Celeb Phobias
Hidden beneath all of the expensive clothing and behind the locked doors of their various luxurious mansions, celebrities are just like us deep down in their hearts. Though they may live a lavish life of luxury and constantly live life on the look out for paparazzi, they have hopes and dreams and even fears. Some fears are rational and others are not. The difference is how extreme a person will take their fears. We gathered a list of your favorite celebrities and their absolutely bizarre phobias!
From Britney Spears and Tyra Banks to Megan Fox, Robert De Niro and Madonna, you never knew your favorite stars were harboring these intense fears. They wear the latest trends, attend red carpet events and see to not have a care in the world. Plus, they have the money to solve a lot of common problems that most people have. Listen not even celebrities who seem to have the perfect lives can be immune from irrational fears. We guarantee you had no clue they were suffering from these phobias. However, now that you hear this, you will never forget it. It’s something that will come up anytime you see a photo of them or even watch a movie or show they’ve starred in. Maybe you also have a strange phobia and you can find something in common with these stars. Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that celebrities are people too. Thus, like us normal folks, they too can have irrational fears and phobias that even affect their lives. This goes beyond just a fear of spiders or insects. Come on, we all know someone with that fear. These are pretty bizarre and uncommon phobias that you would have never guessed.
While you’re reading about these phobias, not only will you learn things you never knew about these celebrities, but you’ll definitely also learn about phobias you never knew existed. Seriously, there are endless phobias out there, but meeting or hearing about someone that is afraid of hangers can be pretty rare. (Yes, one of the celebrities on our list is actually afraid of hangers!) Anyway, let’s get to the list because these are some unbelievable phobias. Get ready to be amazed that these phobias exist and that your favorite stars actually suffer from all of these intense, irrational fears.
Nicole Kidman
The piercing blue eyes and long, luscious blonde hair have made Nicole Kidman a mainstay in the tightest of Hollywood circles. The Australian native has already earned over $300 million in her career . Despite her numerous acting awards for films like Moulin Rouge! and The Hours, Kidman can’t escape her bizarre fear of butterflies. That’s right, Kidman is tragically afraid of one of nature’s prettiest insects. She can deal with spiders without needing treatment for anxiety but when a butterfly comes near her all bets are off. Husband Keith Urban would do well to watch out for the winged bug when the couple goes on walks together!
Nicole Kidman
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz is one of the funniest actresses in Hollywood but her phobia is no joke! The Something About Mary star is deathly afraid of doorknobs. Yes, doorknobs! We don’t know if it is a cleanliness thing or a texture thing, but rumor has it that she won’t touch one if she can avoid it.
Cameron Diaz
Carmen Electra
A lot of people are afraid of water, myself included, and it is a pretty rational phobia to carry. However, Carmen Electra made a career out of playing a lifeguard on Baywatch so it seems a little bit shocking to hear that the bombshell is absolutely terrified of water. It’s true! Electra may not need an anxiety disorder treatment over the affair, but the beautiful actress has repeatedly stated how much water freaks her out. Apparently seeing the ocean on television or even being near the waves is enough to send chills down her spine. With Baywatch getting a reboot, with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as the star, we aren’t exactly surprised not to see her name attached. Though Electra is as stunning as ever perhaps she has enough money not to need to deal with her greatest fear again.
Carmen Electra
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp has made a career out of being the strange man in some form of mask: Edward Scissorhands, Jack Sparrow, Sweeney Todd — even Tonto! So, it surprises us to hear that the swarthy superstar is terrified of clowns. Depp claims that he is absolutely terrified by their fake smiles, evil eyes, and caked on appearance. We wouldn’t be surprised if he had, at one point, needed some anxiety self help just when seeing his own characters on screen! We understand the clown fear. At the end of the day Stephen King probably fomented an entire generation of clown fear with his work on It.
Johnny Depp
Tyra Banks
Tyra Banks may be the big bad model when she’s working the runway, but off of the runway she has her irrational phobias just like the rest of us. For Tyra Banks all you need to show her is a picture of a dolphin to make the model recoil in fear. Dolphins are supposed to be the joy of the ocean but it appears that Banks doesn’t agree.
Tyra Banks
Megan Fox
Megan Fox is so afraid of touching dry paper that she needs her important documents to be laminated in order for her to touch them. Her fear doesn’t make sense and we doubt any other industry would forgive it but when you look like she does, well, there you go.
Megan Fox
Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom is over 40 but he looks like he’s just hitting 30 for the first time. The famous English actor broke into Hollywood with a small role in Blackhawk Down before launching into super stardom thanks to his work on epic series Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. Since then Bloom has become a true Hollywood mainstay and family man with children to former wife, supermodel Miranda Kerr. Yet his charming good looks, beautiful accent, and natural charisma can’t keep his fear of pigs from pervading him. That’s right, Legolas has a fear of pigs — any age and any size! When some pigs got loose during the filming of Kingdom of Heaven, Bloom was one of the first people to go running.
Orlando Bloom
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jennifer Love Hewitt has the kind of smoldering beauty that you just can’t find unless you were born with it. For her success in films like Can’t Hardly Wait and I Know What You Did Last Summer, Hewitt became a 90’s icon. Now, Hewitt is still active in Hollywood, especially on television. Yet, if you were to run into her on her way out of a building you can rest assured that she came from the stairs. Hewitt is firmly, fanatically, afraid of elevators. Maybe it is the lack of control or perhaps it is the fear that movies instilled into her, but either way she is devoutly afraid of getting in those boxes and riding them up or down.
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey is one of the most respected actors in the industry. If you were reading this post six or seven years ago you would assume that we are being sarcastic. McConaughey was once pigeonholed as nothing more than a pretty face with a great body suited for romantic comedies. Now, he has made a name for himself for films like Interstellar, Mud, and The Dallas Buyers Club, as well as the show True Detective. Yet for all of that success McConaughey can’t escape one fear from his past: revolving doors. He won’t go near the things and absolutely refuses to use them. We’re sure there is some deeper message here: McConaughey refuses to go back to his past, won’t recycle his work, yada yada yada. Or, maybe, the Hollywood stud is just not down with rotating doors.
Matthew McConaughey
Matt Damon
Matt Damon is probably one of the most underrated actors. His work on films like The Bourne Identity, Good Will Hunting, and The Departed have given him one of the most stable careers in all of Hollywood. Let’s not forget his Golden Globe win for The Martian. So, his greatest phobia: reptiles. This phobia came to life while filming We Bought a Zoo during several scenes with snakes. Apparently, Damon would furiously sweat whenever he was near the snakes and when pressed to hold one actually began to freak out! We’ll forgive the action star for this one, but we have to say that we are a little surprised!
Matt Damon
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves is probably the coolest one-note actor in Hollywood. His work as Neo in The Matrix ‘woke up’ an entire generation of fans to his talent. Since then Reeves has had an up and down career, most recently surging back into public awareness with his work on the John Wick franchise. Certainly, through his work and personal tragedies (the death of his girlfriend, the loss of a child, the brutal murder of his sister) it would only makes sense to carry a bit of baggage. Well, Reeves has his own fears. Keanu has been open about his fear of the darkness and speculates it comes from a philosophical standpoint: perhaps a fear of death. Still, despite this heavy burden Reeves has never turned his back on those who helped make him — routinely donating most of his checks to charitable causes.
Keanu Reeves
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is a lot of things: egotistical, talented, musical, an ex to Angelina Jolie as well as, well, bizarre. According to Billy Bob, the actor’s greatest fear is antique furniture. No there isn’t any rhyme or reason for the fear, which Thornton would be quick to admit. Apparently, it is so bad that Billy Bob refuses to eat in a room with antique furniture or even have it in his house. Billy Bob postulates that he was, perhaps, beaten to death in a past life with some antique furniture. Anyway, fans of Billy Bob who loved him in Bad Santa 2, now have enjoyed watching him on the Amazon show Goliath.
Bob Thornton
Britney Spears
Britney Spears has a booming voice, more money than you can imagine, and worldwide fame behind her youthful image yet one thing keeps her on her toes and ready to run — reptiles. While it isn’t uncommon for people to fear reptiles we have a hard time imagining Britney Spears as being one of them! The reason being is that one of her most iconic images of all time has her holding a snake around her shoulders. Anything for fame though, right? We doubt that Britney would be in a hurry to grab onto another live snake anytime soon.
Britney Spears
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is so powerful and so rich that she can go by her first name for the rest of her life and nobody will ever second guess her identity. So what can rattle a celebrity who is so rich and so powerful that they cannot be touched? Chewing gum. That’s right. Oprah has a deep, irrational, and hilarious fear of chewing gum. In fact it has gotten so bad that Oprah has a sort of unofficial ban on chewing gum for her show. The talk show host throws out any plates that have chewing gum left on it. She claims that her extreme fear is a holdover from her childhood, but really, there is no rationalizing this.
Oprah Winfrey
David Beckham
David Beckham is a global sports icon known almost as much for his stunning good looks as his ability to dominate a soccer field. Though Beckham may look like a transcendent figure on the footie field, he has his own struggles off of it — including disorder. David Beckham has an extreme fear of things being out of place and of general disorder in his life. In fact, Beckham is so meticulous in addressing his fear that he’ll line up every item he owns in his own just to calm his OCD down. Everything in Beckham’s home is even numbered and in a straight line.
David Beckham
Kelly Osbourne
Kelly Osbourne rose to fame due to her being the daughter of rockstar Ozzy Osbourne. Growing up in a rockstar family we assumed that she would develop some quirks and fears and that was exactly the case. For Kelly her great fear is simple: she hates being touched. Osbourne has said repeatedly that she can’t stand the feeling of someone touching her – it terrifies her.
Kelly Osbourne
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson is the O.G. beach babe thanks to her work on Baywatch. Yet in an almost mythical turn of fate, this gorgeous woman’s greatest fear is of looking into a mirror. We’re sure that there is a Greek tragedy waiting to be written in Pamela’s bizarre phobia. The actress and model certainly has nothing to worry about when she looks into the mirror, so we’re sure she’ll eventually get over it.
Pamela Anderson
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart rose to dizzying fame thanks to her role as Bella in the Twilight series. For that film she played the love interest of Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson, and as such she got to experience all sorts of things — including horseback riding. Apparently it was here that Stewart developed her unreasonable fear of horseback riding, so she vows never to do it again unless her job absolutely demands it.
Kristen Stewart
Hilary Duff
You know, for a child star it sure seems like Hilary Duff turned out alright. Duff has mostly receded from the spotlight, but she’s still keeping her fans happy with her social media presence. What doesn’t make Hilary Duff happy, however, is the appearance of dirt in her home. In fact, Duff is so afraid of dirt that she cleans her room every single night to make sure that there is none lurking.
Hilary Duff
Kyra Sedgwick
We said that these phobias were bizarre, and we weren’t lying. Star actress Kyra Sedgwick apparently has an intense and irrational fear of talking food, at least according to husband Kevin Bacon. According to Bacon, Hedgwick has to abandon any room whenever a commercial with talking food on it appears. We can only imagine how she handled Veggie Tales.
Kyra Sedgwick
Christina Ricci
Somehow Christina Ricci being completely afraid of plants sort of make sense to us. Her part gothic image after The Addams Family made us attribute a sort of biased look to her. So we weren’t shocked when Ricci said that she keeps her house free of any and all plant life. Her primary reason for this fear was that they were not cleanly.
Christina Ricci
Madonna
There is something poetic about one of the greatest pop icons of all time being afraid of thunder. Perhaps Madonna is only used to booming noises when it is her voice soaring on stage. Either way, this pop idol doesn’t want to move to the Midwest where storms are common 9 months of the year. Booming thunder? No thanks.
Madonna
Adele
Adele is a national treasure thanks to her sense of humor and killer vocal abilities. In 2008 Adele came out to the world with this stunning fact: she is terrified of seagulls. According to Adele it all dated back to when she was just 9 years old. Adele had been “walking down the promenade in Tenby” eating an ice cream cone when a “huge (expletive) seagull” swooped down and took the ice cream. Adele was terrified that she was going to get picked up with it.
Adele
Alfred Hitchcock
One of the greatest directors of all time who is known for his thrilling work had a tremendous fear of…eggs. Hitchcock compared the piercing of a soft boiled egg to a feeling of absolute terror. He hated the way the yolk would break and cascade out of the shell. We don’t get it either.
Alfred Hitchcock
Helen Mirren
Dame Hellen Mirren is one of Hollywood’s finest. She’s a constant source of quality acting, and she elevates any picture that she stars in. However, Mirren is terrified of talking on the phone. According to Mirren she hates the thought of even answering her cell phone.
Helen Mirren
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro can make you break out into a sweat with a single glance. He’s long been the bad boy, tough guy of Hollywood, and we bet he’ll keep that title for years to come. Yet all it takes for De Niro to quake in his boots is a visit to the dentist. Go figure, right?
Robert De Niro
Nicki Minaj
Believe it or not, the tough rapper Nicki Minaj actually has a phobia of her own! While she was at an NBA game in LA, she made a bit of a scene when she absolutely refused to get on the escalator. Apparently, she has escalaphobia. Nothing has been revealed about the root of her phobia.
Nicki Minaj
Woody Allen
Wow, where do we even begin with Woody Allen? No, his neurotic persona is not just an act for his films. In real life, Woody Allen has a lot of fears. He’s afraid of bright colors, heights, insects, elevators, sunshine, children, dogs and let’s not forget his arachibutyrophobia. That’s a fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one’s mouth.
Woody Allen
Kylie Minogue
Australian-British singer and actress Kylie Minogue has an intense phobia of her own. She admitted to The Telegraph that she’s afraid of hangers. She said, “I have a hanger phobia. I don’t like the way they sound when you put them in the wardrobe.” Apparently, this means she needs to lay out her clothes and not hang any of them up.
Kylie Minogue
