Navigating a childhood in the public eye can be daunting, especially when you’re the daughter of a global music sensation like Diana Ross. However, acclaimed actress and businesswoman Tracee Ellis Ross ensures that her upbringing was remarkably ordinary. Even though she might have had some of the perks of being a nepo baby — like having music icons walking around her house on the regular — Ross still says she still something of a “normal” childhood.
“Don’t get me wrong, Michael Jackson was around” Tracee admitted during an interview with Flaunt magazine. “Marvin Gaye called the house all the time. Cher and my dad and my mom and Michael played doubles tennis. Andy Warhol photographed me. You know what I mean.”
Despite these extraordinary encounters, Ross emphasized that her home life was rooted in normalcy. “All of that stuff was just a part of my life. But at the same time, the feelings and the experiences and the way my mother created home life for us was very ‘normal.’”
Even before Ross made waves with her memorable performances in hit TV shows Girlfriends and Black-ish, or before she ventured into the business world with her thriving hair-care brand Pattern Beauty, she was simply a young girl living in a home where family values were paramount.
“My mom, of course, has led a very public life, but she is such a private person, and such a home person,” she explained. “She’s a mom before she’s ‘Diana Ross.’ My childhood was very anchored in real family life. My mom was home, my mom came and woke me up for school. And what I will say is it looked the way it did for my friends.”
Despite being surrounded by celebrities, Ross didn’t feel alienated by her peers. She wasn’t “crazy person standing out in school” due to her mother’s high-profile career. “There were certain unique things, but my mom woke us up for school in the morning,” she said. “We would sit down and have dinner together. She would record when we were asleep at night. She never left for longer than a week.”
In a world where the bright lights of fame often cast long, turbulent shadows over the childhoods of those born into it, Ross’s tales offer a different perspective. Her stories, rooted in a life spent under the same roof as a superstar parent, serve as a gentle reminder that even in the relentless storm that is Hollywood, it’s possible to uncover instances of “normal” life.
Before you go, click here to see more celebrity kids following in their parents’ acting footsteps.
