From momagers to stage parents, these individuals leveraged their children's success to build their own fame! Join us as we explore the most notable parents who gained celebrity status through their famous offspring. Some supported from behind the scenes, while others grabbed the spotlight for themselves.
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00:005-on-5 game, he good. 1-on-1, I'm undefeated, never lost.
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're flipping the script,
00:07looking at the most notable individuals who wrote on the coattails of their children's celebrity status to gain fame,
00:13or in some cases, infamy.
00:16I know Michael always complained, but he never did have a childhood.
00:20He had a wonderful childhood.
00:23Yolanda Hadid.
00:25I also feel that if you hit that one sweet spot in a career, I say take it with both hands and go for it.
00:32If you let it pass, it might never come back.
00:34Born and raised in the Netherlands, Yolanda Hadid began her career as a model before stepping away to start a family.
00:40She later gained attention through The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
00:44But her true claim to fame comes from being the mother of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid.
00:49You can model, you don't have to model, you can go to school, you know.
00:52I would say you don't have to go to school, but I don't think daddy will agree with that.
00:57As her daughter's career skyrocketed, so did her own profile,
01:01with Hadid positioning herself as the guiding force in their rise to the top of the fashion industry.
01:06However, that has sometimes come with controversy,
01:09like the wildly criticized moment when she urged Gigi to eat just two almonds.
01:14Nevertheless, there's no doubt that Hadid has successfully carved out her own celebrity niche
01:19by managing, promoting, and often appearing alongside her ultra-famous kids.
01:24It seems like a warning from the universe, right?
01:26It's that we're all so vulnerable, and I think that that's what we have to take away from that experience,
01:31is that, you know, we have to be careful.
01:34Everybody does.
01:35Donda West
01:36For over two decades, Dr. Donda West taught and led the Department of English, Communications,
01:43Media, and Theater at Chicago State University.
01:46But to much of the world, she will always be known as Kanye West's mother.
01:50You did.
01:50I said, Kanye, keep on doing that.
01:52That's a million dollars.
01:53Remember everything you would do?
01:54I said, that's a million dollars.
01:55Yeah, and we still ain't gonna build you.
01:57West raised her son largely on her own,
02:00and supported his decision to pursue music full-time.
02:03So when he eventually hit it big, she retired from academia and transitioned into a life
02:08in the spotlight.
02:09I'ma get you a J, whatever else you want.
02:11Just tell me what kind of S-type Donda West's life.
02:14Tell me the perfect color so I'll make it just right.
02:17She took on an active role in Kanye's career, serving as the chief executive of West Brands,
02:22accompanying him to high-profile events, and writing a memoir titled Raising Kanye,
02:27which was released posthumously.
02:29Sadly, West passed away in 2007 due to coronary artery disease and complications following surgery.
02:37The coroner was unable to determine the exact cause of death, but did not fault Adams.
02:42So what went wrong?
02:43Dr. Adams wants the world to know that he believes Donda made a terrible mistake
02:48when she put Kanye's cousin, Stephen Scoggins, in charge of her aftercare.
02:53Dina Lohan
02:54The mother of actress Lindsay Lohan, Dina Lohan also got her start in show business,
02:59working as a singer and dancer.
03:01However, the only reason most people know her name today is because of her daughter's early
03:06success in Hollywood.
03:07I do what I can do.
03:08My parents taught me well, just to live morally correct and be a good person.
03:13And if she's in Hollywood, she's under a microscope.
03:16So it's a lot more difficult.
03:18As Lindsay's momager, Lohan occasionally appeared in her daughter's films, most notably
03:23as a woman at the airport in the parent trap.
03:26She later leveraged her newfound fame by starring in the e-reality series Living Lohan, which
03:31focused on her own life and her efforts to launch her younger daughter Aliana's career.
03:36You know, it was difficult at first.
03:38Initially, the only reason why I did the show originally was just to kind of diffuse the
03:42rumors because the press for two years was really horrific on us.
03:46And, you know, Ali is a talented artist.
03:48I have two sons as well.
03:49People forget I have boys as well.
03:51When that was canceled after just one season, Lohan made guest appearances on a few other
03:56shows before being cast on the second season of Celebrity Big Brother.
04:00Patty Millett
04:11You could argue that Justin Bieber would not be where he is today without the help of his
04:16mother, Patty Millett.
04:17After all, Millett not only nurtured his passion for music, but she also uploaded the early
04:23YouTube videos that caught the attention of talent scouts.
04:26In the same vein, Millett has taken full advantage of her son's success.
04:37She helped steer the ship as his manager in the early years and has made appearances in
04:41the media and at public events, often framed around her role in his life.
04:46He was being courted by the different music labels and I don't know if you know if Justin
04:54Timberlake and Usher were actually fighting over who could sign him.
04:58In 2012, Millett added author to her resume when she published her autobiography, Nowhere
05:04But Up, a candid look at her life as a single mother.
05:08It became a New York Times bestseller in its first week.
05:11But you're really helping a lot of people, I would imagine.
05:13I hope so, yeah, that's why I wrote this book, is just to help others get through similar
05:19things that I've been through.
05:20Richard Williams.
05:21The remarkable success of Venus and Serena Williams' tennis career is largely credited
05:26to the guidance of their father, Richard Williams.
05:29Williams reportedly drafted an 85-page plan to make his daughter's tennis champions, and
05:34it worked.
05:35I wrote an 85-page plan for Venus, and wrote a plan for Serena on what I wished to do, how
05:42it would be done, and how I would carry it out.
05:45But in their early years, Williams was more than just a coach.
05:49He was their father, agent, and hype man all rolled into one.
05:53His undying desire to tout his daughters' talents and achievements made him a polarizing figure,
05:59as some felt he was trying to hog the spotlight.
06:02But once you went, you started entering tournaments, and entering what was really the lily white
06:06world of tennis, did you sense resentment?
06:10From the, what?
06:11From the, the other families, yeah, the other players, the other coaches?
06:15Regardless, as Venus and Serena got more and more inescapable in the sporting world,
06:20so did their father.
06:21His larger-than-life story eventually received the Hollywood treatment with 2021's King Richard,
06:27which featured an Oscar-winning performance from Will Smith.
06:31And I don't even mind you saying we hard on these kids, you know why?
06:33Because we are!
06:35That's our job, to keep them off these streets!
06:39You want to arrest us for that?
06:41Joe Jackson
06:42Joe Jackson initially tried his hand at blues music,
06:45but after failing to secure a record deal, he decided to live his dream through his children.
06:50I saw the talent there, but, and they were learning real good.
06:56But when Michael got involved, when singing with them and all that type of thing,
07:03I really saw the real talent there.
07:05In the mid-1960s, Jackson founded and began managing the Jackson Five,
07:10but he remained largely unknown to the public until Michael Jackson's rise to superstardom.
07:15Michael's fame, as well as that of his sister Janet, eventually rubbed off on Jackson,
07:20as he was considered the mastermind behind a musical dynasty.
07:24So Joe, I've interviewed almost every single member of your family,
07:28your wife, your sons, your daughters, Michael,
07:32and finally I get to interview the boss.
07:35Yeah, the boss.
07:36But that fame eventually morphed into infamy in the late 1980s,
07:40when Jackson's alleged maltreatment of his children came to light.
07:43Not so much of petrified, but just the excitement of him not understanding what it means.
07:51He wanted to show us, I care about you, even if I have to whip your butt.
07:56Without Jackson, the world may never have experienced the talents of Michael and Janet,
08:01but without them, no one would have known his name anyway.
08:04LeVar Ball
08:05In the late 2010s, the NBA found one of its biggest personalities
08:10in someone who was neither a player nor a coach.
08:13LeVar Ball
08:14I'll tell you what, I'm not mad about that.
08:15Ain't nobody gonna make what I'm the one who made Lonzo.
08:19You know why?
08:19Because I picked a beautiful wife to make him.
08:21Had it all planned out from day one.
08:23Although he dabbled in college basketball and professional football,
08:27Ball was by no means a household name.
08:30That changed around 2016, when his sons Lonzo and Lomelo began making waves in the basketball world.
08:37Ball seized the moment, becoming a brash, polarizing figure known as much for promoting his sons
08:43as for his outrageous claims.
08:45He's too small.
08:46He's too little.
08:47If you're weighing 210 pounds, we're playing one-on-one.
08:50Yeah.
08:50You know I'm undefeated one-on-one.
08:52I'll never lose one-on-one.
08:53Did you ever play Michael Jordan?
08:54If he played me, he'd cry.
08:55He founded a sports apparel company, tried launching his own basketball league,
09:00and became a fixture on talk shows.
09:02Every appearance Ball made came with the swagger of someone who knew the cameras loved him,
09:07because his sons' talents made sure they showed up in the first place.
09:11I'll show up for the pancakes.
09:12I'm going to show up for the pancakes.
09:13I know I'm going to show up for the pancakes.
09:13I know I'm going to show up for the pancakes.
09:13And you know why you're there?
09:14And you know why you're there?
09:14Strawberry.
09:15All you're going to hear is one song.
09:16I will do that.
09:17I don't know how LeVar did this.
09:19Oh, Lord.
09:19But he is the greatest.
09:22It's going to be beautiful, trust me.
09:24Kris Jenner.
09:25When you hear the word momager, the first name that probably comes to mind is Kris Jenner.
09:30She's in Los Angeles, I'm in San Diego, and it's bad.
09:35Obviously I made a mistake today.
09:36Well, yeah, you shouldn't take on too many responsibilities that you can't handle.
09:40Go in the other room.
09:41The matriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, Jenner always had connections to the Hollywood
09:46elite, initially through her first husband, Robert Kardashian.
09:50However, it was her daughter's rise to fame, particularly Kim Kardashian's infamous sex tape,
09:56that paved the way for her to enter the spotlight.
09:59Kim and I are at Comic-Con today, which is a convention in San Diego, California, and
10:05Kim is there with Carmen Electra to promote her movie, Disaster Movie.
10:09Jenner spun those 15 minutes of scandal into a reality TV juggernaut and launched successful
10:15modeling careers for her daughters, Kendall and Kylie.
10:18Ultimately, she managed to grow the family name into a billion-dollar brand.
10:22Although she wasn't born into fame, Jenner built an empire by keeping her daughters at
10:27the center of attention, while lingering close enough to stay in the frame.
10:32As each platform has evolved and become how this generation does business, she and Khloe and
10:40Kourtney have shown the rest of us how to work the different platforms.
10:45Billy Ray Cyrus
10:47Granted, Billy Ray Cyrus had his first hit song, Achy Breaky Heart, in 1992, which made
10:53him a brief country music sensation before his famous child was even born.
10:57Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don't think it understand.
11:04However, he largely faded away from the mainstream afterwards, until years later when that child,
11:11Miley Cyrus, became an international star through her role on Hannah Montana.
11:15I lost my voice.
11:18And if it doesn't come back, then...
11:21Then...
11:23Miley, do you really think if you're not Hannah Montana, you're no better than a piece of
11:28furniture?
11:28Interestingly, Cyrus played her on-screen dad on the show, which reintroduced him to
11:34a younger audience.
11:35His association with his daughter helped revive his career, leading to a return to the music
11:40charts and new acting opportunities.
11:43In fact, Cyrus' feature on Lil Nas X's chart-topping hit, Old Town Road, may never have happened if
11:49the rapper hadn't first discovered him through Hannah Montana.
11:53Wish I could roll on back to that Old Town Road.
11:56I wanna ride till I came down.
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12:15As the mother of Beyonce and Solange Knowles, Tina Knowles has remained in the public eye
12:33for as long as her daughters have been famous.
12:35Originally a hairdresser and fashion designer in Houston, Knowles played a pivotal role in
12:40shaping Destiny's child's image by designing their costumes and styling their hair.
12:45When Beyonce's solo career took off, Knowles became more visible in the entertainment industry,
12:50co-founding the fashion line House of Derrion with her.
12:54Beyonce's style definitely inspires the House of Derrion style.
12:59I mean, we raid her closet.
13:00She has also appeared in several of Beyonce's music videos and starred in various television
13:06shows and films.
13:07Although Knowles had talent and business acumen in her own right, it was her daughter's fame
13:12that gave her a broader reach and made her a widely recognized figure.
13:15And that if I don't, I'm gonna be just fine because I have such a full great life and
13:22I'm so blessed and you know, it's gonna be, it's all good.
13:26Are there any other Nepo parents hiding in played sight?
13:29Put the spotlight on them in the comments below.
13:31Blue jeans, I had so much fun.
13:33It was the best day ever.
13:34Well I'm not surprised.
13:35You know, riding blue jeans always did put a smile on your face.