Celebrity phobias - 45 (mostly bizarre) famous fears
Phobias - we all have them - even celebrities have them. Naturally the very nature of being a full-time celebrity means you can't just have any old phobias however. Leave the arachnophobia and agoraphobia to us civilians and check out who has a fear of raccoons, clowns and houseplants.
Getty ImagesKendall Jenner's modelling career means she often has to wear lots of different fabrics with unusual textures and patterns. So we're thinking that doesn't bode too well with her phobia...
Rex FeaturesSpeaking to fans on her app, Kendall said: "Anyone who knows me knows that I have really bad trypophobia. Trypophobics are afraid of tiny little holes that are in weird patterns. Things that could set me off are pancakes, honeycomb or lotus heads (the worst!). It sounds ridiculous but so many people actually have it! I can't even look at little holes—it gives me the worst anxiety. Who knows what's in there???"
Good old Golden Balls (that’s David Beckham to us), fearless former captain of the England football team, and all round hottie… What on earth does he have to be afraid of?
Flocks of birds attacking him in a public place. That’s what.
Rex FeaturesJack the lad actor Alex Pettyfer might look tough on the outside (well, maybe a little bit…), but there’s one thing that scares him more than any other…
That’s right. Lifts (claustrophobia). Can’t say we blame him. There’s a lot that can go wrong in a lift. But taking the stairs in a 22-floor building? He’s a braver person than we are.
But Alex isn’t the only celeb who’s scared of this steely, cavernous mode of transportation. Jennifer Love Hewitt is terrified of stepping a single dainty footstep into lifts, too. Stairs all round, then!
We didn’t think anything could be scarier to Johnny Depp than looking in the mirror while he was filming Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, but apparently, there is…
Clowns (coulrophobia). Kind of understandable. We’ve all seen It. But he has a funny way of dealing with it. Apparently, Johnny surrounds himself with clown paraphernalia (wigs, red noses, the lot) in order to ward off evil. Other stars scared of clowns include…
PA Photos…Daniel Radcliffe, and…
P Diddy. Guessing McDonalds is out, then…
Katie Holmes probably doesn't do too much camping with her phobia...
She's scared of raccoons. Cute, cuddly creatures with stripy tails? Not according to Holmes, who believes they have a more sinister side to them. Hmm…
Kylie Minogue is as famous for her style as she is for her pop tunes, which is why having a crippling fear of…
Clothes hangers must be really difficult. The pint-sized pop princess despises the wiry things, especially the sound they make as they clink about on a clothing rail.
She is absolutely terrified of thunder storms (astraphobia). Well, we’re pretty sure it’s the only force of nature mightier than herself, so we kind of sympathise with her there.
We all know rom-com staple Matthew McConaughey is in tune with his emotions, but we had no idea that his deepest, darkest fear was of…
Revolving doors. Oh, and tunnels. And especially revolving doors that lead to tunnels.
Aussie actress Nicole Kidman doesn’t strike us as the kinda gal who’s scared of much, but there is one winged creature that gives her the creeps…
Not bats, oh no. That would be far too normal. Nicole Kidman is scared of butterflies (lepidopterophobia).
“Sometimes when I would come home from school the biggest butterfly or moth you’d ever seen would be just sitting on our front gate. I would climb over the fence, crawl around to the side of the house - anything to avoid having to go through the front gate. I have tried to get over it... I walked into the big butterfly cage at the American Museum Of Natural History and had the butterflies on me, but that didn’t work. I jump out of planes, I could be covered in cockroaches, I do all sorts of things, but I just don’t like the feel of butterflies’ bodies,” she said.
Oprah Winfrey has long held on to her title as one of the world’s most powerful women. Strange, then, that her mortal enemy – and the only thing that can throw her off balance - is…
Chewing gum. Apparently this is a real fear and it even has a real name: chiclephobia. She developed it, so she explained, from watching her grandmother stick old chewing gum in rows inside the kitchen cabinet at home. What was she saving it for?! OK Oprah, we’re with you on this one…
Orlando Bloom’s fearlessness is one of the reasons why his Lord Of The Rings character Legolas is so unnervingly attractive in the movie series…
And yet, if Legolas came face-to-face with this farmyard animal, he’d be forced to turn and run, sword in hand, in the other direction. Yes, Bloom is frightened of pigs (swinophobia). Oink.
Pamela Anderson, on the other hand, we have difficulty with. The Baywatch babe is famed for taking care of her looks (spot the euphemism), yet there is one household item that inhibits her from doing so…
Mirrors (eisoptrophobia). Kind of hard to see what you’re doing with the eyeliner if you can’t look in one.
PA PhotosHappy-go-lucky Cameron Diaz doesn’t strike us as someone who would be particularly terrified of inanimate objects, so we were pretty shocked to discover that she’s afraid of…
Door knobs. Especially touching them with her bare hands. Which she avoids by using her elbows. Well, if that’s not a talent, we don’t know what is!
PA PhotosBritney Spears has been known to wear the odd one or two in her time…
Just don’t ask her to be in a room with a live one! The pop princess is terrified of reptiles (herpetophobia).
Rex FeaturesRita Ora seems a confident, kinda-gal so we were shocked to learn her celebrity phobia.
"I always feel that when I go to the toilet that something's going to come out of the bottom," she reportedly told one British tabloid. "I have this thing where I think this tunnel must start from somewhere and sometimes I think, 'What if something comes out of the toilet?' "That's been one of my fears. I always make sure I put the light on when I go."
WennChristina Ricci has been in some seriously scary movies (Sleepy Hollow, anyone?), as well as having played Wednesday 13 in The Adams Family. But there’s one thing that chills her spine even more than the Headless Horseman…
Houseplants (botanophobia). So what is it about being confronted with a leafy green terrestrial that has Ricci so terrified? The actress told one magazine that she couldn’t stand to be in the same room as them - not because she’s read Day Of The Triffids, but because they are dirty.
Getty ImagesUma Thurman’s greatest roles include playing some of the most daredevil, killer female characters in cinema history…
Just don’t put her in a box. Or a cupboard. Or under the stairs. She’s a severe claustrophobic and is scared of small spaces.
Getty ImagesTyra Banks’ superhuman ‘smize’ (that’s ‘smile with your eyes’) powers are enough to strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest models, but there’s one aquatic beast she’ll never overcome…
Dolphins (delfiniphobia). While some of us have fond memories of Flipper, Tyra has admitted that she’s been terrified of the friendly water-bound mammals since she was eight years old. “I have dreams that I am in a pool and there are dolphins bumping me and I’m frightened,” she said.
WennSexy, sassy rock chick Carmen Electra has done some terrifying things in her time, so we were surprised to discover that this tiny salad accompaniment is the bane of her waking days…
Rex FeaturesOlives. We have no idea how or why anyone could be scared of olives. We have never met a sinister olive in our lives.
WennBilly Bob Thornton has done some pretty scary things in the past (yes, we are referring to the vials of blood he shared with Angelina Jolie), which is why it’s quite so absurd that he is more frightened of…
…Antique furniture than anything else. "I get creeped out and I can't breathe or eat around it," he said. Rumour has it that Billy Bob refuses to stay in a room that contains furniture made before the 50s. He is also apparently afraid of bold colours.
PA PhotosAfter taking Steven Spielberg on, surely there’s nothing actress Megan Fox could possibly be scared of…
Rex FeaturesApart from paper (papyrophobia), of course. Which, we can imagine, makes reading scripts a little difficult. If she’s doing a lot of reading, she has to have a cup of water nearby to wet her finger before she turns a page.
