6 Celebrities Who Opened Up About Major Hardships and Life Lessons in Their Memoirs

Celebrities Who Shared Their Life Lessons in Their Memoirs

Celebrity memoirs make it to the list of the most-read works, as fans are always eager to know more about their favorite celebs. Be it their personal or professional life, every small detail helps readers understand what made them who they are. These works go beyond the glitz and glamour, revealing struggles, triumphs, and lessons learned. While memoirs of Michelle Obama and Prince Harry are widely read for their captivating raw storytelling, here are a few lesser-known but equally honest works.

1. Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore penned her struggle with substance abuse in her memoir, Little Girl Lost. She confessed to having her first cigarette when she was only nine years old. Three years later, she also took to alcohol. In her book, she recounted how she made it out of the clutches of drugs. "A few times we passed out up there, slept for several hours and woke up with monumental headaches. A combination of the alcohol and lying with our ears right beside the speakers," Barrymore wrote, as reported by the NY Times.

2. Gisele Bündchen

Gisele Bündchen mentioned how she battled anxiety and emerged victorious. In her memoir, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life, she shared, "I had a wonderful position in my career, I was very close to my family, and I always considered myself a positive person, so I was really beating myself up. Like, ‘Why should I be feeling this?’ I felt like I wasn’t allowed to feel bad. But I felt powerless. Your world becomes smaller and smaller, and you can’t breathe, which is the worst feeling I’ve ever had," as reported by People magazine. 

3. Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato wrote a beautiful memoir, Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year, touching on some of the important events that impacted the musician's life and led to a cocaine addiction. "To me, staying strong is really important. A lot of people have faith, have hope, but now what? How do you continue to be strong? It's about doing things daily and taking care of yourself, and I wanted to show my fans what helped me," Lovato said, reflecting on her memoir, as per USA Today. 

4. Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton, in her memoir, Paris: The Memoir, confessed that she had said no to the proposal by Playboy magazine to be on the cover of the men's magazine. "As I got more famous, Hef really wanted me to do a Playboy cover. He kept offering me more and more money, saying I wouldn't have to be totally naked, just topless. And then saying, I didn't have to be topless, just sheer. And then saying I could wear whatever lingerie I wanted. Even when he offered seven figures, I turned it down, because I knew my mom would lose her mind, and because I had already been branded as a slut after the s*x tape," Hilton wrote, as reported by People.

5. Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda's memoir, My Life So Far, gives a glimpse of what shaped her into who she is today. Writing about the moment she realized she must document her life, Fonda penned, "It all began as I very intentionally prepared for my sixtieth birthday. Whether we care to admit it or not, (and I'm a strong advocate for admitting) sixty marks the start of our third and final act—unless we live into our hundreds, God forbid! I felt this milestone warranted a review of acts one and two and this is when I discovered there were clear, broad, even universal themes that ran through my life, a coherent arc to my journey that, if I could be truthful in the telling, might provide a roadmap for other women as they face the challenges of relationship, self-image, and forgiveness," as per ABC News. 

6. Keith Richards

Keith Richards' memoir, Life, gives a glimpse of his young days and his struggle with all kinds of drugs. "I would take a barbiturate to wake up…a Tuinal, pin it, put a needle in it so it would come on quicker. And then take a hot cup of tea, and then consider getting up or not. And later maybe a Mandrax or a Quaalude…And when the effect wears off after about two hours, you're feeling mellow, you've had a bit of breakfast and you're ready for work," Richards wrote, as reported by The Guardian.