There is an illusion that once you become rich and famous, all your troubles and everyday worries somehow melt away. However, with great success come even more restrictions. And now, more and more celebrities share their lives and how not all that glitters is gold.
1. Adriana Lima
The Victoria’s Secret runway show is now watched by more than 8 million people worldwide. And though we idealize these angels’ beauty, not many of us understand what it takes to become and maintain this for the annual show.
Adriana Lima is one of the angels who revealed the truth about her preparation routine. She admits that the stereotype about a model’s life being easy and glamorous is not entirely true, and here’s why.
To prepare for the show, every model has to work out like they’re training for a marathon. For 9 days before the show, just like the other models, Lima will drink only protein shakes — no solid foods at all. 12 hours before the show, she will stop drinking entirely. “No liquids at all, so you dry out, sometimes you can lose up to 8 pounds just from that,” she says.
Besides that, Lima usually has a 10-hour working day. She has to shoot even with a nasty cold, a non-stop cough, and a massive headache. Then there will be airports, long flights, maybe long lines for a delayed one, etc. The model even shared her face after a hard working day to show what it’s like.
She also shared a video to prove that modeling is far from the “her job is so easy” stereotype. People don’t know what she has to go through. In the video, she is 4 weeks post-partum with her daughter and just days after physical therapy because of a fractured knee.
However, even knowing all of this, any model in this world would love to be an Angel.
2. Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe had to go through many dreadful things at his most vulnerable age. He remembers many events and many “professional autograph hunters.” Some of them can do it quite gracefully. But there’s always another category of guys out there.
“There are some people that will boo and shout at a child,” said the actor. “If you just hear people booing and shouting stuff at you and about you, that, as a kid, sucked. I do remember that being very disheartening.”
3. Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish is another star who lost her teenage years because fame came to her when she was just 13. And no training, school, or professional service can help teach such kids how to cope with it all.
Of course, Eilish says she likes the euphoria of performing her songs onstage. But as for the rest, if someone would ask her something like, “How much of it is miserable and how much of it is not?” she would say, “It’s fifty-fifty. Half of it is horrible, and half of it is unbelievably amazing and completely priceless. So it’s okay to do the trash.”
4. Gigi Hadid
The supermodel revealed what a huge impact her career had on her circle of friends. She says she had to cut certain people out of her life mostly because when you become more high-profile, “a lot of interesting things in friends come out.” She found out that it’s better to have a few really good friends you can trust and go for a piece of advice rather than have tons she wasn’t sure about.
The time she had off was insufficient to give everyone she loved enough attention. But unfortunately, not everybody understood this and assumed the model had changed for the worse. Well, now her circle of close friends is tiny, but she says she’s pretty happy with the ones she’s got.
5. Jennifer Lawrence
As it turns out, you can be a well-known superstar and still feel lonely for a long time, just like Jennifer Lawrence used to be. Back in 2015, she said that no one ever asked her out. Guys were very mean to her, and she was lonely every Saturday night.
She even joked, “I feel like I need to meet a guy, with all due respect, who has been living in Baghdad for 5 years, who has no idea who I am.” Thankfully, in 2019 she became engaged to an art gallery director named Cooke Maroney, and in February 2022, Lawrence gave birth to their son, Cy.
6. George Clooney
With time, George Clooney realized that he could no longer enjoy many simple pleasures in life. Yes, he has a big house on a hill, and most of us assume he’s got nothing to complain about. But the actor discovered that his big house was quite isolating.
With fame and fortune came a considerable number of restrictions. And Clooney has realized that he misses things as simple as a mere walk around the city. “I haven’t walked in Central Park for 15 years. I’d like to, you know?” the actor revealed to Esquire in 2014.
7. Justin Bieber
The singer confesses that he struggles to get through the day. He’s not the only star who talks about loneliness being on tour. But still, most people don’t know the other side of all that glamour. The singer says, “This life can rip you apart.”
Bieber also mentioned Amy Winehouse’s documentary that he watched on the plane. And he could barely hold his tears back since he understood what it’s like to be treated by the media just like that. “People thought it was funny to poke her when she was at rock bottom, to keep pushing her down until she had no more of herself. And that’s what they were trying to do to me,” he said.
Isolation also is one of the things Bieber has to struggle through. He often camps in hotel rooms to avoid fans and paparazzi following him everywhere. And it gets more and more intense. “When you can’t go anywhere or do anything alone, you get depressed,” said the singer. “I would not wish this upon anyone.”
8. Lady Gaga
Despite all her success, Lady Gaga admits she has to struggle with the darker side of fame. “As soon as I go out into the world, I belong, in a way, to everyone else,” she said. “It’s legal to follow me. It’s legal to stalk me at the beach. And I can’t call the police or ask them to leave.”
She also misses some simple pleasures and misses people very much. She misses just going anywhere, meeting a random person, and saying hi to them. She misses chatting a bit about this or that, about life and things. Just like a regular person, just like it used to be.
