12 Celebrities Who Made Millions and Went Broke

broke braxtonToni Braxton, recording artist

Braxton has sold more than 40 million albums in her career so far. But she’s filed for bankruptcy twice – in 1998, due to an abominably one-sided new artist contract with LaFace Records; and in 2010, after abruptly canceling a one-woman Las Vegas show because of her unexpected battle with lupus, leaving her with up to $50 million in debt.

Braxton has since launched a comeback with a hit reality TV series, The Braxton Family Values, a Lifetime movie, a Broadway stint, and a new collaboration album.

Braxton recently made the news when she purchased a $3 million home in the exclusive gated community in Calabasas, California, just six months after settling her second bankruptcy.

broke owens 1

Terrell Owens, NFL legend

Owens earned an estimated $70 million throughout his football career as a wide receiver. By 2012, he had blown through most of his fortune. Financial setbacks forced Owens to sell several of his high-priced homes for under market value; he was inundated with child-support payments upwards of $50,000 a month to four different women; and he was recently hit with a tax lien of nearly $500,000.

Owens has succeeded in reducing his child support payments. According to TMZ, last April he sued his financial advisers for “opening a bank account without his knowledge and then forging his signature, and leading him to really bad investments, including a failed Alabama casino.”

The talented football player has tried his luck at a comeback, but no NFL team has been willing to take a gamble on him.

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top