Imagine finding out that your parents were huge celebrities that everyone loved. It sounds pretty crazy, right? But that's the reality for a lot of kids in Hollywood who grow up with famous parents! Sure, when you're younger you don't really clue in that your mommy or daddy is a movie star, but as you get older, things start to click.
These celebrity kids found out just exactly who their parents were, and the stories are pretty cute! I guess the cat's out of the bag for these famous families.
1. Gwenyth Paltrow
Paltrow may have had a long career, but to her kids, she's just a regular mom. It took her son, Moses, seven years to figure out that his mom is a pretty big deal.
"I just had this incident where we were going to see Justin Bieber, and my son put together that Justin Bieber or someone else might know who I am "” like someone that he thinks is great, that might know who I am from Iron Man," Paltrow said in 2013. "It's recent for him where he goes, 'Oh, you are in movies.' They didn't make that connection for a while."
2. Ricky Martin
The Livin' La Vida Loca singer welcomed twin boys, Matteo and Valentino, in 2008 via surrogate mother. While he would perform, Martin usually kept his kids backstage or in the wings, so they never really grasped the full level of his shows.
"One day, when I thought they were big enough, I said, 'Go to the front of the house,' and they see the lights and the whole spectacle," Martin told People in 2016. "When the show was over, they came to me and said, 'Papi, you're Ricky Martin.' I said, 'I'm not Ricky Martin, I'm your father.' They said, 'No, no, no, you're Ricky Martin,' and so it changed."
3. Victoria and David Beckham
It's rare to have two parents who are both mega stars, but Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz, and Harper Beckham all know what it's like. Victoria Beckham was an international pop star for years, and David Beckham was an incredibly popular football star, so it's hard to believe that the kids didn't know about their fame for over a decade.
But according to Brooklyn, that's exactly what happened.
"I didn't actually know that they were big until I was about 13," he said in 2017. "I went to a football game and people were shouting my dad's name and I was like, 'What?! Oh my God.' I don't look at them like that."
As for Harper, the youngest child and only girl in the Beckham clan, she discovered her mom's fame much younger. In a series of Instagram posts, Victoria showed her daughter playing with Spice Girls dolls, captioned "When u find out mummy was a pop star!"
6. Pamela Anderson
After she had her sons Brandon and Dylan, Anderson stepped away from the screen and focused more on animal advocacy. The Baywatch actress recalled that when her kids were asked what their parents do, they would tell the class that their dad, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue, was a rock star and that "my mommy rescues animals."
After a trip to surf camp one year, though, Anderson's cover was blown.
"They came up to me and they said, 'Mom, are you Pamela Anderson?' And I said, 'Yeah,'" she shared with People in 2016. "They were like, 'What is that?' And, 'Why are people saying these things? Are you Pamela Anderson for real? Like, what is going on?'"
5. Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan
Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan were basically the definition of a power couple, but their son Jack had no idea.
"When I was a kid, I didn't really know having parents that are actors were in any way different from my friends' parents, who were lawyers," he told ET in 2016.
Once Jack started telling people he got to be "on set" sometimes, his friends set him straight.
"They were like, 'Yes, it's cool.' I think that was the moment I realized it was slightly different than what most parents do. I had a very normal childhood considering."
6. Mick Jagger
It's hard to believe that Mick Jagger's kids could avoid knowing how famous their dad is, especially considering they toured with him. But for Georgia May Jagger, it wasn't a huge deal.
"When I went on tour with my father, I knew he was a musician," Jagger said. "But they were my parents. I still think of my mum as being kind of a dork "” a cooler one, but still a dork."
7. Michael Jackson
This is another case of "how on Earth could you not know?" but Prince Jackson revealed that it took a little while for him and his siblings to realize just how famous their father was.
"I guess when we kind of realized it was when we saw videos of him performing," Prince said. "I've been used to seeing most females pass out when they see their [favorite] artist. What blew my mind was when I saw these big muscle-bound dudes fainting and having to be dragged out... so I was like, 'okay, there's something else going on here.'"
8. Billy Joel
Alexa Ray Joel has not one, but two famous parents. Her father is musician Billy Joel and her mother is supermodel Christie Brinkley. But despite their fame, Alexa Ray never saw anything other than "normal" parents.
Growing up, though, she had the source of the attention surrounding her family pegged all wrong.
"I just thought they were popular," she said in 2010. "I thought I was the star. We were always putting on plays, and dad would do the accompaniment and mom would dress me up like a Disney princess and be filming everything."
9. Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff is expecting her second child, a girl, later this year, and it's safe to say that her son Luca will fill his sister in on their mom's fame. For Luca, though, he had to find out through friends.
"I picked him up from school - and when we got home, he's like 'I know. I know your name,'" the expectant mother recalled. "'Your name's Hilary Duff.' But he said it with, like, a little glint in his eye, like somebody told him something that I haven't, and I was like 'No, I'm not ready for this yet!' You know?"
Duff also said that her son isn't phased by it all.
"He's seen me on the cover of, like, magazines in a grocery store, and I really think he just thinks the next day, like, Shane's mommy is gonna be on the magazine," she told Seth Meyers.
10. Cindy Crawford
They say Disney is the most magical place on Earth, and it also happens to be where Kaia Gerber found out that her mom, Cindy Crawford, was a celebrity.
"I think it was only on my eighth birthday, at Disneyland, that I started to understand what was going on," Gerber told Teen Vogue. "I wanted to take pictures with the princesses, and everyone wanted to take pictures with her!"
Would you want to have famous parents?
[H/T: The List]