America’s Richest Women Celebrities 2025

Forbes

After years of booming entrepreneurship, the market is softening for celebrity-backed companies. But eye-watering earnings continue to roll in for the biggest female movie, TV and pop stars in the country.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2025/06/03/americas-richest-women-celebrities-2025/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, America's Richest Women Celebrities 2025.

00:06In business, timing is everything, even for the rich and famous.

00:11The boom time for celebrity entrepreneurship took off like a rocket around the end of 2020,

00:17and the pop stars, actors, and talk show hosts, who best took advantage,

00:21minted fortunes in the hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions in a few cases,

00:25by putting their name on everything from cosmetics brands to TV and movie production companies.

00:31But now they, like many others, are feeling the effects of a cooling economy.

00:37On Forbes' list of America's Richest Self-Made Women this year, which was released earlier this week,

00:4316 celebrities rank among the 100 entrepreneurs, executives, and entertainers.

00:48In order to make the cut, candidates had to be worth at least $350 million,

00:53up from $300 million last year, and $225 million in 2023.

01:01These stars of the stage and screen are collectively worth $14.1 billion,

01:06up from $13.3 billion last year, thanks to the addition of actress Selena Gomez,

01:12at number 48 on the list, who isn't yet a billionaire, but whose estimated $700 million net worth

01:18makes up almost the entirety of that difference.

01:22Most of the other 15 stars' fortunes are little changed from a year ago.

01:27Gomez launched her cosmetics company, Rare Beauty, at the start of the celebrity business boom,

01:33in September 2020, and it disclosed $367 million in revenue by 2023.

01:38Similarly, Judy Scheindlin, aka Judge Judy, at number 61 on the list,

01:45signed a mega-deal in late 2020 to move her eponymous TV arbitration show to Amazon Prime.

01:52Pop star Rihanna, at number 35 on the list, raised money for her Savage Fenty lingerie brand

01:58at a $1 billion valuation in early 2021.

02:02Madonna, at number 42 on our list, signed a lucrative new deal with Warner Music that summer.

02:08And perhaps most notably, movie star Reese Witherspoon, at number 82 on the list,

02:14sold a majority stake in her production company, Hello Sunshine,

02:17in August 2021 at a reported $900 million valuation.

02:21The Hello Sunshine sale is now referenced regularly throughout Hollywood as the peak of a celebrity

02:28production bubble. At the time of the acquisition by Blackstone-backed Candle Media,

02:33the company projected $80 million in profit by 2023. But, according to an October 2023 report

02:40in Bloomberg, it produced less than $10 million that year, and the pace of new productions has only

02:45continued to slow in the two years since. As of 2025, Forbes estimates Hello Sunshine

02:51is worth less than a third of its sale price. A representative for Witherspoon disagreed with

02:57Forbes, but offered no guidance. Markets have similarly cooled in the cosmetics space,

03:03the industry behind several women on the list, including Gomez, Rihanna, Kardashian,

03:08and her half-sister Kylie Jenner, who is number 52 on the list. Forbes estimates Rihanna's net worth

03:14dropped nearly 30% in the past year, due to estimates of flat sales at Fenty Beauty,

03:20and lingerie brand Savage Fenty. Referencing cosmetics firms in early May, Morningstar

03:25analyst Dan Hsu told Forbes, quote, The market condition right now is exerting a sort of downward

03:32pressure on valuation. The same goes for music catalogs. Katy Perry, at number 97 on our list,

03:40sold stakes in her master recordings and publishing rights in 2023 for an estimated $225 million.

03:45But a similar artist trying to do the same deal today would expect a 20% to 30% discount,

03:52analysts tell Forbes.

03:55Perry is headed back out on tour this summer, as is Beyonce Knowles-Carter, who is number 45 on the list.

04:01Beyonce saw a massive jump in her net worth during her blockbuster Renaissance tour in 2023,

04:07but has already seen lower ticket prices in sales during early stops of her Cowboy Carter tour.

04:12The big outlier to this trend is Taylor Swift, at number 21 on the list, whose wealth increased by

04:20$300 million in the past year to $1.6 billion, according to Forbes estimates. Her signature

04:27Eras tour started in 2023 and ended in December 2024, grossing a record-breaking $2 billion and

04:35generating earnings in a variety of ways, including ticket sales, a blockbuster movie,

04:40and a book about the tour, a phenomenon that made her immune to the trend that hit other celebrities.

04:47For full coverage and to see the whole list, as well as the America's richest self-made women list

04:52for 2025, check out Matt Craig's piece on Forbes.com.

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