Keeping fame in the family - how kids with famous folks fared

Duncan Jones famously said he never used his father’s name as a way of getting a business meeting. But how do other celebrity children fare? Lorraine Courtney examines the parent trap.

Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s Bafta award-winning son, found success without ever using his father’s name.

What he does have in common with the current crop of headline-grabbers like Lily Rose Depp, Rafferty Law, Kendall Jenner, and Romeo and Brooklyn Beckham is: famous parents. Whether these new kids on the block ride to their goals on the coat-tails of their famous parents or go it alone is yet to be seen.

While the family trade has been in steep decline since the Victorian age, when nearly half of children followed in their parents’ professional footsteps, the dynasty is alive and well in showbiz.

It’s nothing new in the world of celebrity, like father, like son (or like mother, like daughter) is all par for the course if you think of the famous Redgrave dynasty, Michael Douglas and his father Kirk, or Robbie Williams, whose father Pete Conway was a variety performer.

It seems that having the right parents will definitely get you places but the children of high-profile winners rarely win: if you’re successful, people suspect nepotism; if you fail, they say you never made the most of your opportunities. It’s hard to fly under the radar if you’re a bona fide celeb’s child, but it’s something that Eve Hewson has managed to pull off.

Eve has been very much holding her own as an innocent southern nurse alongside Clive Owen in Steven Soderbergh’s series The Knick and she has been cast as Maid Marian in the upcoming Robin Hood flick. She told Time magazine in a recent interview that she’s determined to dodge the parent trap and create her own success.

If you’re the offspring of a celebrity you can expect to get some benefits: contacts, financial security and a decent gene pool.

Chloe Agnew is the singer daughter of Adele King and David Agnew. She’s carved out an international career for herself and was recently in Cape Town, South Africa performing as the star vocalist at last year’s 2015 Cape Town Military Tattoo. Chloe is based in LA but has been home in Dublin since the Christmas holidays. She performed her debut concert at the National Concert Hall on January 16.

She’s living proof that we are our parents’ children, sharing their genes and their abilities.

“Growing up in a show business family, performing and singing was all I knew throughout my childhood,” she says.

“I always enjoyed being around it because I felt at home on stage and it was just a way of life. It wasn’t until I got that little bit older when I began to understand the importance of having my own identity and expressing who I was as a singer and a person.

“I moved to LA in 2013 just before I left Celtic Woman, and only then did I truly feel like I had a chance to pave my own path without being compared to anyone along the way. And yes, it’s made me more determined than ever.”

For beauty queen turned nutritionist and author Rosanna Davison having a famous father, Chris de Burgh, has had its advantages.

“It was definitely more of a help than a hindrance, although to me he’s just my dad and I forget that he’s so well known. He has so many friends and contacts all over the world, and that was definitely a help to me.

“But it also placed more pressure on me to prove that I could be successful without him. He gave me great advice in the early years about dealing with the media and the business side of things,” she says,

Chloe has experienced the positive and the negative side to having wellknown parents.

“I feel incredibly lucky to have two amazing parents who are both equally amazing talents and beautiful people. It’s so great to be able to pick up the phone and to have their endless love, support and insight to anything I ever need advice on. They’re both phenomenal at what they do and their knowledge of the industry is mind blowing.

“It does come with its challenges too though,” she admits, “as sadly people are often too quick to judge you based on their opinion of your parents. It sometimes doesn’t feel fair that people have already made up their minds about you without getting to know you or what you do.”

There is the go-off-the-rails path. Sex, drugs, drink, small children: bringing your family shame through your addiction of choice. We all live in our parents’ shadow to some extent, but if your mother’s Madonna, you’re always going to be fairly overshadowed. You can only hope to scramble for some of the reflected glory.

And then if you become famous in your own right, as Stella McCartney is, say it can be really hard to escape the notion, rightly or wrongly that your parents’ fame wasn’t exactly a hindrance in your ascension to your current celebrity.

Lottie Ryan, daughter of the late Gerry, the RTÉ television presenter and broadcaster, has also spoken publicly about carving out her own media career.

“I did the hard work that everyone is supposed to do, and I’m not going to lie and say doors aren’t opened for you — of course they are, and that is amazing — but if I don’t have something to back it up with, the criticism will be twice as hard on me, so I nearly have to doubleprove myself, really,” she said in a 2010 interview.

You see in the end the famous parent sparkle fades and it’s up to you to impress people on your own and Rosanna admits feeling this earlier on in her career.

“I did definitely feel extra pressure when I began my career, to create my own identity and build my career on my own.

“It’s natural for people to make comparisons if you have a famous parent, and although I’m incredibly proud of my dad’s success, I was very much driven to carve my own career path,” she says. She did feel under more pressure to prove herself because of this.

“Perhaps it was just pressure I put on myself, but yes I did feel a certain amount of extra pressure to show I wasn’t just relying on my dad’s profile to get places,” she says.

Of course upholding the family’s name comes with its own pressures. Throw in fame, stardom, wealth, the pressure to perform, the high expectations, and most importantly the public scrutiny that goes along with it, and you can have a lethal combination.

“I’ve definitely gone through phases of feeling under pressure because of it, especially at home in Ireland,” Chloe says.

“But I think it’s only natural to feel that way. It doesn’t matter what profession it is, if you’re following in the footsteps of your parents there is always going to be that added pressure. Even if it’s all in your head, sometimes you can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed by it,” she says.

There is little doubt that the children spawned by celebrities make for good reading. Publish a picture of parent and child and we can spot the similarities, pick away at their likenesses, compare their faces and identify their shared flaws and this is a facet of our culture that grates on Chloe.

“It’s not right for us to judge or have opinions on people we don’t even know. Particularly when it comes to children, I feel so glad to be older in this new scary internet age. It truly saddens me to see things people write and say about celeb toddlers nowadays online and in magazines,” she says.

“They’re totally innocent, young little ones who happened to be born into that life and they’re suddenly being exposed to cruelty of adults and their words that children should just not have to deal with,” she says.

Still Rosanna doesn’t feel that she’s had to put up with too much negativity.

“I don’t feel that the public has been unfair towards me because my dad is wellknown.

“I find that there’s a lot of goodwill and support out there, and possibly even more so now because I’ve shown that I work hard and have built my own career away from my dad.”