By Neia Balao
4:00am PST, Dec 26, 2023
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The children of rich and famous celebrities will inevitably inherit the wealth of their parents, right? Well, not always. Join us as we take a look at some of the stars who don't plan to pass on their fortunes to their kids plus another interesting inheritance twist…
A very wealthy man is taking an interesting step to make sure his money goes where he wants it when he dies — which means a European gardener is about to become one of the richest people in the world. Nicolas Puech, a descendant of the founder of luxury goods brand Hermes, has decided to leave $6.5 billion to his "servant, former gardener and handyman" upon his death, according to a December 2023 report.
TMZ reported that Nicolas, 80 — who's worth about $13 billion — initially signed a contract to give all his money to the Isocrates Foundation, an organization he founded that supports journalism and a "civil society." But things have changed and now Nicolas wants to give half of his money to the organization and the other half to his servant, which is prohibited by the original agreement, according to the report.
However, a provision in the contract states that if Nicolas has a son, that son can inherit half of the Hermes heir's fortune. So Nicolas, who lives in Europe and isn't believed to have any children, is allegedly taking steps to legally adopt his adult gardener in order to make sure the man gets rich someday.
Keep reading to see which celebrities aren't leaving their fortunes to their children…
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Despite Guy Fieri's estimated $70 million net worth, the celebrity chef's kids have already had to get comfortable with the idea of working hard for their money. "Shaq said it best. Shaq said, 'If you want this cheese, you got to get two degrees,'" the Food Network star told Fox News in December 2023. "Well, my two degrees mean, you know, postgraduate," he added. "I told my boys, 'None of this … that I've been building are you going to get unless you come and take it from me.' I've told them the same thing my dad told me. My dad says, 'When I die, you can expect that I'm going to die broke, and you're going to be paying for the funeral,'" he explained.
The "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" star shares two sons with his wife, Lori. He also helped raise his sister's son after her death in 2011. And while the older kids are evidently on their way to satisfying Guy's demands, it sounds like his youngest son, Ryder — a high school senior at the time Guy made the comments — might still need some convincing.
"[He's like,] 'Dad, this is so unfair. I haven't even gone to college yet, and you're already pushing that I've got to get an MBA?'" Guy told the outlet, mimicking his son. "'Can I just get through college?'"
MORE: Stars who come from rich families
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Singer and actress Marie Osmond has said repeatedly that she won't be leaving a large sum of money to her seven children.
"My husband and I decided that you do a great disservice to your children to just hand them a fortune because you take away the one most important gifts you can give your children, and that's the ability to work," the "Donny & Marie" aulm said on a 2020 episode of "The Talk." "You see it a lot in rich families, where the kids don't know what to do so they get in trouble, so I just let them be proud of what they make."
In January 2023, she doubled down on her vow, making it clear she hadn't changed her mind about her estimated $20 million fortune. "Honestly, why would you enable your child to not try to be something? I don't know anybody who becomes anything if they're just handed money," she told Us Weekly. "To me, the greatest gift you can give your child is a passion to search out who they are inside and to work. I just think all [an inheritance] does is breed laziness and entitlement. I worked hard and I'm gonna spend it all and have fun with my husband."
Speaking to Fox News Digital later that year, she explained: "I just think you rob them of finding who they are, and self-worth can't be bought. That's my opinion. I believe that, when I leave this life, I want my children to know that they can take care of themselves."
MORE: The Osmond siblings: Where are they now?
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While chatting with host Dax Shepard on the "Armchair Expert" podcast in 2018, Ashton Kutcher revealed he and wife Mila Kunis wouldn't be setting up their two kids, Wyatt and Dimitri, financially. "My kids are living a really privileged life, and they don't even know it," said the "That '70s Show" alum. "And they'll never know it because this is the only one that they'll know. I'm not setting up a trust for them. We'll end up giving our money away to charity and to various things." As of 2023, the couple's combined net worth was about $275 million, according to CelebrityNetWorth.com.
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Daniel Craig is bringing in the big bucks — in 2021, Variety reported he was earning a $100 million salary to play Detective Benoit Blanc in two "Knives Out" sequels including "The Glass Onion." He also earned a reported $25 million for his final Bond film installment, "No Time to Die." But the British actor — who has two daughters and shares a stepson with his wife, actress Rachel Weisz — doesn't support the notion of an inheritance.
"Isn't there an old adage that if you die a rich person, you've failed?" Daniel asked in a 2021 interview with Britain's Candis magazine. "I think Andrew Carnegie gave away what in today's money would be about 11 billion dollars, which shows how rich he was because I'll bet he kept some of it too. But I don't want to leave great sums to the next generation. I think inheritance is quite distasteful. My philosophy is get rid of it or give it away before you go."
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Anderson Cooper, who welcomed kids Wyatt in 2020 and Sebastian in 2022, is another star who refuses to leave his fortune to his children. "I don't believe in passing [on] huge amounts of money. I don't know what I'll have. I'm not that interested in money," the CNN star said on the "Morning Meeting" podcast in 2021. "I don't intend to have some sort of pot of gold for my [kids]. … I'll go with what my parents said, which is college will be paid for and then you gotta get on it."
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From "Every Breath You Take" to "Fields of Gold," Sting has given the world a lot of great music and made lots of money in the process. However, the Police singer has no intention of leaving his reported $550 million fortune to his six offspring.
"I certainly don't want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses 'round their necks," the British songwriter told DailyMail.com in 2014. "They have to work. All my kids know that, and they rarely ask me for anything, which I really respect and appreciate."
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Don't expect Gordon Ramsay to set up his kids financially. The British chef and restaurateur, who shares six children with wife Tana, hasn't shied away from expressing the ways he's willing — and unwilling — to provide for his kids when it comes to money. "My fortune won't be going to my children in my will," he said in a 2017 interview with The Telegraph. "It's definitely not going to them, and that's not in a mean way; it's to not spoil them. … The only thing I've agreed with Tana is they get a 25% deposit on a flat, but not the whole flat."
The chef added that when he and his wife travel, the kids "don't sit with us in first class" because "they haven't worked anywhere near hard enough to afford that." In 2023, Delish reported Gordon was worth about $220 million.
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Sir Elton John has an estimated net worth of $550 million. The "Rocket Man" singer, however, feels that leaving a hefty inheritance to the two sons he shares with husband David Furnish would be detrimental to their lives. "Of course I want to leave my boys in a very sound financial state," Elton told The Mirror in 2016. "But it's terrible to give kids a silver spoon. It ruins their life." The "Tiny Dancer" hitmaker continued, "Listen, the boys live the most incredible lives, they're not normal kids, and I'm not pretending they are. But you have to have some semblance of normality, some respect for money, some respect for work."
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Music mogul and reality TV competition show judge Simon Cowell has made it clear that his son, Eric, with partner Lauren Silverman won't be benefiting from his estimated $600 million wealth down the line. "I'm going to leave my money to somebody. A charity, probably — kids and dogs," the "America's Got Talent" star told The Mirror in 2013. "I don't believe in passing on from one generation to another." He continued, "Your legacy has to be that hopefully you gave enough people an opportunity, so that they could do well, and you gave them your time, taught them what you know."
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George Lucas, whose net worth was reported to be about $5 billion in 2023, had a much larger fortune before he started giving it away. Rather than set his four kids up with large trusts, the filmmaker, who founded the George Lucas Educational Fund, has donated most of his "Star Wars" franchise earnings to Disney to support educational initiatives in the United States.
"I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education," he declared as part of The Giving Pledge. "It is key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future — and the first step begins with the social, emotional and intellectual tools we provide to our children."
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In 2021, Laurene Powell Jobs — the widow of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs — was reported to be worth $21.7 billion — and she's been reducing her fortune since then by giving it away. By 2023, her estimated net worth was just over $13 billion. Looking ahead, the philanthropist and Emerson Collective founder has a specific plan for her money. "I inherited my wealth from my husband, who didn't care about the accumulation of wealth," she told The New York Times in 2020. "I'm not interested in legacy wealth buildings, and my children know that. If I live long enough, it ends with me."
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Renowned composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, a father of five, believes there's value in incentivizing your kids to work. "I am not in favor of children suddenly finding a lot of money coming their way because then they have no incentive to work," he told The Mirror in 2008. The man behind myriad musicals including "The Phantom of the Opera" — whose net worth was a reported $1.2 billion in 2022 — continued: "We could use the royalties to encourage everything from bursaries to young artists and composers. I feel I owe a debt, and that is very largely due to the success not only in Britain but also the rest of the world."
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After divorcing Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in 2019, novelist MacKenzie Scott's net worth rose to an incredible $60 billion, thanks to the 4% stake in Amazon she received as part of her divorce settlement. In 2020, MacKenzie made headlines when she donated nearly $6 billion to organizations in need. In 2021, she revealed she'd donated a further $2.74 billion to 286 organizations in "categories and communities that have historically been underfunded and overlooked." Since then, she's given away even more: She's one of multiple billionaires who signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to donate at least half of her fortune to charity instead of leaving it to her four kids.
