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Ellie Goulding - Goulding has been very vocal to the press about her unhappy childhood.

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Ellie Goulding - Her mother worked at a supermarket and her "horrible" stepfather was a lorry driver. The family struggled to make ends meet.

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Heather Mills - Her mother left when she was just nine years old, after years of abuse from her father.

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Heather Mills - Her father was imprisoned when she was 13, at which point Mills and her sister moved in with their mother. Her mother died when Mills was 21.

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Pierce Brosnan - The actor's father abandoned him and his mother when he was an infant. His mother then moved to England to become a nurse.

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Pierce Brosnan - Brosnan grew up moving between his grandparents, his aunt's and uncle's, and a boarding school. He described his childhood as "solitary", according to Cigar Aficionado.

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J. K. Rowling - Before her 'Harry Potter' success, J. K. Rowling received benefits.

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J. K. Rowling - The author was a single mother diagnosed with depression who was jobless and drowning in debt.

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Daniel Craig - Daniel Craig's mother was an art teacher mother and his father the landlord of a pub.

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Daniel Craig - The star claims to have slept on park benches before his big break.

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Kate Winslet - Both of Winslet's parents worked multiple jobs to sustain the family.

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Kate Winslet - Her family lived on meal benefits and she was supported by the Actor's Charitable Trust.

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Richard Branson - The high school drop-out turned billionaire started his company, Virgin, from the ground.

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Richard Branson - He suffered from dyslexia, something that influenced his self-esteem and grades at school. He left school at 16 to start his own venture, a youth-culture magazine, which marked the beginning of his entrepreneurial success.

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Cheryl Cole - The Girls Aloud singer grew up on a council estate in a tough suburb of Newcastle.

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Cheryl Cole - She is one of four siblings and her parents often struggled to put food on the table.

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Ed Sheeran - Pop star Ed Sheeran was raised on a farm in Suffolk and was often bullied at school.

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Ed Sheeran - Before reaching fame and mingling among A-list celebrities, the star could be found busking.

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Naomi Watts - Despite the fact that her father was Pink Floyd's road manager, the Watts family would sometimes battle to make ends meet.

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Naomi Watts - After her father's suicide at the age of nine, Watts's mother struggled to maintain the family. They moved multiple times before settling with Naomi's grandmother in Australia.

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Sam Worthington - The British-born Australian actor was homeless before his big break in 'Avatar' in 2009.

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Sam Worthington - He had sold everything he owned and was living in his car before he auditioned for James Cameron's block buster 3D movie.

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Rod Stewart - As the youngest child, Stewart claims he was "spoiled" and remembers a happy working-class childhood living over his dad's newsagent shop.

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Rod Stewart - He was born to a Scottish father and English mother who had five children in total.

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Dizzee Rascal - Dylan Kwabena Mills, more commonly known as Dizzee Rascal, grew up in a tough neighbourhood in east London.

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Dizzee Rascal - He got his stage name "Rascal" from a teacher at one of the four schools he got kicked out of. Stealing cars, breaking in, and robbing were a daily routine for the rapper in his youth.

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Michael Caine - Hollywood veteran Michael Caine was born to a cleaner and a fish market porter in 1933.

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Michael Caine - Money was tight in this era and his parents worked hours on end trying to make ends meet.

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Charlie Chaplin - His father was an alcoholic and money was very scarce. He and his brother used to go to the streets of London and dance for pennies.

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Charlie Chaplin - At 14, his mother was institutionalised, his father out of the picture, and his brother was away in the navy. He was alone on the streets of London. Comedy was his salvation!

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