According to Jay-Z, Hollywood is the most addictive drug in the world. If that’s true, we know a few stars who have gone cold turkey. We’ve told you in the past about stars leaving the entertainment industry behind for an education, and for Jesus, but the 10 individuals on this list left to raise their families and give their children a life outside of the Hollywood hills.
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Kellie Shanygne Jackson (Williams)
After nine years of playing Laura on “Family Matters,” Kellie Williams decided to leave the glitz and glam of Hollywood behind to raise a family. It must feel good to be away from Urkel for good! *winks*
Every now and then she takes on acting work, but Kellie seems extremely happy with her husband and very adorable kids.
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Dave Chapelle
To be honest, we got a little scared there when Dave Chapelle just up and disappeared from the public eye. He was literally at his comedic peak, and then, he just gave it all up. Thankfully, Dave didn’t fall off the grid due to any addictions, but rather, he left the Hollywood scene to get away from all the expectations and raise his family, which he struggled to do when he was focused on “Chappelle’s Show.” When asked about his hiatus, he explained it to the Daily News this way: “I never stopped being onstage. What I did was step off of the main stage…That kind of attention wouldn’t have been conducive to raising a family.”
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Phoebe Cates
Many of us met Phoebe through Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but a few years after doing that film, she retired to raise a family. Phoebe has two children with actor Kevin Kline, whom she wed in 1989: Owen Joseph and Greta Simone. She continues to keep a low profile.
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Cary Grant
Screen legend Cary Grant starred in movies for almost 32 years straight before retiring from Hollywood to raise his family. Despite being 62 at the time, Cary enjoyed each moment shared with his daughter Jennifer. He enjoyed said moments so much, that he had artifacts from her childhood archived.
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Debra Winger
Debra may be an Academy-Award nominated actress, but no accolade could stop her from taking time away from the spotlight to raise her family. After star turns in films like An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment, Winger left Hollywood for some time to focus on raising a family in New York. She started acting consistently again in the early ’00s.
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Rick Moranis
Grammy-nominated musician and actor (think Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Ghostbusters) Rick Moranis accomplished a lot during his career. However, he brought things to a halt in 1997 after losing his wife to breast cancer. In 2005, he told USA Today about his choice, explaining, “I’m a single parent and I just found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn’t miss it.”
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Lisa Bonet
Although Lisa didn’t frequent the usual Hollywood scene, she surely pulled back from the spotlight after the birth of her daughter, Zoe, with singer Lenny Kravitz. After her days starring as our favorite fashion forward and (semi) rebellious Huxtable, Lisa just focused on acting here and there. Her work became less and less when she married Jason Momoa and started having kids. Her most recent work includes appearing as a guest star alongside her husband in the TV series, “The Red Road.”
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Halle Berry
After the birth of Halle’s daughter, Nahla, back in 2008, the legendary actress took a break from the Hollywood scene for a few years. But honestly, how much hiding can you do when you’re Halle Berry? We do salute her attempt to go off the grid and protect her children’s privacy (remember, she tried to move to France to get away from all of the paps and the Hollywood drama). We know she’s constantly fighting with photographers, but we hope that besides those incidents, her children are experiencing the normal life she has worked so hard to give them.
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Candace Cameron Bure
Syndication has a funny way of making you believe that a certain actor will be 15 forever. That’s definitely the case when it comes to Candace Cameron Bure. After an eight year run as DJ Tanner on Full House, Candace gave acting a rest and married Valeri Bure in 1996. She did step back out there to act on a more consistent basis in 2011, but she made the most waves when she decided to participate in “Dancing with the Stars” last year.
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Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill took a lot of time out of the spotlight to raise her children. Although we may all be more familiar with Zion (whom she famously penned “To Zion” for), Lauryn had five more children after him. When asked in the film “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party,” where she had been all these years, she pointed to one of her sons and said, “Where I been? That’s where I’ve been.”
