IF you've ever thought that having famous parents would solve all the problems in your world, you might want to think again.
This week, the troubled son of the superstar chef Marco Pierre White appeared in court after he admitted to a number of burglaries across London, including the theft of £1,500 worth of Jellycat toys.
But the former Big Brother star is just one of a long list of nepo-babies whose privileged upbringing led them to go totally off the rails.
From battles with drug addiction as teens to nights spent in jail cells, being born to famous parents can end up anything but a blessing.
Though they can often come off like spoiled brats, the psychology behind this reckless behaviour goes deeper than you think, according to psychologist Joe Hemmings.
"It's not the blessing that people often assume it is," she says.
"They get much more scrutinized because we all know who they're the child of, and so the spotlight is on them to see if they are going to perform as well as their parents," she said.
"They get a lot of impostor syndrome. They never really know whether they've got their career because of who they are, or how talented they are. That's difficult for a lot of them."
With their parents sometimes having made headlines for badly behaved antics themselves, sometimes they might also find it hard to take their family's concerns seriously – or may feel that as their parents ended up okay, they will as well.
"They're moving in circles where access to drugs is quite easy, or they can go to parties where they can drink a lot and not have to worry about spending money," explained Jo, who is currently authoring a book that looks at the subject.
"When they go off the rails, they feel vulnerable and exposed.
"There may also be a sort of resentment that they didn't have a mum or dad to come back to after school, because they're always too busy pursuing their own careers."
Marco Pierre White Jr
Marco Pierre White Jr appeared in court via video link from HMP Wandsworth this week after he admitted to four counts of burglary and one of criminal damage during a crime spree in June and July last year.
In addition to robbing an Italian deli and stealing toys, he caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to a fossil shop in Pimlico after wrecking some mounted crystals and the front door.
The court heard the 30-year-old may have caused up to £44,000 worth of damage to the shop, a figure he disputes.
Marco Pierre White Jr has long-struggled with addiction, saying he started abusing drugs aged 13.
Nor did it help that his dad bought him his own apartment in the middle of Kensington.
He confessed to blowing £250,000 of his dad's cash on "prostitutes, cocaine, and alcohol", and entered the Big Brother house in 2016 aged just 21, claiming it was to pay off his debts.
But his stint on the show led to more than 600 people lodging complaints with Ofcom, after he was seen stripping off and getting frisky with housemate Laura Carter and sucking on her breast.
Naming your child after yourself says an awful lot about the weight of expectation you're putting on them
Joe Hemmings
So desperate for drugs at times, he once sold a Rolex worth £27,000 for one gram of cocaine worth just £100 and also traded a £19,000 Hublot watch – which he had been given on his 16th birthday – for an ounce of the drug.
In 2022, Marco found himself banged up for 18 months after he was found guilty of a number of offences including possession of a knife and racial abuse against a police officer.
While in jail he claimed to have converted to Islam and said that prison made him want to stay clean more than his trips to rehab – which had cost his dad more than £1million – ever did.
Jo explains: "I think naming your child after yourself says an awful lot about the weight of expectation you're putting on them.
"I suspect that expectation of him to be a massive success at any cost made him turn and rebel."
Pierre White Jr once again found himself in the dock for a spate of burglaries around Somerset and Wiltshire in 2024.
This included an early-hours raid on a deli in Bath that saw him nicked after his trousers fell down and revealed his backside to CCTV.
His distinctive tattoos were instantly recognisable and he was arrested the same day.
Chet Hanks
Sometimes, however, even the children of mild-mannered celebrities can find themselves going down a troubled path, as in the case of Chet Hanks, 35, the eldest son of Hollywood star and "America's dad" Tom Hanks.
His battle with addiction started when he aged just 16 and fresh out of high school.
"I had been a really good, innocent kid my whole life. And then one day I just make that leap…smoking weed, getting drunk, doing stupid sh**," he shared on the Raw Talk podcast.
His parents were quick to intervene, sending him to a "Wilderness Camp" in 2008 to help him get clean.
But upon his return he started smoking crack and selling drugs to fund his habit.
Recalling the extent of his addiction, he said: "I'm a f***ing cokehead, straight up.
"Not anymore, but that is my drug of choice – cocaine bro, like Tony Montana," he added, referencing Al Pacino's character in Scarface.
"I would do coke with the cokeheads, and they would be telling me, 'Yo, chill bro…wait a second. Give it like 15 minutes.'
"I couldn't get enough of that s**t."
In 2015, the aspiring rapper also found himself hunted by the British police after allegedly smashing up a London hotel room and causing £1,200 worth of damage.
Not only had the TV been ripped off the wall but he had also been obnoxious to people at a nearby nightclub, where he had been drinking champagne and vodka in the VIP area.
"He was pretty obnoxious once he started drinking…he kept saying, 'do you know who I am?'," a source told The Mirror.
That same year he finally checked himself into rehab, but it wasn't until a three-day cocaine binge in 2021 that he hit rock bottom and sought help again.
Fortunately, Hanks has now been sober for more than three years, and has since spoken about how he had felt like the "black sheep" of the family due to the contrast between his old lifestyle and his dad's clean-cut image.
Cameron Douglas
The eldest son of famed actor Michael Douglas also lived a troubled life before finally clearing himself up.
The grandson of legendary actor Kirk Douglas, Cameron was just 13 when he began experimenting with drugs.
It wasn't long before drinking and cannabis turned to cocaine and heroin abuse, and, desperate to fund his habit, he started carrying a gun in his 20s and dealing meth.
All the while, Cameron, now 46, was shooting up cocaine almost daily and suffered numerous drug-induced seizures.
He was eventually arrested in 2009 and sentenced to five years in prison after being found with nearly a pound of meth in a New York City hotel – and then was found guilty of smuggling drugs into prison.
However he has since turned his life around since being released from jail in 2016.
Earlier this month he made a rare red carpet appearance at the premiere of the film Looking Through Water, which he's starring in opposite dad Michael.
Montana Fishburne
It's not always drugs that's used as an escape.
Aged 18, Montana Fishburne, daughter of Matrix-star Laurence, looked to make adult films, claiming to be following in the footsteps of Kim Kardashian.
Not that her dad, Laurence, was impressed, with Montana telling TMZ in 2010: "I heard he's mad at me, but I haven't spoken to him yet.
"I had a little passion inside me to do porn," she further explained to Us Weekly, adding she was only 16 when she first began to consider it.
"I didn't really want to tell too many people about it, because I was afraid of their reactions when I was younger."
But fame wasn't to be found – and instead Montana ended up in numerous run-ins with the law, often for driving under the influence.
In 2022, she was charged after slapping a police officer in Florida and sentenced to a 24-month probation.
She has since reconciled with her father and is now working as a certified yoga teacher.
Sean Stewart
Another nepo-baby to find himself in hot water time after time is Sir Rod Stewart's party animal son Sean.
In February the 44-year-old had to check himself into a £48,000-a-month rehab clinic in Malibu to try and tackle his recurring addiction issues.
It was very easy for me to get drugs, I would just walk into a party and someone would hand them to me
Sean Stewart
The son of the legendary rocker has confessed to having been into drugs and drinking since he was just 13 and a student in Beverly Hills, before later getting into ecstasy and heroin.
"I would go to parties at that age and drink and smoke cannabis and cigarettes. It was very easy for me to get drugs, I would just walk into a party and someone would hand them to me," he told the Daily Mail in 2012.
By 2002 he had already suffered an overdose, but he also spent 90 days in jail after being found guilty for assaulting a 19-year student who was confronting him for spitting on his car windshield.
Another stint in rehab, paid for by Sir Rod, came to a quick end when he quit after only two days.
Speaking to the Mail after checking himself into rehab this year, he said: "This is something I have been dealing with for many decades and has been very painful, as I am sure many people can understand.
"I am here to deal with the pain that I had in my childhood that stemmed from suffering from ADHD and an overall feeling that I can't succeed in life."
Chance Hogan
Like Sean, Chance Hogan – the son of Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan – grew up in Los Angeles, away from his fathers' home country.
Even his dad called him a "terrible person," in response to his antics.
Raised in Venice Beach in his dad's $3.5million mansion, the son of the Aussie star had previously had a stab at being a musician and a chef.
But the 27-year-old is best known for his erratic behaviour, with his dad adding that he's often found himself "worried sick" because of it.
Chance has been frequently spotted looking dishevelled roaming the streets around where he lives, while he's also shared videos of himself to Instagram, sipping on wine and slurring his speech.
"This is my life…this is what it's been reduced to," he said.
Not that his dad was particularly sympathetic, saying: "He gets a lot of tabloid stuff, but he's a terrible person because he knows they're watching him and he puts something on for them."
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