From Will Smith to Jennette McCurdy, plenty of celebrities have written memoirs about their own lives. However, some have been the subject of tell-all books and memoirs written by the people closest to them.
Here are 21 celebs whose family members and friends have written books about them:
2.
Christopher Ciccone, Madonna’s brother, wrote a memoir called Life with My Sister Madonna. It painted Madonna as cold and disrespectful from childhood onward.
4.
Priscilla Presley, who was married to Elvis Presley from 1967-1973, documented the story of their relationship, its fallout, and the connection she still felt to him after his death in Elvis and Me.
6.
Marilyn Monroe’s close friend and former roommate, Susan Strasberg, wrote Marilyn and Me: Sisters, Rivals, Friends about the rivalry she felt she had with the actor for her parents’ affection because Marilyn was her father’s favorite acting student.
7.
June DiMaggio, the niece of Marilyn Monroe’s second husband and baseball player, Joe DiMaggio, wrote Marilyn, Joe & Me: June DiMaggio Tells It Like It Was. Sharing stories from her close friendship with Marilyn, June portrayed her as funny, intelligent, and loving.
8.
Berniece Baker Miracle, Marilyn Monroe’s half-sister, penned the memoir My Sister Marilyn. Co-authored with her daughter Mona Rae Miracle, Berniece wrote the book to set the record straight and avoid the kind of sensationalism other works about Marilyn often used.
10.
Jenny Pentland, Roseanne Barr’s daughter, penned This Will Be Funny Later, a memoir about growing up “in comedy clubs and mental institutions.” She detailed the stark differences between her real family and the fictional Roseanne family that was based on them.
11.
Joan Crawford’s daughter, Christina Crawford, wrote one of the earliest and most famous celebrity tell-alls, Mommie Dearest. In the book, Christina spoke out about her mother’s abuse and alcoholism.
12.
B. D. Hyman, Bette Davis’s daughter, released a memoir called My Mother’s Keeper in order to get Bette’s attention and fix their relationship. However, she portrayed her as an attention seeker, a man hater, and a possessive mother. The book only made their relationship worse.
13.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the daughter of Steve Jobs, penned the memoir Small Fry about her complicated relationship with her father. She alleged that he denied being her father until he was sued for child support, kicked her out of family pictures, and made inappropriate comments about women.
14.
Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon’s first wife, wrote the biography John about her ex. She wrote about her experience with love, pain, and “the price [she has] paid for being John’s wife.”
15.
Carly Simon wrote the memoir Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie about her close friend First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She detailed their unexpected friendship and how they helped each other through public life and loss.
17.
Dyan Cannon, Cary Grant’s fourth wife and Jennifer Grant’s mom, wrote Dear Cary about her five-year relationship with the actor and the guilt he felt about his discovery that his mother — whom he’d thought died 20 years ago — had been living in a mental institution.
18.
Neil Young’s father, Scott Young, wrote the memoir Neil and Me about his son’s childhood and rise to fame. The book was so popular with Neil’s fans that they launched an international online campaign to make it available again.
19.
Humphrey Bogart’s son, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, penned the biography Bogart: In Search of My Father about the father he lost at an early age. In the book, he reconciled with the feeling of growing up in his dad’s shadow and got to know more about who he really was.
20.
Todd Fisher, Carrie Fisher’s brother and Debbie Reynolds’s son, wrote the heartbreaking yet hilarious memoir My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie. From his perspective as the family’s peacemaker, he documented their lives from the time his father Eddie Fisher left Debbie for Elizabeth Taylor until Carrie and Debbie died only a day apart.
21.
And finally, Janis Joplin’s sister, Laura Joplin, is the author of Love, Janis, a poignant biography about the singer’s rise to fame and her family’s worries about her. The book inspired the musical of the same name.
