Most people assume that being the child of a celebrity means living a privileged life. For Marie Osmond’s kids, though, that is not the case. The singer has repeatedly discussed her intentions to not leave her children an inheritance.
Osmond is a mother of eight—Stephen, 39; Rachael, 31; Jessica, 35; Brandon, 26; Brianna, 24; Matthew, 23; and Abigail, 18; and Michael, who died by suicide at the age of 18 in 2010—and a grandmother to eight more little ones.
Marie Osmond Thinks A Large Inheritance ‘Breed[s] Laziness And Entitlement’
The singer might have plenty of wealth to share, but she’s made it clear she has no intention of handing her children or grandkids money or a career. “Honestly, why would you enable your child to not try to be something?” she told Us Weekly. “I don’t know anybody who becomes anything if they’re just handed money.”
“To me, the greatest gift you can give your child is a passion to search out who they are inside and to work,” Osmond explained. “I mean, I’ve done so many things…I love trying [and] I wanna try everything. I’m a finisher.”
She continued, “That’s one of my rules with my kids. If you start it, you finish it, you don’t ever have to do it again, but you gotta finish. And, I just think all [an inheritance] does is breed laziness and entitlement. I worked hard and I’m gonna spend it all and have fun with my husband [Steve Craig].”
This isn’t the first time Osmond has talked about her decision to not leave her family members a hefty inheritance. “I think you do a great disservice to your children to just hand them a fortune because you take away the one most important gift you can give your children, and that’s the ability to work,” Osmond said during an appearance on The Talk. “You see it a lot in rich families where the kids, they don’t know what to do and so they get in trouble. Let them be proud of what they make. I’m going to give mine to my charity.”
She Adds ‘I Don’t Not Help My Children’
That’s not to say that Osmond doesn’t lend a hand to her family when they need it. “I don’t not help my children. I mean, [if] they need help [buying] a car or something, [I will pitch in,]” Osmond she said. Osmond’s plans to not give her children a large inheritance when she passes away is indicative of her belief in the value of hard work—something that many admire about the star.