Privileged but not spoiled children. From Shaquille O'Neal to Daniel Craig and Elton John, there are several stars who will not leave their inheritance to their children. They don't want to spoil them, nor do they want them to take everything for granted because of the immense economic availability they have always been used to. So what will be the destination of the fortunes accumulated over entire careers? In most cases, charity. "Teaching children the value of money and work" seems to be a fairly widespread priority among the very rich, especially among those born in common families who had to build their own fortune from scratch. So here are the stars who have made this decision.
Elton John
The English singer Elton John, along with his partner David Furnish, has stated that he will leave only a minimal part of his inheritance (valued at 200 million pounds) to his two children Zachary and Elijah. That's also why last fall, along with his husband, he sold his villa in Atlanta for over $7.2 million. And from February 21 to 28, nine hundred items from his collection, coming from that house, will be auctioned off by Christie's in New York. "Obviously I want to leave my boys in a solid financial state. But I don't want them to grow up spoiled. It would ruin their life", said the songwriter to the English newspaper Mirror.
Shaquille O'Neal
The former basketball star will not offer his immense wealth to his heirs because they must know what work is. O'Neal has 4 children from his ex-wife and a stepson and another daughter from a previous relationship: "They are a bit annoyed with me, but they don't understand me. I always tell them: We are not rich, I am rich - he said - They must get a degree or a higher diploma or, if they want me to invest in one of their activities, they will have to make a presentation to me".
Daniel Craig
The British actor, protagonist of 007, will leave in inheritance to his daughters just a few pennies of his immense fortune estimated at over $160 million. "An old adage says that anyone who dies rich has failed in their life. I don't want to leave large sums of money in inheritance to my children", he declared.
Ashton Kutcher
The actor, along with his wife Mila Kunis, explained in 2018: "My children are living a very privileged life and they don't realize it. I won't set up a fund for them, in the end we will give our money to charity".
Gordon Ramsay
The famous chef in 2017 decided with his wife that their children would not have the slightest benefit from the accumulated wealth, so as not to make them believe that life was easy. The kids, at most, will get the money to buy a house.
Bill Gates
The founder of Microsoft (among the richest men in the world), already years ago, in 2016, had announced that most of his fortune would be donated to charity and not to his children, because it would "distort their view of the world". Of course, it's not that the children are having a hard time despite everything, considering that in a 2017 Ask Me Anything on Reddit, Gates hinted that his children will still receive less than 1% of his fortune, but the concept expressed by the entrepreneur is clear and over the years has been adopted by several millionaires.
Mark Zuckerberg
When his firstborn was born in 2015, the patron of Facebook announced the start of a foundation together with his wife, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, with which the proceeds from 99% of the social network's shares (at the time it was about $45 billion) will be donated. “Like all parents we want you to grow up in a better world than ours. We will do our part and not just because we love you, but because we have a moral responsibility to all the children of the next generation”, the two wrote.
Sting
The singer years ago - in 2014 - had already let it be known what his plans were: he will not leave even a penny of his immense fortune to his 6 children, who will have to work and save what they can, with their own means. Sting stated: "I never thought about setting something aside, like a trust for my children. They know they will have to work to live and in any case they don't ask or expect anything, and this is something I appreciate very much".
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