Highlights
- Hollywood stars like Kylie Jenner, Megan Fox, and Bella Hadid have faced backlash for promoting GoFundMe pages for their friends, despite their own substantial wealth.
- Fans argue that these celebrities should use their own money to help their friends in need instead of asking fans to donate, or that their friends should refuse to accept handouts.
- The controversy highlights the issue of celebrity GoFundMe campaigns and raises questions about the sincerity of their acts of kindness and the effectiveness of the fundraisers.
Recently, fans have been debating whether it's right for Hollywood stars to set up GoFundMe pages for their friends when they can afford to donate the entire amount themselves. At the center of the controversy are Kylie Jenner, Megan Fox, and Bella Hadid.
In 2021, The Kardashians star was bashed for promoting a makeup artist's GoFundMe to her millions of followers. Recently, Fox also promoted one for her friend's ill dad while Hadid shared a fundraiser for her caregiver after new photos of her recovery from her Lyme disease.
Jenner has a net worth of $750 million, thanks to her cosmetics business; Fox has $8 million; and Hadid has $25 million. Fans are then "conflicted" about the millionaires' acts of kindness.
Many believe they should just use their own money to help their friends in crisis instead of asking their fans to donate. But some also think their friends simply refuse to accept handouts... Here's the real issue about these celebrity GoFundMe campaigns.
Kylie Jenner Promoted A GoFundMe For Her Makeup Artist's Hospital Bills
In March 2021, Jenner encouraged her fans to donate funds for makeup artist, Samuel Rauda's hospital bills. According to the latter's family GoFundMe page, he "underwent major surgery on Sunday, 3/14/21" after a car accident. "May God watch over you and protect you @makeupbysamuel," the reality star wrote on her Instagram Stories.
"Everyone take a moment to say a prayer for Sam who got into an accident this past weekend," she added. "And swipe up to visit his families' go fund me." The initial GoFundMe goal was $10,000. At that time, Jenner had already donated $5000. Soon after she shared the page on her socials, the goal was raised to $120,000.
Fans were outraged by the request. "Kylie Jenner really asked us for money like we made the Forbes list," one wrote on Twitter, referring to the Kylie Cosmetics founder's controversial self-made billionaire status. Jenner addressed the criticism by squashing the "false narrative that I've asked fans for money."
She also clarified that Rauda "isn't my makeup artist and unfortunately we don't have a personal relationship anymore," but that she shared the family's GoFundMe page "on my stories to gain more awareness if anyone also felt compelled to share or donate."
She noted that she only does "things from the heart and I try to be helpful whenever I can be" and that she didn't "know how all of this got so twisted but his family has reached out through Ariel [her makeup artist] and are very appreciative."
Megan Fox Shared A Fundraiser For Her Friend's Dad's Cancer Treatment Bills
In July 2023, Fox linked her friend's GoFundMe page on her Instagram Story. "My friends dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer," she captioned the screenshot of the page, "if you guys are able to help please do." Fans were quick to compare it with Jenner's scandal.
A Reddit user wrote: "This is like when kylie started that go fund me for her makeup artist or something i can't remember. kylie...... your a whole a** billionaire YOU CAN PAY FOR IT like please don't ask us plebians for money i still haven't even gotten spotify premium......"
While some argued that Fox doesn't have "Kylie money," one noted that the Transformers alum and her fiancé Machine Gun Kelly were able to pay thousands on manicures done by their friend who's in need of financial assistance.
"She didn't make a windfall from transformers ($100k, $800k for each film)," they wrote, "but shes also done some TV and has been in brand campaigns even recently one for SKIMS."
They continued: "The manicurist/GoFundMe creator did a 14k gold manicure for Fox for the Grammys. And not that her money is his but her partner seems to have a large net worth. MGK sported a $30k manicure also made by the GoFundMe creator recently. It seems that the manicurist does expensive, designer nails that caters to the rich."
Bella Hadid Is Asking Fans To Donate To A Wellness Retreat
A month after Fox's call for donations, Hadid took to Instagram to share snaps of her recovery journey in a wellness retreat. The model — who suffers from Lyme disease — featured her caregiver in her Stories, saying: "This is my sister, Angel, mentor, @tracypiperhealth. She has helped me so much on my journey and I hope anyone who reads this finds her so she can do the same for you."
A few days before the Stories, Piper posted her GoFundMe page on her Instagram, saying that her wellness center was affected by Covid. Hello friends as you all know, I have been having a hard time during Covid with my six surgeries which has left me behind on many of my responsibilities," she wrote in the caption.
"Due to this, I am trying to raise funds to help save the Piper Retreat upstate New York, so I can continue doing the work that I so love I am at the end of my balloon payment to own the house out right I need some help to do that," she continued. "Would you be open to sharing the link to your friends that you think would be interested in helping me with this endeavor. The internal effect always thank you, Tracy."
While "conflicted" Reddit fans also slammed Hadid for asking donations from her fans, many were "more concerned about the quackery this 'wellness refuge' (and Bella) is peddling."
One even said: "Yeah this is giving: 'my wellness treatments cure cancer' vibes. Yikes! I have a family friend who almost died by going down this path." What do you guys think?
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