Jennie Garth recalled facing a “scary” financial transition after her “Beverly Hills, 90210” fame.
The 54-year-old actress starred as Kelly Taylor on the hit Fox drama for its entire run from 1990 to 2000. “Beverly Hills, 90210” became a cultural phenomenon and one of the defining teen shows of the decade, drawing millions of viewers at its peak.
By the later seasons, Garth was reportedly earning around $50,000 per episode. During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Garth remembered how it was daunting to adjust from making a lucrative salary during her early 20s to a period without steady income after the show concluded.
“The security of being on a series is incredible, but inevitably, that series will come to an end,” she said during a recent interview with Fox News Digital. Garth, who recently released her new memoir “I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose & Embracing Reinvention,” admitted that she had regrets over lacking financial knowledge during her youth.
Her book, which is a mix of a memoir and inspirational guide, was released on April 14.
“I luckily had great people helping me to plan and manage my money along the way,” Garth said. “I never knew much about it though. I sort of trusted them blindly, which I don’t recommend.”
“I wish I had gone to business school,” she added. “I wish had learned more.”
“There’s always time. Who knows?”
WATCH HERE: JENNIE GARTH ADMITS SHE ‘TRUSTED BLINDLY’ WITH MONEY AFTER ‘90210’ FAME
Garth said that her lack of financial confidence took on new urgency years later when she found herself fully responsible for her finances and future after her divorce from her ex-husband Peter Facinelli.
The “What I Like About You” alum and the “Twilight” actor wed in 2001 but finalized their divorce in 2013. The former couple share daughters Luca Bella, 28, Lola Ray, 23, and Fiona Eve, 19.
“I realized after my divorce — I think it was after my divorce from the girl’s father that I’m on my own, and it was this kind of really scary kind of concept at first,” she said. “But when you think about it, we’re born alone, really, we come into this world solo with the help of our parents, then we naturally leave our parents and go on about our lives, and then we die alone.”
“When you have sort of an awareness of that and an acceptance of that…it makes you trust yourself more,” Garth continued. “You know you can rely on yourself. You know that you’re all you’ve got, really, at the end of the day. So you really start to have this newfound sort of respect for yourself and that you can figure anything out.”
“And especially when you go through troubling times, or you suffer loss, or grief, or career upsets, loss of a job, like all of that, you realize, ‘Look what I survived,'” she added. “You can look back on those things now and think, I handled all that. I’m still here. My kids are still breathing. Like, I’m doing great. There’s nothing I can’t handle. So everything gets a little less scary.”
While Garth faced financial challenges tied to inexperience and life changes, other stars from the 1980s and 1990s experienced far more severe financial setbacks, including bankruptcy, tax debt and the loss of entire fortunes.
Danny Bonaduce rose to fame at the age of 11 when he played David Partridge in the hit sitcom “The Partridge Family” throughout its run from 1970 to 1974. However, Bonaduce previously revealed that he only made $400 an episode while starring on the show and faced difficulty finding work after it ended.
Bonaduce’s financial troubles were exacerbated by his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. During a 2013 episode of Oprah Winfrey’s “Where Are They Now?,” Bonaduce recalled becoming homeless in his teenage years.
“I lived right behind this dumpster, but I lived in my car,” he said.
He explained that he would frequently sign autographs and pose with fans who were unaware that he was homeless at the time.
“When I was done, or I knew they wouldn’t see me, I would sneak back to my car,” he said. “It was totally embarrassing to be famous and homeless.”
Bonaduce also experienced a series of legal issues. In 1990, he was arrested for attempting to buy drugs while in Florida to speak at an anti-drug event. The next year, he was arrested again for robbing and assaulting a prostitute.
The actor began turning his life around in the late 1990s when he transitioned into radio hosting, which gave him steady work and structure after years of instability. By the early 2000s, he had stabilized both his career and personal life, leading to long-term financial and professional recovery.
In 2005, he starred in the reality show “Breaking Bonaduce” and in 2007, he was the host and judge of the VH1 series “I Know My Kid’s a Star.”
After decades in radio, he retired in December 2023 from his long-running morning show on Seattle’s KZOK-FM, which he had hosted since 2011.
Erin Moran was best known for playing Joanie Cunningham on the hit show “Happy Days” from 1974 to 194, starting when she was 13. Moran went on to star in the short-lived spinoff “Joanie Loves Chachi” from 1982 to 1983 before returning for the final season of “Happy Days.”
In a 1988 interview with the Toronto Star via The New York Times, Moran said that she left Los Angeles behind and moved to the California mountains after suffering from depression and struggling to find acting work following the end of “Happy Days.”
She lost her California home to foreclosure in 2010 and eventually moved with her husband Steve Fleischmann, a Walmart employee, to Indiana, where they lived in a trailer with his mother. In 2012, she joined her “Happy Days” co-stars in a lawsuit against CBS over unpaid merchandising revenue, but each actor only received about $65,000 each in the eventual settlement.
Moran reportedly spent the settlement money quickly and experienced severe financial hardship in the years leading up to her death in April 2017 at the age of 56 due to complications of stage 4 throat cancer.
During a 2017 interview with The Sun, Moran’s brother Tony Moran reflected on her struggles after “Happy Days”
“Erin was a tortured soul who never recovered after Happy Days. Hollywood chewed her up and spat her out.”
Gary Coleman became a household name at age 10 when he played Arnold Jackson on the NBC sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” which aired from 1978 to 1986. At the height of his success, he was reportedly one of the highest-paid child actors on television, earning tens of thousands of dollars per episode. However, Coleman later said much of his fortune was mismanaged by Edmonia Sue Coleman and Willie Coleman, along with his former business manager Anita DeThomas.
In 1989, he sued his parents and DeThomas for misappropriating his trust fund. He won a $1.28 million judgment in 1993, but much of the money was spent on legal fees and medical issues. Coleman suffered from congenital, progressive kidney disease throughout his life and underwent two failed transplants.
Coleman filed for bankruptcy in 1999, citing ongoing financial strain despite his earlier success. Reflecting on who was responsible for his financial struggles, he said, “I can spread that blame all the way around, from me to accountants, to my adoptive parents, to agents to lawyers and back to me again,” according to E! Online.
In the years that followed, Coleman took on a variety of jobs to support himself, including working as a security guard and appearing in small television roles and commercials.
Coleman attempted to resurrect his career, but legal disputes dogged him repeatedly. He moved to Utah in 2005.
In September 2008, a dust up with a fan at a Utah bowling alley led Coleman to plead no contest to disorderly conduct. The lawsuit was settled out of court.
In early 2010, officers were called to assist or intervene with Coleman more than 20 times. Some of the disputes involved his wife Shannon Price, whom he met on the set of the 2006 comedy “Church Ball” and married in 2007.
Coleman died at the age of 42 in May 2010 after suffering a head injury from a fall at his home in Utah.
Willie Aames is best known for playing Tommy Bradford in the hit TV series “Eight Is Enough” from 1977 to 1981 and Buddy Lembeck in the sitcom “Charles in Charge” from 1984 to 1990.
Aames’ financial struggles began in the 1990s as he struggled to find work as an actor and began struggling with substance abuse issues. The actor previously said that his financial situation had deteriorated significantly by the early 2000s due to poor financial decisions, lack of steady income and ongoing issues with addiction.
In 2008, he filed for bankruptcy and faced foreclosure on his home in Kansas, prompting him to sell personal possessions and memorabilia from his TV career. During an appearance on “Entertainment Tonight,” he revealed that he became “virtually homeless” in 2009.
“I stayed with friends when I could, slept in parking garages or slept in the park,” he said. “It was shameful. I remember laying underneath the bushes thinking, ‘Is this how it turns out? Is this how my life really turns out?'”
In 2010, Aames took on a job as a cruise director for Regent Seven Seas Cruises before later working for Oceania Cruises and Viking Cruises.
Aames returned to acting in small roles in 2016 and also became involved in counseling and motivational speaking, speaking publicly about his recovery and financial turnaround.
MC Hammer became one of the biggest names in hip-hop in 1990, following the release of his massively successful album “Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em.” At the height of his career, he was earning tens of millions of dollars through music sales, touring and endorsements. However, Hammer also spent lavishly during this time. He employed a large entourage, maintained multiple properties and led an expansive lifestyle that required significant ongoing income.
Hammer’s finances began to collapse after his popularity declined in the mid-1990s. In 1996, he filed for bankruptcy with $13 million in debt. Hammer’s bankruptcy filing outlined substantial liabilities, including loans, back taxes and the costs associated with supporting a large staff.
In 2013, the IRS ordered Hammer to pay $800,000 in unpaid taxes for the years 1996 and 1997. Although the rapper tried to appeal the case, a federal judge ruled against Hammer in 2015.
Following his bankruptcy filing, Hammer worked to rebuild his financial footing by shifting into new areas, including technology, investing and consulting. He remained active in media and business circles, often speaking about entrepreneurship and financial discipline.
Nicolas Cage was one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors in the late 1990s and early 2000s, earning tens of millions of dollars from major films and amassing a substantial fortune. At his peak, Cage’s fortune was estimated at $150 million.
However, his finances began to unravel in the late 2000s, largely due to heavy spending on real estate, rare collectibles and other high-cost purchases. The Academy Award winner famously bought castles in England and Germany, an island in the Bahamas and a mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana, that is said to be haunted.
Some of his more unique purchases included a 67-million-year-old dinosaur skull which he bought at a Beverly Hills auction after outbidding Leonardo DiCaprio and genuine shrunken pygmy heads. Cage also owned an exotic animal collection that included an octopus and a crocodile.
By 2009, Cage was facing serious financial strain, including a dispute with the IRS over $6 million in unpaid taxes. He filed a $20 million lawsuit against his former business manager, Samuel Levin, alleging negligence and mismanagement, while also acknowledging his own role in the situation. During a 2023 appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” he emphasized that his past financial struggles were due in part to his investment strategy, explaining that he had concentrated too much of his wealth in property at the wrong time.
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“I over-invested in real estate,” he said. “It wasn’t because I spent $80 on an octopus. The real estate market crashed, and I couldn’t get out in time.”
In the years that followed, Cage worked steadily to recover financially, taking on numerous film roles to repay his IRS debts.
“I paid them all back,” he said on “60 Minutes.” “It was about $6 million. I never filed for bankruptcy.”
Cage acknowledged that it was a “dark” period of time but staying busy with his acting career helped him.
“Work was always my guardian angel,” he said. “It may not have been blue chip, but it was still work.”
By the 2020s, Cage had largely stabilized his finances, continuing to act regularly while maintaining a more measured approach to spending.
Sinbad, the comedian and actor known for roles in films including “Houseguest” and the sitcom “The Sinbad Show,” enjoyed steady success in the 1990s but later faced significant financial problems tied largely to unpaid taxes.
According to court filings, he accumulated millions of dollars in tax debt to the IRS dating back to the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2009, Sinbad filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, reporting liabilities that included millions owed in back taxes. The case was dismissed after Sinbad failed to meet the court’s repayment plan requirements, allowing his tax debts to continue accumulating.
In 2013, he filed for bankruptcy again, listing $10.9 million in total debts of which approximately $8.3 million was owed to the IRS.
During a 2013 appearance on HuffPost Live, Sinbad said that he had expected he would be offered a role that would enable him to cover his spending.
“I spent money, and I kept thinking, ‘I get one more movie, and I’ll wipe these bills out,’ but that movie never came,” he said. “I said, ‘Man, I’m going to hang in there, I’m going to pay these bills.’ So you owe a million dollars. I can pay that. OK, fines, fees, now you owe two and a half million. ‘But I didn’t do nothin’!’ Now you owe four million.”
In the years that followed, Sinbad continued to work in entertainment, taking on stand-up performances and occasional acting roles. However, his financial recovery has been complicated by ongoing obligations and serious health issues after he suffered a stroke in 2020.
Burt Reynolds was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1970s and 1980s, earning millions from box office hits including “Smokey and the Bandits” and “Deliverance. Reynolds became one of the industry’s highest-paid actors and his net worth was estimated at over $60 million at the height of his career, according to People magazine.
However, Reynolds began experiencing financial struggles in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to a combination of high spending, costly real estate holdings and a series of unsuccessful business ventures including his Southern-style, casual restaurant chain Po’ Folks.
His financial troubles were exacerbated by his high-profile 1993 divorce from actress Loni Anderson, which involved a costly settlement, as well as declining acting opportunities compared to his peak years.
In 1996, Reynolds filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing debts of more than $10 million.
“I lost more money than is possible because I just haven’t watched it,” he admitted during an interview with Vanity Fair in 2015. “I’ve still done well in terms of owning property and things like that. But I haven’t been somebody who’s been smart about his money.”
However, Reynolds continued working steadily in film and television, including a critically acclaimed role in 1997’s “Boogie Nights,” which helped revive his career. While he was able to regain some financial stability through consistent work, he never returned to the level of wealth he had once enjoyed before his death from a heart attack at the age of 82 in 2018.
Janice Dickinson rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as one of the most recognizable supermodels of her era. At the height of her career, she earned substantial income from modeling, endorsements and media appearances. However, she began to experience financial issues in the mid to late 2000s due in part to inconsistent income, high expenses and mounting tax debt.
By 2013, Dickinson’s financial problems had become severe, and she filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Court filings showed she owed more than $1 million in back taxes, primarily to the IRS and the state of California, along with additional debts to other creditors.
“I had some trouble, so yes, it is true,” the former “America’s Next Top Model” judge told Radar Online at the time. “I am upset and taking every step to pay everyone back, and I feel terrible about it.”
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In 2014, a bankruptcy judge approved a repayment plan, which allowed her to pay back a reduced portion of the debt over time rather than the full amount.
Following the bankruptcy, Dickinson continued working in television and the media, including reality shows and public appearances.
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During a 2024 interview with the Telegraph, Dickinson reflected on her bankruptcy filing and past financial struggles.
“I lost track of what I was spending, and it started to add up,” she said. “I went overboard, and I couldn’t afford to cover my checks — my American Express bills, mostly.”
The supermodel also shut down rumors that medical bills for plastic surgery procedures contributed to her financial woes.
“I’ve never paid for any plastic surgery,” she said. “Doctors approach me to offer me surgery, for the privilege of working on me.”
