One of the coolest post-Oscar stories I’ve heard all week is the one about Cate Blanchett and Amy Adams visiting a tattoo parlor. Did you hear that one? There were photos too, so it wasn’t BS. Amy and her partner Darren went with Cate and Cate’s husband Andrew to an LA tattoo parlor where Cate got a tattoo on her wrist. Hot, right? And who even knew that Amy and Cate were friends? I would love it if Cate and Amy became great girlfriends.
Anyway, I have no idea why anyone would really go and do serious research on Amy Adams’ family, but it looks like The National Enquirer did and they found some interesting “dirt”. I think this probably started out as an attempt to make Amy Adams interesting in a tabloid way (which she isn’t at all – she’s super-talented but her personal life is really quiet) and it ended up being kind of invasive and rude. As it turns out, Amy’s parents split up when she was 11 years old and her mom ended up moving in with a lesbian lover. Scandal!
OSCAR nominee Amy Adams suffered a horrific double-whammy as a kid growing up. When she was just 11 years old, her parents divorced and, according to a source, her mother ended up with her lesbian lover. Then, her father remarried and Amy went off to live with family friends during high school.
A family insider says that the “American Hustle” beauty was “devastated” when her parents divorced. But Amy has overcome the hardship of her youth and is now poised on the pinnacle of Hollywood success after being nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role as a con artist in “American Hustle.”
Still, it’s been a long, bumpy ride. The 39-year-old star’s parents, Kathryn and Richard Adams, were married in a Mormon temple in 1960 and settled in Castle Rock, Colo. After her mother’s shocking decision to file for divorce – according to the source, she left the marriage for another woman – Amy’s parents divorced in 1986. Although Amy’s mother sought joint custody, Amy’s father was granted custody of all seven Adams children. Kathryn was ordered to pay $25 a month for each of her minor children, but a few years later she was hit with a contempt citation for failure to pay the child support.
By then Amy was a teenager, and her father had remarried. He had three more kids and, according to the source, Amy and her three older siblings ended up living with other families when Amy was a teenager.
“They went to live with different family friends in the area for a couple of years because it was too much of a financial struggle for her father,” explained the insider. “Amy was heartbroken,” the source said, and she was “crying herself to sleep at night.”
Contacted by The ENQUIRER, a woman who identified herself as Amy’s mother Kathryn wouldn’t discuss Amy’s childhood and said only: “I am very proud of my daughter Amy. She has worked very hard to be a successful actress and she deserves to win the Oscar.”
Meanwhile, bighearted Amy has forgiven her parents and seems to have no permanent scars from her unstable childhood. Yet her own family life is unusual. Despite being engaged since 2008 to actor Darren Le Gallo – and raising 3-year-old daughter Aviana with him – Amy has still not set a wedding date.
How in the world is “not setting a wedding date” comparable to “a Mormon divorce in which the ex-wife goes to live with her lesbian lover and the ex-husband abandons his children to be raised by other people”? This makes me even more sympathetic towards Amy – it sounds like she had a kind of awful childhood. I knew that she grew up in a military family, shuffling from base to base a lot, but I didn’t realize that there was all of this other drama. Poor Amy. Compared to all of that, her quiet life with her fiancé and daughter in Hollywood must seem incredibly normal and down-to-earth.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
She is living proof that even if your famil is screwed up you can turn up a good kid.
I love Amy Adams, she is such a classy lady and not a famewhore.
Exactly! +1,000
Agree!
I wouldnt go as far as to say that this was a screwed up childhood. The part about her being sent to live with neighbouring relatives is messed up but the rest (a mum who leaves an unhappy marriage and tries to get joint custody) is pretty run of the mill if a little sad.
I see it as screwed up if only because it wasn’t ‘traditional’. And screwed up can also be because it is sad.
I agree with paola. I love Amy and wish her tons of future success!
Agree. As far as “messed up” childhoods go, this one seems fairly tame. As for her father producing ten kids he couldn’t financially support? Dumbass.
Paola you said it!!! I never knew any of this about Amy, but it adds more to my love for her. Rising above adversity or a pseudo twisted childhood is nothing short of inspiring!!! ❤️ Amy!!!
I don’t know about this, I’ve seen plenty of interviews where she talks about her family and it sounds like they’re close, so I don’t think her parents abandoned her.
I also don’t see anything unusual about her life, seems pretty happy and stable to me. I’m sure they have their reasons for not getting married.
Both ladies were close with PSH, so I’m guessing they’ve been friends themselves for a while.
Actually…:I remember her saying that she related to the abandoned daughter in Trouble with the curve. I remember it bc it stuck out to me when I saw it.
I believe she’s as close with her siblings as she can be given her schedule but I also think this is probably true.
Interesting, I didn’t know about that one. I’ve heard her mention her dad and step mom doing stuff with their family a lot, so it sounds like they have a good relationship now.
Just read this last night/early this morning.
The dad got full custody of the kids–which, I’m guessing that happened because it was the eighties and the mom was a lesbian. Amy went to go live with family friends in high school, because her dad couldn’t afford to feed all of them….so why did he press for full custody of SEVEN kids. Dang.
I’m guessing that they’ve all buried the hatchet????
+100000
So glad she didn’t let it go in her head and using it an excuse eceryday!
I think they filed for “joint” but the judge made the decision to give him custody of all the kids. You know I always thought the $25 a week my dad had to pay for my brother and I was too dang cheap but I guess it was a regular occurrence back then.
So her mother did not abandon her but was denied the custody, right?
@splinter, I imagine that the mom becoming lesbian would have made it impossible for her to get custody. I’m a little younger than her but when I was 12 a friend of mine’s Mom did the same thing – left for a lesbian lover. Even in liberal Seattle she had a really hard time getting custody and was only able to finally because her ex was a raging alcoholic.
And have 3 more kids.
+1
Yeah that really struck me. Sounds like her mum got punished for finally being her true self and coming out as a lesbian. It sucks that she and her older siblings couldn’t ho and live with their mother when their dad couldn’t hack it.
I’ve always liked her, and I like her even more for staying low key and nice in spite of what must have been a painful and turbulent youth. I thought she looked beautiful at the Oscars.
+ 1
I’ve always suspected that she had a fairly hard childhood and that she was poor growing up.
It’s why it’s more than a little annoying when people are so nasty to her in favor of other more privileged celebs who basically got to where they are on nepotism of some kind or other family wealth or privileges.
This woman didn’t have much growing up and she didn’t get to where she is bc Daddy pulled some strings. Is it any wonder she’s not out partying all the time or drawing attention to herself?
What people are” so nasty to her”?
Why didn’t this come out before the Oscars? Wouldn’t this have improved her chances? Maybe it will be a good talking point for her next nomination (which will happen.)
Bc she’s not a woman who sells her private life? If you look at her interviews over the years the clues are there that there was difficulty growing up. My guess is she just didn’t want to talk about it. I don’t think her team leaked this.
I agree @Kate – Amy had been nominated before if she was that desperate to win she would have already released this info to get the pity party going. I think she is a beautiful sweet person. She has hinted at problems in her past. I remember an interview on Chelsea Lately where she was adamant that she is only going to have one child because of how screwed up and the hardships she had to endure as a child of a large family. I just want to give her a big hug. Oh and I don’t think it is cute that they got tattoos but I am not someone who likes tats on most people.
This just makes me want to yell at the NE to LEAVE HER ALONE.
Yikes! If it’s all true, that had to really hurt. Raised Mormon, SEVEN kids, mom does her own thing, ends up being separated from the family and not helpful financially, dad can’t support the SEVEN kids but has THREE MORE… I can’t say what I really think, but I admire Amy Adams for never doing a “poor me” magazine cover. Celebrities like Halle Barry are always finding new “poor me” things to publicize.
My mom LOVES Amy Adams. This is significant, because the only celebrities whose names she bother to learn/remember are really hot guys, and Whoopi Goldberg……she loves her. I love Amy—she ALWAYS gives a good performance, even if it’s a crappy film.
My guess is she didn’t want to be known as that actress who complained about her horrible childhood every single time she had to promote a film. My guess is she wanted to be known as that kick ass actress who’s been nominated for an Oscar a bajillion times, and she needs one! STAT!
Words can’t express how much I adore Amy. First thing I saw her in was Enchanted–back when I was still young enough to watch Disney movies and not feel so adult.
This is a very mean, bad, ugly, unrespectful headline (title). We don’t even care
Sheesh, what was the point of the Enquirer dragging all this out? She’s not a famewhore who sells her family life for publicity. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s a tabloid, but who on this planet doesn’t have some painful things in their past?
Give.me.a.break. Divorce? Remarriage? A lesbian lover? It was the freakin’ 80s. Or 90s?This was a typical American childhood. Amy’s family was practically tv perfect compared to the realties of me and my friends back then. GenX was raised by the 60s generation who scoffed at fidelty.
A little harshly put, but I can’t disagree with you. 80’s parenting was pretty FUBAR.
Eh, speak for yourself. Plenty of us grew up in a “nuclear family” as well. I wouldn’t say this is “typical”.
My parents grew up in nuclear families that were so dysfunctional they swore they would never follow that path themselves – and they didn’t. But I’m not criticizing anyone’s families. It takes all kinds and adversity often makes us stronger. In fact, in Amy Adam’s case, she probably learned a lot in terms of independence, creative thinking, and peace making from this experience (Lord knows that I did), but I wouldn’t call it a traumatic or even unusual childhood.
OMG, why are there people still obsessed with the idea of marriage, in 2014?! You want to get married? Fine by me. You don’t want to get married? Whatever. Amy and her partner are in a committed relationship, they have a child together, we’ve never heard of any scandal or rumor suggesting other than that they truly love and support each other. Is marriage even remotely an indicator of stability and commitment nowadays? When there are people getting married 3 times before they’re even 35 years old (I’m looking at you, Kardashian), breaking and reestablishing marital vows as if they were part of a Lego scenario, famewhores getting married or being impregnated just to have a lifelong steady income… What I find truly scandalous and despicable and should be publicly condemned is couple rushing to the altar 5 minutes after they met, making loud declaration of their amazing and endless love (Kayley Cuoco, cough cough) or getting together because their pr people find it convenient…
Agreed. Its just silly. And I say this as a happily married person. I just think i would be just as happy if I hadnt married my spouse. Nothing changed when we signed the papers, except it gave some external legitimacy to our relationship.
Wow, if this is all true it is admirable that she is not spiteful. She has forgiven her parents and is happy. Good for her and may she have continued success.
I already love watching her but going through hardships can lead to all sorts of screwed up people. Happy she did not let these things defeat her spirit. 🙂
“Abandoned” is a very strong word. Amy wasn’t abandoned by her parents. It sounds like the parents had financial troubles and weren’t able to properly care for their kids. And the mom was likely not permitted custody because she had a female partner. That’s not the same thing as just walking away.
My dad was raised partially by extended family during the Depression because my grandmother had left his abusive father. He and his siblings were sent to live with relatives on the farm when my grandmother was unable to feed them on her small salary from cleaning houses. My grandmother’s family had actually begged her to leave her husband and doted on my dad. So my grandmother never “abandoned” my dad, and didn’t stop being an involved parent; she just bucked up and did what she had to do to make sure her kids were fed and properly cared for while she was working.
I don’t have any patience though with people who have more kids when they can’t afford the ones they have. There is no major religion that doesn’t find abstinence an acceptable form of birth control. If you can’t afford to feed any more, keep it in your pants!
My mother was born in 1922 and two cousins were sent to live with them for similar reasons. My mother’s mom died when she was only 12 and she was terrified that she and her sister would be shipped off to relatives. Her father was depressed and broke, he had lost all his savings in the Depression and was practically unemployed. It was a realistic fear. Government assistance programs have made a tremendous difference in more recent times. They’ve made it possible for families to stay together.
My father was born in France and lived there when the Germans were bombing. They sent the children out of the cities to live in safety in the countryside with farmers who volunteered to care for them. My father was not abandoned anymore than Amy was but the trauma of being torn from his family and having his life turned upside down has lasted a lifetime. Having your family unit shattered is a big deal even if it’s not as dramatic as my Dad’s story.
@jwoolman and Nina W
There are all kinds of reasons families don’t stay together. My mom moved to the US when I was 11 and my brother and I stayed in Canada with my dad. Was it hard to not have mom around every day? Of course. But my parents still technically shared custody by law, we saw her on all school holidays and spoke with her on the phone all the time. She kept up with our school work by being in touch with our teachers and was always there to help us with anything we needed. I can say I never felt abandoned by her and having people callously throw around that word when they had no idea what they were talking about was just as painful as the absence itself. It’s a very strong word. That’s how I interpreted Malificent’s comment and I think she’s completely correct. If Amy felt abandoned, that’s her call to make. Not the Enquirer’s.
I love her even more now!!
Boy, “Aviana” is an unnatractive name. It sounds like a budget airline.
She’s amazing. And so beautiful and talented.
She was better than American Hustle than Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine.
I grew up in Sydney, Australia. My mum left when I was 4, moved to London and promptly shacked up with a 19 year old bloke from South Africa. When she returned four years later with the bloke, he was 23, she was 35 and she was pregnant with her fourth child.
By then I was 8, my brother 10 and my sister 13. My dad was a broken man, having been humiliated and devastated by his wife leaving him. The scandal in our small well-to-do, affluent suburb was immediate and instant. The shame followed us around for years.
My point is this: You don’t have to be abused to have had a traumatic childhood. I have turned out ok, I am hard worker, a good mum, healthy and reasonably happy.
But this sort of stuff, weird adult stuff that parents put their children through, can leave deep scars. Being abandoned by your mother at a formative age is something you never properly recover from.