00:00Fame and fortune often come hand-in-hand, but although many celebrities are wealthy,
00:05it's rare for their net worths to stretch all the way to ten figures.
00:09Forbes estimates that less than two dozen people on the planet have accomplished that
00:13feat.
00:14Most obtained their celebrity billionaire status in the last decade.
00:18The economics of their industries have been shifting.
00:21Sports has seen massive spikes in salaries and values of endorsement deals, and athletes
00:25are building companies now more than ever.
00:28In pop music, it's becoming more common to leverage fame to garner attention for other
00:32business ventures.
00:34Defining celebrity isn't always easy.
00:37For this list, Forbes chose to feature people who became famous first, then massively rich.
00:43That definition skews heavily in favor of entertainers and athletes.
00:47It doesn't include those who are famous for being wealthy, or for the success of their
00:52businesses, like Donald Trump and Mark Cuban.
00:56This year, we identified 18 celebrity billionaires worth a collective $39 billion, up from $14
01:03and $31 billion in 2024.
01:06From Taylor Swift to Steven Spielberg, here are four of the stars who've capitalized
01:10on their fame, enough to rank among the world's wealthiest people.
01:15Pop star Taylor Swift became a billionaire in 2023 after taking home an estimated $190
01:21million after taxes for just the first leg of her famous heiress tour.
01:26The rest of her fortune is based on the value of her music catalog, plus music royalties
01:30and additional touring.
01:32She's stashed about $115 million in a swath of homes from Rhode Island to Tennessee.
01:38Vincent McMahon started off as a TV announcer for his father's wrestling company, then
01:43called WWF, now called WWE, in the 1970s.
01:47He purchased the business in 1982 and transformed it into a global powerhouse.
01:53McMahon merged WWE with the UFC in 2023 to form TKO Group Holdings, over which he was
02:00briefly executive chairman before he stepped down last year amid sexual misconduct allegations,
02:05which he denies.
02:07He's been cashing out his stake in the company.
02:11Media mogul Oprah Winfrey came to fame as the host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which
02:16aired from 1986 to 2011.
02:19By 2003, her hosting, acting, and production earnings had made her a billionaire, and she
02:24became the first-ever Black woman to reach that status.
02:28Winfrey continues to make money in entertainment, co-starring in the 2024 war drama The 6888.
02:35But these days, she's also parked much of her fortune in real estate in California and
02:39Hawaii, where she owns over 2,000 acres.
02:43Steven Spielberg got rich by making some of the most popular movies of the late 20th century,
02:48including Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park.
02:54He first appeared on Forbes' list of the wealthiest Americans in 1994, and he shows
02:58no sign of slowing down, continuing to direct hits like 2021's West Side Story remake.
03:05In addition to film earnings, Spielberg has negotiated to get 2% of ticket sales at Universal
03:10Theme Parks in perpetuity.
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