No parent should ever have to do the unimaginable task of burying a child. Yet no amount of fame or fortune can shield a person from such tragedy. When celebrities lose a child, a media frenzy usually ensues, and while the outpouring of support is well-intentioned, stars need privacy through the grieving process, just like the rest of us.
If anything, learning that these celebrities lost a child heightens the realization that stars are people, too. In sharing these tragic losses, our eyes are opened to the difficulites everyone faces, regardless of their profession, wealth, or fame.
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The artist formerly known as Prince has always been private. At one point he told Oprah that if he were to have children, it would be up to the child (not him) to one day make their name, sex or "anything" about them known. Therefore, it's not surprising that Prince has never publicly acknowledged the death of his child, Boy Gregory, who was born with Pfeiffer Syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by the premature fusion of skull bones. The infant passed away one week after his birth in 1996.
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If you listen to the words from Eric Clapton's song, "Tears in Heaven," the lyrics will bring tears to your eyes. Clapton wrote the song for his 4-year-old son, Conor, who died after falling out of the singer's Manhattan 53rd floor apartment building.
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Vice President Joe Biden has seen his share of tragedy. In 1972 on their way to buy a Christmas tree, his wife, Neilia, and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a tragic car accident. The couple's sons were also in the car at the time, but both survived. In the summer of 2015, Biden lost one of those sons, Beau, to brain cancer. It has been reported that the freshness of the pain of losing his oldest son is keeping him from considering another presidential run in 2016.
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The controversial model and reality TV star lost her son, Daniel, from a drug overdose when he was only 20 years old. Three days after Daniel's death, Smith gave birth to a baby girl whom she named Dannielynn.
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Led Zepplin frontman Robert Plant was on tour in the states in 1977, when he lost his son, Karac, from a stomach infection. The singer was so devastated that he went back to his home in the Midlands where he grieved for months.
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Former Chicago Bears running back Adrian (A.J.) Peterson lost his son after a brave seven-month battle with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. The inoperable brain tumor took the 7-year-old 's life on February 15, 2015.
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The son of rapper and producer Dr. Dre, Andre Young Jr., was found dead of a drug overdose in 2008. He was only 20 years old at the time.
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Stunning Bold & The Beautiful actress Hunter Tyl lost her 19-year-old son, Michael, in 2007 from a condition known as complex partial seizures. He suffered a seizure while at Tylo's Nevada home and fell into the family pool, where he drowned.
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While there was concern regarding the lifestyle and drug use of the 36-year-old son of actor Sylvester Stallone, Sage, his cause of death in 2012 was determined to be heart failure.
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The world grieved with John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston in 2009 when their son, Jett, passed away at age 16. The child reportedly suffered from Kawasaki syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that causes seizures. While on vacation in the Bahamas, Jett suffered a seizure and died. The couple also have a daughter, Ella Bleu, and a son, Benjamin.
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It's heartbreaking to learn that actress Mia Farrow lost not one, but two, children. Farrow's adopted daughter, Lark Pervin, died at the hospital of AIDs-related pneoumia at the age of 35. Farrow's other adopted child, Tam, died at age 19 of heart failure.
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Motley Crew frontman Vince Neil's daughter, Skylar, lost her battle with cancer in 1995 at the age of 4. The singer formed the Skylar Neil Memorial Fund after her death, and has raised millions of dollars for children's cancer research since.
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Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman tragically lost his only son, Scott, also an actor, in 1978. Scott was just 28 when he passed away from a drug overdose. Paul Newman opened the Scott Newman Center to help prevent drug abuse in his late son's honor.
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In 1979 O. J. Simpson's daughter, Aeren, drowned in the family pool just one month shy of her second birthday. At the time Simpson was divorced from her mother, Marguerite Whitley, with whom he has two other children.
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After battling ovarian cancer for three years, Pierce Brosnan's daughter, Charlotte, died at the age of just 41. The actor had adopted Charlotte while married to his first wife, Cassandra Harris, Charlotte's biological mother. Cassandra also died of ovarain cancer in 1991.
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The actor's baby girl, Ava, was delivered stillborn in 2000. Just 18 months later, her mother, Jennifer Syme, was killed in a a car accident. The couple had since split but the double loss so close together must have been devastating for Reeves.
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In 1997 Ennis Cosby, the only son of Bill and Camille Cosby, was changing his tire on the side of a road in Los Angeles when he was robbed, shot in the head, and killed. A man named Mikhail Markhasev is currently serving life in prison for the seemingly random murder.
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Exodus, the 4-year-old daughter of Mike Tyson, died when she was only 4 years old from accidental asphyxiation, or strangling. Her body was found by her 7-year-old brother, who discovered her with a tangled cord from a treadmill wrapped around her neck.
