In the world of A-list real estate, it can seem as if celebrities buy houses like the rest of us buy lunch, but not all of them started out that way. You might be surprised to learn that some of the world's most famous faces spent time without a roof over their head at all. Let's take a look at eight rags-to-riches celebrities who went from living on the streets to buying luxury homes beyond their wildest dreams...

In the 1990s, Tyler Perry was living in Atlanta, trying to forge his career in the theatre. According to Time, he became homeless after spending all his savings, and for six years he lived between his car and what he described to Oprah as a "pay-by-the-week hotel that was full of crackheads". In 1998 he finally got his play I Know I’ve Been Changed onto the stage. It was a hit, and it kickstarted his incredible career.

Never one to forget his roots, Perry now owns a Geo Metro car similar to the one he slept in during his period of homelessness. Despite the fact that it was in Atlanta that he fell on hard times, the legendary producer has said the city has been "the promised land" for him and he has had a home here ever since. "I came here with nothing," he wrote on Instagram, "lived off Sylvan Road, ended up homeless and starving, but I was always praying and believing." 

In March, Tyler took to social media to recall the difficult time. "Every now and then I take my Geo Metro out for a spin. (When I was homeless it was a car just like this that was my shelter)," he wrote. "If looking back at how far you’ve come doesn’t make you thankful, I don’t know what will. There’s no way to be ungrateful when you appreciate every blessing you have. And if you’re still in the struggle please fight on… It’s so sweet on the other side of pain."

In April 2001, the up-and-coming movie producer paid $63,000 (£52k) for a parcel of land in Fairburn, Georgia and built a 17,252-square-foot mansion he named Avec Chateau. With six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, the mansion has an amazing 26 rooms, with hardwood and marble floors, eight fireplaces and four living rooms. The main floor is adorned with 12 crystal chandeliers and 20-foot-high coffered ceilings. Perry would go on to list the property for $3.69 million (£3m) in 2009 and it's currently on the market for $4.75 million (£3.8m), having originally been priced at $5.25m.

In 2005, Perry paid $9 million (£7.6m) for a property on the Chattahoochee River that reportedly once belonged to segregationist Moreton Rolleston, who ran a motel that refused to serve African-Americans. Perry tore down the building and spent three years constructing this enormous Versailles-style home. In addition to seven bedrooms and vast living spaces, there's also an underground ballroom, home cinema and wine cellar, as well as a 70,000-gallon infinity pool with a bar. Perry sold the pad in 2016 for $17.5 million (£14.8m).

The Madea actor owns a log cabin in Wyoming's exclusive Jackson Hole, as well as not one but two private islands in the Bahamas. However, it's his almost exact White House replica that takes the cake. The extraordinary building is the headquarters of Tyler Perry Studios. Built on a 330-acre lot in Atlanta that used to be a former Confederate Army military base, Perry wanted it to make a statement and inspire young black kids. Box office smash hit Black Panther was one of the first films shot at the studios.

In 2017, Perry bought an extraordinary glass-fronted design in Beverly Hills for $14.5 million (£12.3m) and sold it five months later to Pharrell Williams, making about £1 million profit. Not bad! He also owns an eight-bedroom Tuscan-style villa on LA's Beverly Ridge, worth around $18 million (£14.9m). He even hosted Prince Harry and Meghan Markle there in early 2020. But the cherry on the top of the mogul's property portfolio must surely be this mega-mansion he's building in Atlanta. The secluded home boasts a reported 35,000-square-foot of living space, as well as a private airstrip. According to TMZ, Perry hopes to cultivate an organic farm on the estate for his young son Aman to enjoy.

He's known for being one of cinema's funniest men, but Jim Carrey's childhood was anything but laugh-a-minute. When he was 12, his father lost his job, the family went from "lower middle class to complete poverty" and were forced to live in a yellow VW van for eight months. "Of course, I grew up in Canada so I thought we had just gone camping,” the Dumb & Dumber star once quipped. However, he described the moment as a "kick in the guts" in a 2011 interview with James Lipton on Inside the Actor’s Studio. “We lived in a van for a while, and we worked all together as security guards and janitors." 

The Ontario native worked eight-hour shifts in a factory after class, which made him want to "bash somebody's head in". He went from a straight-A student to dropping out on his 16th birthday, making his start in the downtown comedy clubs until getting his big break on The Tonight Show when he was 21. "I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation,” he told CBS of his early life. “Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything." That drive propelled the comic to become one of the world's highest-paid actors. In 1994, around the time Ace Ventura: Pet Detective came out, Carrey dropped $3.8 million on a Los Angeles mansion – that's roughly $7.7 million (£6m) today.

The ranch-style home sits on two acres of leafy garden in Brentwood, one of LA's most affluent neighbourhoods, and includes a tennis court, waterfall pool and spa, a gym, separate sauna and steam room and a yoga and meditation platform. The funnyman lived here for nearly 30 years, calling it “a place of enchantment and inspiration” when he finally listed it for $28.9 million (£23m) in February 2023. "Every night the owls sang me lullabies and every morning I sipped my cup of joe with the hawks and hummingbirds, under a giant grandfather pine," he told The Wall Street Journal.

Built in 1951, the house sprawls over 12,700 square feet and includes five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a home office and chef's kitchen. The décor throughout is light and airy, with skylights in the pitched beamed ceilings adding to the effect. A prolific artist, Carrey decorated his home with several of his own pieces, which lend bursts of colour to the neutral space. While it's been the comedian's main home over the last three decades, it hasn't been his only one. In 2013, he sold his five-bedroom Malibu beach house for $13.4 million (£10.7m). He reportedly also owns a Manhattan penthouse, which cost him just shy of $13.7 million (£11.2m).

A custom Art Deco-style cinema room, complete with mohair-covered sofas and a snack area, features costumes from the star's films in glass cases, including the Santa Claus costume from The Grinch and the blue overalls he wore in The Cable Guy. Just like a real movie theatre, there's also a bar area, where Carrey displays his Riddler costume from Batman Forever. Surprisingly, the home has been slow to sell and in April the 61-year-old slashed $2.7 million (£1.9m) off the asking price. The house is still for sale via Janelle Friedman at Sotheby's International Realty for $26.5 million (£20.5m).

The world knows Lizzo for her smash hits 'Truth Hurts' and 'Good As Hell', but what is less well known is that she became homeless in 2009. The singer and rapper was studying classical flute performance at the University of Houston when she dropped out at the age of 19 and moved to Minneapolis, where she was without a home for almost two years as she tried to break into the music business. Initially, she slept in her car. "I spent Thanksgiving in that car, and I remember I cried myself to sleep," Lizzo told CBS This Morning.

Born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, Lizzo is now a megastar and the winner of three Grammy Awards. Far from being homeless, she's lived in several very pricey pads, including this mansion in LA's Echo Park neighbourhood. The 35-year-old rented the house and – as we can see from this 73 Questions with Lizzo video from September 2020 – the home was decorated in an airy and eclectic mid-century modern style, with fun pops such as a neon "Lizzo" sign in the kitchen and an inflatable swan floating on the swimming pool.

During the covid pandemic, Lizzo escaped the city and found sanctuary in this impressive Desert Palm rental. At $30,000 (£24k) a month, it's a far cry from the days she spent sleeping on the floor of her drummer's house, in the car her sister gave her or at the studio where her rock band performed. She would even sneak into 24 Hour Fitness to shower. However, she's careful to draw a line between being homeless and not having a home. "I made a choice to not go back to Denver," she told NPR. "There are people who do not have a choice in their homelessness."

In October 2022, the star reached a milestone moment when she splashed out $15 million ($12m) on her very first home. The incredible three-bedroom modernist house is perched among the mountains above Beverly Hills. She's not the first pop superstar to own that particular plot of land either – her close friend Harry Styles lived there between 2014 and 2016. He sold his home at a $1 million loss to developers who demolished it and built the "luxe treehouse" Lizzo now calls home.

The living areas open out onto a lawn with decking that edges a 58-foot infinity pool, which flows directly under Lizzo's 1,000-square-foot master suite. In September 2022, a fan asked the Detroit-born star how she stayed positive when she was homeless, and Lizzo took to TikTok to reply. “I didn’t stay positive,” she admitted. “It was really hard. There were times when I was in that position and I was like, ‘There is just really no way out.’ I didn’t know what my life was gonna be... and I was… more than scared... I felt broken.”

The incredible kitchen boasts an eye-catching quartzite stone island and oil-rubbed walnut cabinetry, imbuing the achingly modern space with a calm, zen-like quality. Lizzo has found a way to look back on her hard times in a positive way: "I feel like what got me out was really the idea that this was just a part of my story. When I look back at my life and I’m in a better place, I can say I survived." Fans of the star were shocked when three of her former dancers filed a lawsuit against her on 1 August, alleging Lizzo created a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment. Several additional former employees went on to file similar complaints later that month. Lizzo took to Instagram to deny the claims, labelling them "unbelievable," "outrageous" and "sensationalized". She has hired 'lawyer to the stars', Marty Singer – who has previously represented Kim Kardashian and Chris Brown – to represent her.

In the early 1970s, Sylvester Stallone was a struggling actor, suffering constant rejection in part due to his slurred speech. Now an endearing trademark, it was caused by an accident at birth that left him with a partially paralysed face and tongue. Times got so tough that Stallone became homeless. It was during this period that he wrote the screenplay for Rocky, refusing to sell the script unless he could play the title role. In doing so, he lost out on an offer of $350,000, despite having just $100 in the bank. Luckily, he later came to a deal that enabled him to play the lead, and he's never looked back since.

The veteran actor was so poor he even had to sell his beloved dog, Butkus. Posting a photo of himself with his canine pal taken in 1971 in Hell's Kitchen, New York, he wrote: "We were both thin, hungry and living in a flophouse above a subway stop. I used to say this apartment had 'hot and cold running roaches'." Stallone rarely went out, so relied on Butkus for company. "Years later, when things got even worse, I had to sell him for $40 in front of a 7-Eleven store, because I couldn't afford food," he told Deadline Magazine. Then, "like a modern-day miracle", he sold the Rocky screenplay and bought him back... for $1,500. "He was worth every penny!" Stallone added.

Since the late 1990s, the Rambo star has lived with his family in this stunning eight-bedroom, 12-bathroom mega-mansion in LA's prestigious Beverly Park. Over the years, Stallone has added an art studio, guesthouse, movie theatre, bar, gym and cigar room with an air-filtration system. There's even a statue of Rocky Balboa next to the pool. In February 2022, the Rambo actor sold the house to superstar singer Adele for $58 million (£47m) – a painful price drop from the $110 million (£89m) he originally listed it for in January 2021. 

The Oscar nominee recently listed two further houses. In June 2020 he sold this four-bedroom Tuscan-style home in La Quinta for $3.15 million (£2.5m), about $1.15 million (£1m) less than he paid for it a decade ago. In December 2022, the glamorous family listed yet another incredible property, this time an estate in LA's Hidden Hills. Dubbed "a true gentleman's ranch" in the listing, it has a four-stall horse barn with a beautiful tack room and private riding ring. Currently on the market, you could snap it up for a mere $21.3 million (£17m). Sly, wife Jennifer Flavin and their three daughters have a new reality TV show, The Family Stallone, airing soon on Paramount+, so keep your eyes peeled for more glorious homes!

In December 2020, the star dropped $35.38 million (£28.5m) on this Caribbean-style mansion in Palm Beach. With seven bedrooms, ten bathrooms and 250 feet of beach, the jaw dropping house must have been unimaginable to the young, down-on-his-luck wannabe that Stallone had once been. Looking back at a photo of himself aged 26, Stallone said he'd been "totally broke, going nowhere VERY fast," he owned "two pair of pants that barely fit, shoes that had holes in them and dreams of being successful were as far away as the sun…" It looks like he found the sun and a whole lot more with this beautiful Florida home.

Dr. Phil McGraw makes around $65.5 million (£53m) a year, according to Forbes, so it's hard to imagine that he was once homeless. However, the talk show host revealed to Parade in 2009 that "the summer before I became a teenager, I was homeless, living in a car with my dad in Kansas City while he was going to [medical] school. We eventually got a room at the downtown YMCA for five bucks a week, and then we put together some money for a deposit on a one-bedroom apartment that had no running water, electricity, heat or air-conditioning."

Dr. Phil later became a psychologist and joined his father's practice in Wichita Falls, Texas. An entrepreneur as well as a doctor, he co-founded Courtroom Sciences Inc. in 1990, and it was through this he met billionaire mentor Oprah Winfrey. She invited him onto her show and he proved so popular, he became a regular guest, eventually launching his own talk show in 2002. He moved his family from Dallas to Los Angeles, where the show is recorded, and bought this Beverly Hills home for $7.5 million (£6m), where they lived until 2011.

That same year, the TV star bought the home he still shares with his wife Robin – a 15,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style villa in Beverly Hills that he snapped up for $29.5 million (£24m). Although we don't have access to exterior shots, it's said to look like the Alamo and has five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a guesthouse, pool and sweeping views of Century City. Both Dr. Phil and Robin have shared photos of the interior, including this one of the famous doctor cooking on a stove with an elaborately carved backsplash.

However, those aren't the only homes Dr. Phil has owned. The good doctor hit headlines when this Beverly Hills mansion hit the market in early 2020. Occupied by his son, musician Jordan McGraw, the daytime TV star bought the property in 2007 for just under $5 million (£3.8m), but has never lived there himself. From the outside, the house looks normal enough, but inside it's a very different story...

The extraordinary five bedroom home covers 6,200 square feet, with a double-height hallway complete with futuristic bar and a staircase covered in metal vines. The rest of the house is no less strange. The all-black dining room features a wall of 12 guns, which a family representative said is an “anti-gun installation”, while the games room contains a blue billiards table on a glossy floor spattered with white paint. The home went viral and after it sold in February 2020 for $5.8 million (£4.4m). Dr. Phil revealed the buzz around the house helped it sell “in like 10 hours”. 

When Kelly Clarkson was just starting out in her music career, she moved to LA to try to make it as a singer. However, as she told The Guardian in 2011, the apartment she was living in caught fire and she ended up living in her car. "I had no money and I had to sleep in my car for three days," she said. "I just auditioned for this thing that said they'd pay you, and it happened to be American Idol. I didn't go into it thinking this would happen; I went into it thinking it might pay my electric bill."

As we know, the Texan songstress went on to win American Idol, which launched her stellar career – not to mention her property portfolio. In 2012, she dropped $2.86 million (£2.3m) on this waterfront estate in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Sitting on four acres, the enormous home boasts amazing outdoor features, including a covered veranda, gazebo, saltwater pool and volleyball court – and let's not forget the enormous playground she built for her two children.

In 2017, Clarkson listed the seven-bedroom family home for $8.75 million (£7m) but despite the luxurious interior – such as this dramatic master bathroom – the house failed to sell and, two years later, the diva chopped $1.25 million (£1m) from the asking price. She eventually sold it for $6.3 million (£5m) in 2021, following her divorce from husband Brandon Blackstock in 2020.

A year later, the musician also offloaded her Encino mansion. Clarkson had owned the 10,100-square-foot home for less than two years before she listed it, eventually selling it in 2021 for $8.24 million (£6.6m), racking up a $260,000 (£210k) loss. The rustic-style house was hidden behind gates in half an acre of land, ideal for any star looking for privacy.

One of eight bedrooms, the enormous master suite even has a private patio, sitting room, dressing room and walk-in wardrobe, as well as a fireplace and marble-floored ensuite bathroom. The perfect place to relax! In addition to this amazing property, Clarkson also bought a 14-acre Montana ranch, Vintage Valley, which she still owns. After a bitter legal battle over the house, the 'Since U Been Gone' singer agreed to give her ex 5.12% of the property, roughly $908,800 (£730k) of the home's $18 million (£14m) value.

In June 2021, Clarkson bought an enchanting colonial-style compound in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles for $5.4 million (£4.4m). At 5,000 square feet it's cosier than her Encino house, but the one-acre lot is packed with amazing features, including a swimming pool, spa, tennis court, gazebo and charming guesthouse. In buying such a remarkable home in the very city in which she was homeless, the American Idol star is truly living the American dream.

In her 2011 memoir From This Moment On, Shania Twain recounted living for a time with her mother and siblings in a Toronto homeless shelter. After leaving home to escape her abusive stepfather, the Canadian singer wrote: “Mom got out of the car to use a payphone while we sat and waited in the car, returning a few minutes later with a piece of paper on which she’d scribbled the address of a homeless shelter. That night, we slept in a crowded, sweltering place."

Tragically, in 1987, the 22-year-old's mother and stepfather were killed in a car crash and Twain had to put her burgeoning music career on hold so she could look after her siblings. She finally signed a record deal in 1992 and shortly afterwards met and married Robert John "Mutt" Lange, a successful producer. In 1994 the couple bought their first home, this property on the shores of Dexter Lake, Ontario for $3,250,000 (£2.6m) and spent two years renovating the 28,000-square-foot love nest. Shania sold the house in the late 2000s for half its $9 million (£7.3m) asking price.

The following few years were transformative for the country star. In 1997, she released her third album, Come On Over, which is still the world’s biggest-selling album by a female solo artist, and in 2001 her son Eja was born. The family moved to the magnificent Swiss Château de Sully, which they owned until 2006. Originally built by Baron Bertrand Boucheporn in 1882 and designed by architect Emile Reverdon, the fairytale castle has stunning views of the surrounding Swiss landscape.

In 2004, Twain was one of the biggest stars on the planet. Unbeknown to fans, she was also battling Lyme Disease, which caused vocal cord muscle paralysis and prevented her from singing for 15 years. Understandably, the songstress sought peace and quiet, which she found on New Zealand's South Island. Mahu Whenua cost Twain £17.4 million ($21.8 million) and boasted several cottages, a helipad, stables, swimming pool and spa, as well as the main house. Today it's available to rent, described as an "intimate luxury lodge set amongst 200 square miles of beautiful high country offering guests privacy, unforgettable experiences and exquisite cuisine."

In 2008, after 15 years together, Shania discovered her husband Mutt was having an affair with a close friend and they divorced. Just three years later, in a strange case of 'husband swapping', she married the former husband of the woman Mutt had the affair with, Frédéric Thiébaud. These days, the couple spend much of their time at their Lake Geneva home except when heading to their Bahamas villa to relax and recharge. The 7,000-square-foot five-bedroom house was built in 2004 and has panoramic views of the beach and sea.

Over the course of her incredible career, Jennifer Lopez has gone from "Jenny from the block" to "Jenny could buy the whole block". However, before she became the singing sensation she is today, J.Lo was a dancer from the Bronx. At 18 she refused to go to college and, tired of butting heads with her mother, left home in order to dance full-time. 

She started sleeping on the sofa of a dance studio and the Ballet Hispánico Centre on the Upper West Side, New York City. "I was homeless," she said, but she told her mother: "This is what I have to do." A few months later, Lopez landed a dancing job in Europe. When she got back, she became a Fly Girl on the US sketch comedy show In Living Color and moved to LA. "It all happened in a year," she recalls. 

Initially, J.Lo missed the East Coast but she soon warmed to LA, buying her first luxury home there in 2000 after achieving her first number-one single and album. Located in a gated community called The Summit, the seven-bedroom home overlooks Beverly Hills and Studio City. The star spent $4.3 million (£3.4m) on the exclusive home, a drop in the ocean compared to her later property purchases...

In 2000, after the success of her first album, On the 6, J.Lo bought a Georgian-style brick mansion on Long Island, which she lived in with her third husband, Marc Anthony after they married in 2004. She also splashed out on a Miami beachfront mansion in 2002. After divorcing Anthony in 2014, the entertainer bought a New York penthouse and, in 2016, this incredible Bel Air mansion for $28 million (£23.5m). According to Vanity Fair, she purchased the stunning property with her young twins in mind. After marrying former flame Ben Affleck in 2022, J.Lo placed the property on the market for a whopping $42.5 million (£36m). 

While dating baseball player Alex Rodriguez, the pair picked up several properties together including a Manhattan apartment, a cottage in Encino, California and a pricey estate on Miami's ritzy Star Island. They also bought this serene Malibu beach house for $6.6 million (£5.6m). Spread over three storeys, the home has four bedrooms, a screening room and a hot tub, plus a wet bar and sauna. They sold the all-white pad for $6.8 million (£5.7m) in 2020.

After taking a look at the famous Spelling Manor, which hit the market in February 2022 for $165 million (£139.3m), Ben and Jen finally found their forever home in late May. The stately 12-bedroom Beverly Hills home has a staggering 24 bathrooms, which is more than enough for their newly combined family of seven. At almost $61 million (£48.8m), it's fair to say that J.Lo has come a very long way indeed from her days sleeping on sofas as a homeless dancer.

Loved this? Follow us on Facebook for more celebrity homes