20 Supposed ‘Rags to Riches’ Stories That Aren’t True

The public loves a “rags-to-riches” tale. We like to think that, should our fairy godmother hurry up and come along anytime now, we too have deep wells of untapped talent waiting to earn us a solid gold swimming pool, and it doesn’t feel fair if someone gets one by already having the money and connections to launch a successful career rather than by working hard and getting lucky. “The rich get richer” is a battle cry, not an inspiring New York Times profile.

What we don’t like to admit is that it’s really hard to become one of society’s greatest artists or thinkers when you have to work a week of doubles to pay the rent this month. As a result, most of today’s household names were once mewling nepo babies, including the ones who were never suspected and even the ones who have explicitly claimed otherwise.

It all came out when user zer0w0rries asked r/AskReddit, “What success story is widely thought of as ‘rags to riches’ but, in reality, they were wealthy individuals all along?”