Dominique Moceanu
Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu was declared a legal adult at 17 after winning a lawsuit against her parents to force them to answer questions about the status of her finances. Her legal issues didn’t end after emancipation, however. Her father, who was very upset that she chose to emancipate from her parents and move away from home, began stalking her and allegedly tried to hire someone to kill her friends, who he thought were a bad influence. Dominique took her dad to court again where the judge ordered him to stay 500 feet away and communicate only via letter for a year.
Corey Feldman
Famous for roles in 1980s classics like Stand By Me, The Goonies and The Lost Boys, and infamous for his later drug abuse and arrests, Corey Feldman was worth $1 million by age 15. However, his manager mother had apparently mishandled his finances and only $40,000 was left in the bank. Upon finding this out, Feldman filed for emancipation from his parents, which he won in 1987. Corey later claimed that his parents physically and emotionally abused him, forcing him to take diet pills and pushing him to accept role after role without a break to be a kid.
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Macaulay Culkin
Known as one of the world’s most successful child actors of all time, Macaulay Culkin also had one of the world’s most domineering stage parents of all time. Culkin’s dad Kit, who served as his manager, was known around Hollywood as a demanding and arrogant drinker. After suffering through his parents’ nasty custody battle, which was more so a fight for their son’s $50 million earnings, Macaulay took both of them to trial and successfully emancipated himself and gained control of his own finances. Following the decision he cut off all ties with his dad.
Frances Bean Cobain
Perhaps because she never had sound role models, Courtney Love followed in her mom and dad’s bad parenting footsteps. The rocker and actress was hit with a restraining order and lost custody of her daughter Frances Bean Cobain—daughter of the late Kurt Cobain—in 2009 after several drug relapses and accusations of violence. Then 16, Frances was sent to live with her paternal grandmother and aunt. Shortly thereafter, the teen filed for, and won, emancipation from her mom. The two have been estranged ever since.
Rose McGowan
This Charmed actress and former fiancée to Marilyn Manson spent her early years on an Italian commune in the Children of God cult—the same community Joaquin Phoenix’s family belonged to. Her parents moved the family to the U.S. when she was 10 and then divorced. Rose ran away at 13 and was taken in by drag queens. At 14, she was placed in drug rehab. A year later she was legally emancipated and supported herself by doing odd jobs while attending beauty school and pursuing acting. She landed her first big role at 19 in Encino Man.
Kimberly Mays
At age 9, Kimberly Mays learned that she’d been switched at birth. The child raised by her biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, died of a heart defect that same year. Kimberly’s father, Robert Mays, initially allowed the Twiggs to visit with their birth daughter but cut off contact after her grades dropped. At that point, the Twiggs sued for more access. In response, Kimberly filed for emancipation from her biological parents and after a five-year battle won the right at age 14.
Shawn Russ
Gregory Kingsley spent much of his young life on the road with his alcoholic dad, who passed his son from home to home. When his father allegedly abused a girlfriend, Gregory was sent to live with his mother, who after just a few months put him in foster care. Gregory was then sent to a boy’s ranch where he met attorney and child welfare advocate, George Russ, who offered to take him in. Just as Gregory, who changed his name to Shawn Russ, was settling into his new home, his mom launched a legal battle for custody. It was too little too late and Shawn won emancipation in 1992 at 12 years old.
Photo via Inside Edition
Jena Malone
Jena Malone began acting at 12 and found early success with films like Stepmom and Donnie Darko. Her life prior to that point was anything but ordinary: She grew up with her single mom and her mom’s girlfriend, lived in 27 homes all before the age of 9 and was home-schooled through 8th grade. In 1999, at age 14, Jena filed for and won emancipation after proving that her mother had squandered her earnings. Malone’s mom both admitted to and apologized for her wrongdoing, and the two have since attempted to mend their relationship.
Michelle Williams
Michelle Williams knew she wanted to be an actress by age 11 or 12. By 15 she was legally emancipated and had her own apartment in the San Fernando Valley. Unlike many child actors, the split from her parents wasn’t due to mismanagement or abuse but rather for practical career advantages like being able to work adult hours and no longer being required to have a tutor on set. Shortly after she permanently left home and moved to Los Angeles she landed her first major role on Dawson’s Creek.
Aaron Carter
At 10, Aaron Carter was already a teen heartthrob opening for his older brother Nick’s band, The Backstreet Boys. Prior to his parents' divorce, Aaron was co-managed by his mom and dad. However, when the couple called it quits in 2003, then-16-year-old Aaron fired his mom and ordered an audit of his pop-star earnings. Claiming his mom pocketed more than $100,000 of his money, he soon filed for and won emancipation from her. Six years later he learned that thanks to further mismanagement he owed $1 million in unpaid taxes.
Courtney Love
Love’s parents divorced in 1969. Her father was denied custody because her mother claimed he’d given Courtney LSD as a young child. After a stint with her mom on a commune, Love landed in juvenile hall then bounced around foster care, living in over 20 homes between 1978 and 1980. In 1981, a social worker discovered a trust set up for Courtney by her grandparents, prompting the 16-year-old—who’d been earning money as an exotic dancer—to file for emancipation so that her deadbeat parents couldn’t get their hands on the money.
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