Celebrities who have tragically lost a child

He was 28 years old when Mac Sinise, son of actor Gary Sinise, was diagnosed with chordoma, a rare form of cancer that attacks the spine. In early 2024, at the age of 33, the disease took his life.

Photo: Gary Sinise Foundation

In 2006, her 20-year-old son Daniel Wayne Smith died of an accidental overdose, just three days after his mom gave birth to his half-sister. Anna Nicole Smith was devastated. Less than a year later, she was found dead after taking a deadly combination of legal drugs too.

Actor Sage Stallone, Sylvester’s eldest, died in 2012 at the age of 36. He had gone missing for four days and was found lifeless in his home in LA. An autopsy found that he died of a heart attack caused by atherosclerosis, with no drugs detected other than an over-the-counter pain remedy. “When a parent loses a child there is no greater pain,” Stallone said after the incident.

The actress has tragically lost three of her 14 children. Dispelling “viscous rumors,” she took to Twitter to clear up what happened, saying her daughter, Tam (upper left), died in 2000 at age 17 from an accidental prescription overdose related to migraines and a heart ailment, her daughter, Lark, died in 2008 at age 35 from complications of HIV/AIDS, and son, Thaddeus (in wheelchair), died by after taking his life in 2016 at age 29.

His daughter, Charlotte Brosnan (bottom left), died from ovarian cancer in 2013 at the age of 41 — the same “wretched” disease that killed her mother and Brosnan's first wife, Cassandra Harris (upper right) in 1991. "To watch someone you love have his or her life eaten away bit by bit by this insidious disease, that part of your sorrow becomes an indelible part of your psyche," he said at a telethon, according to Entertainment Tonight.

In 2022, Ian Alexander Jr. (pictured), the only child of award-winning actor Regina King, took his own life at the age of 26. She had previously told People about the unconditional love she had for his son. Shortly before his passing, Ian tweeted "I don't think Instagram is healthy for me."

His only son Scott Newman died at the age of 28 in 1978. Earlier that year, he had been in a motorcycle accident and was taking painkillers to ease the pain. But one fatal night, he mixed a fatal dose of valium with alcohol and died in what police said was an accidental death.

In 1977, at the height of Led Zepplin fame, Robert Plant and his partner Maureen Wilson’s (pictured) five-year-old son Karac died of a stomach illness while Robert was on tour in the US. The song ‘All My Love’ was written in tribute to his son.

The boxer’s four-year-old daughter died in what police called a “tragic accident.” She became tangled in a cord as she played on a treadmill in her home, and the chord acted as a noose. In a hearbtreaking interview with HBO’s ‘Real Sports’ he broke down crying, saying he “had to get high” to deal with Exodus’s death because he couldn’t handle the grief and anger.

Image: 'Real Sports,' HBO

In 2010, her adopted son Michael (far left) took his own life by jumping out of his apartment. Although she has eight children and eight grandchildren, she said she’ll never be able to get over it. " I don't think you're ever through it," Osmond told CBS. "I think God gives you respites. And then all of a sudden it will hit you like the day it did. The ripple effect is so huge, what you leave behind."

In 1996, Prince and his wife Mayte Garcia had Amiir. But he was born with the rare disease Pfeiffer syndrome type 2 and died several days later. He was Prince’s only child. The distress of the death took a toll on the marriage and the couple divorced in 2000. It was Prince’s only marriage, too.

In 1991, Clapton’s four-year-old son Conor died after falling from a 53rd-floor window of a New York City apartment building belonging to a friend of his mom. Dealing with his grief, Clapton co-wrote the heartbreaking track ‘Tears in Heaven’ for his boy.

In 1980, the actress’s only son, Richard Meeker Jr., died after accidentally shooting himself when he was loading and unloading one of the guns that he collected, according to the Washington Post. He was 24. The model of gun was later removed from the market.

Bill Cosby’s only son Ennis Cosby was shot dead after a failed robbery attempt near Interstate 405 in Los Angeles. He was just 27 years old at the time and had been working toward a doctorate in special education at Columbia University. At the time, Bill Clinton and Desmond Tutu personally called Bill Cosby to express their condolences.

Jett Travolta died during a family vacation in the Bahamas in 2009 after hitting his head on a bathtub after a seizure, at age 16. He had a history of seizures and was the oldest of three children.

The six-time Golden Globe winner lost her daughter Carrie Hamilton in 2022. She died after being diagnosed with lung cancer, and was a cigarette smoker early in her life. She lost her life at age 38 after the lung cancer spread. "There's not a day or almost a moment goes by that she's not with me," Burnett told People in April 2023. "We worked together, we laughed together, we cried together. She was a force."

When she was just 14 years old, Oprah gave birth to a premature baby boy after suffering sexual abuse. He died a few weeks after birth in the hospital. In 2015 at an event in Australia, she said his name was Canaan.

While on tour in the UK in 1968, the American singer got the news that his home in Tennessee had burned down and that his two eldest sons had died in the fire. Two years prior, he had lost his wife Claudette (pictured) in a motorcycle accident.

In August 2008, the famous hip-hop producer’s son Andre Jr. was found dead in his home after spending a night out with friends. Toxicology reports found that he had died due to an overdose of heroin and morphine. He was just 20 at the time.

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