walls of a series of spacious, open rooms designed for large groups,” she recalls. 

Today, the “That Don’t Impress Me Much” singer, who is the best-selling female artist in country music history, is worth over $400 million. But Shania, 59, says, “I’m neither embarrassed of who I am, where I come from, what I’ve experienced.”

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

The wrestler turned actor, 52, suffered more than a few body slams before he ever entered a WWE ring. 

When the future Fast and Furious star was growing up, money was scarce, and his family was frequently evicted, and at one point, ended up homeless. But not having a roof over his head motivated him in the gym. 

“Started training hard at 14yrs old,” he posted on Instagram in 2015. “Not for fame or a competition, but because we were evicted from our small apartment in Hawaii. I reeeeaaaaalllyy hated that feeling of helplessness and never wanted that to happen again. So, I did the only thing I could control with my own two hands … I trained.” 

His fit physique eventually scored him a starring role with the WWE. Hollywood came calling next, and now the former homeless kid is worth $800 million.

Dr. Phil

Longtime show host Phil McGraw doled out heartfelt guidance on his self-named talk show for decades to those down on their luck. But the former TV mental health expert lived his very own nightmare as a homeless teen. 

Dr. Phil, 74, now has an estimated net worth of $460 million. But at 15, he was forced to live in a car in Kansas City with his cash-poor pop, Joseph, who was interning as a psychologist. 

“There was no money for anything, and when I say anything, I mean anything,” recalls Phil, who admits even after there was a roof over their heads it was months before they had heat or electricity. 

The father and son would eventually work in the same practice — and Phil later found fame and fortune in the 1990s by delivering down-home advice on T.V.! 

Jewel

Folk singer Jewel, 50, shot to success with 1995’s Pieces of You, which is one of the best-selling debut albums of all time and spawned the hit single “Who Will Save Your Soul.” But the “Foolish Games” singer had a rocky road to stardom. 

During her childhood in Alaska, Jewel lived in a rural residence that didn’t have electricity or plumbing. But the songbird says she fled an abusive home at 15 and found herself on the streets, experiencing crippling panic attacks and shoplifting to get by. 

“I realized I was going to end up in jail or dead if I didn’t do something,” she admits. “I never drank and never did drugs my whole life. The poverty cycle was just really hard to break.” 

But plucky Jewel found a way to pursue her dreams and is now said to be sitting on a $14 million fortune. 

William Shatner

The Star Trek legend, 93, boldly went where most celebrities never have to go — into the universe of homelessness! 

Incredibly, he went bust after his three-year run as Captain James T. Kirk on the iconic show. 

With no home to beam himself into, he was forced to live in his pickup truck. 

“It was the early 1970s, and I was recently divorced,” William recalls. “I had three kids and was totally broke. I managed to find work back east on the straw-hat circuit — summer stock — but couldn’t afford hotels, so I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell. It had a little stove, a toilet, and I’d drive from theater to theater. The only comfort came from my dog, who sat in the passenger seat and gave me perspective on everything.”

Jim Carrey

Jim, 62, hit tough times as a teen in Canada when his dad lost his job and the family — which included his folks and two siblings — was forced to live in a tent for eight months. 

“When my father lost his job, I was pissed,” confesses the Dumb and Dumber star. “For a while, we went to campsites around Ontario and used the facilities there.” 

Eventually, his dad found a job in a factory, but the family had to serve as janitors and security guards there in exchange for housing across the street. 

In a 2003 interview, Jim admitted the ordeal robbed him of his childhood. 

He said he “ended up being the adult and trying to take care of everything.” 

Still, he’s able to joke about it, cracking, “Of course, I grew up in Canada, so I thought we had just gone camping.”