Although celebrities are fortunate to have wealth and fame, the disadvantages of being a celebrity have been well-documented. Many struggle with the pressure to keep performing and exceeding their past work, while also dealing with rumors about their personal lives, overwork, invasion of privacy, intense schedules, and the pressure to maintain a certain image.
These issues—on top of the regular stressors all humans face—have triggered mental illness episodes and breakdowns amongst many celebrities, including Britney Spears, Selena Gomez and Kendall Jenner.
However, celebrities aren't the only ones affected by their lifestyles. Children of celebrities have recently been speaking out about their own mental health, and how their famous parents' lives impacted them, by way of unwanted expectations, lack of privacy, and more.
Zak Williams, son of the late actor Robin Williams, recently appeared on The Me You Can't See, alongside Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey. In the episode, he spoke about how his late father's fame and resulting media exposure surrounding his passing created difficulty in grieving the loss:
"I found myself extremely emotionally disregulated and feeling vulnerable and exposed when I wasn't ready to be vulnerable. And that created a major challenge for me. From my end, I didn't get a chance to focus on the private grieving process until about a year and a half after my dad passed away, meaning that I didn't recognize that I needed to grieve privately."
Zak Williams also told People in 2020 that he found himself struggling with depression and addiction following the death of his father, who faced similar mental health conditions, as well as Lewy Body Dementia. The young Williams eventually overcame these issues by finding forms of healing through connecting with others; he now advocates for mental health and works with mental health organizations to ensure that mental healthcare is granted to individuals who need it.
Recently, actor Jamie Foxx's daughter, Corrine Foxx also spoke out about mental health, talking to ET about her struggles with anxiety.
"I felt like people were always looking at me, were always expecting me to turn out a certain way. Because of that, I went the opposite realm."
"I became very focused on perfection and always being in this very cookie cutter type of way, and that put a lot of pressure and anxiety on me to uphold this standard of never messing up," she continued. "That definitely affected my mental health, and I'm still working through to unlearn those behaviors and those patterns and giving myself the grace to just be a human."
Foxx also stated that she frequently suffers from imposter syndrome, and has been in therapy since age 14.
Corinne has been advocating for mental health with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and through her podcast, Am I Doing This Right?
Cori Broadus, the daughter of rapper Snoop Dogg, also recently revealed her struggles with mental health in an Instagram post.
She stated in the video, "I've always been sad. I've always been depressed. I feel like I've been through a lot."
She explained her Lupus diagnosis, her boyfriend's car accident and bullying as stressors in her life. However, she stated that her boyfriend and her family helped her get through it all.
The insights from Zak Williams, Corrine Foxx and Cori Broadus are timely, as May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In a post-lockdown world where many people are coming out of quarantine much more mentally ill than before they went in, these discussions are in the forefront now more than ever.