The BEST celebrity tell-all books: After Britney Spears’ bombshell memoir here are the juiciest reads from Jessica Simpson, Pamela Anderson, Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, and more

Britney Spears, Jada Pinkett Smith and John Stamos have delivered some jaw-dropping tell-all books this month.

Toxic singer Spears revealed that Justin Timberlake broke her heart after she aborted their baby while adding how her parents betrayed her and why pal Madonna guided her.

Matrix actress Smith revealed she has been separated from husband Will Smith for seven years, but they are still close friends. 

Stamos shared he was a huge mess after splitting from X-Men star Rebecca Romijn, struggled when a Playboy model ‘cheated’ on him with Tony Danza, and how he almost dated his Full House costar Lori Loughlin. 

But they are not the first stars to pen page turners.

Jessica Simpson, Pamela Anderson and Drew Barrymore have also dished the dirt.

And Rob Lowe, Sharon Stone, Jennette McCurdy, Sally Field, Diane Keaton, Lauren Bacall, Amy Schumer and Jane Fonda have also written about their wild pasts.

Here is a look at the top memoirs with the juiciest reveals.

 

OPEN BOOK BY JESSICA SIMPSON

2020 

Jessica Simpson announced her tell-all Open Book in 2019 and it came out the following year.

The Dukes Of Hazzard actress was guided by the journals she kept since the age of 15.

The preacher’s daughter, pop phenomenon, reality TV pioneer, and billion-dollar design mogul invited readers on a journey that included being married to Nick Lachey (from 2002 until 2006) and dating John Mayer.

Then there was the story about how she was sexually abused as a child. 

Her book shares also addresses her dumb blonde phase (‘chicken or fish?’), playing Daisy Duke, and being fat shamed. 

‘I can’t believe this day is finally here!’ she said when the book came out. ‘This is the cover of Open Book, my memoir, which is coming out February 4th.

‘This book has been both the hardest and most rewarding experience of my career so far. 

‘I can’t wait to share it with you. Head to the link if you want to get to know all of me.’ 

The cover sees Jessica in black and white as she tilts her head with a smile of her face.  

She didn’t want to hold anything back in the autobiography. That meant talking about how she was sexually abused as a child, how her marriage to Nick failed and why she is such a careful mom to her three kids.

‘I have been approached many times over the years about writing a book. I never felt right to me until this very moment,’ she told People in 2019. 

‘I hope that by telling my whole story and not holding back, I can help move people to walk through their fears and defeat their challenges, as I am working hard to do every day with mine.’ 

‘I hope readers will feel the love, laughter, tears and truth contained in every page.’  

Jessica is currently married to former NFL star, Eric Johnson. The athlete and Dukes Of Hazzard star are parents to Maxwell Drew, Ace Knute, and Birdie Mae.  

 

LOVE, PAMELA BY PAMELA ANDERSON

2023

 

She has had one of the most interesting lives of any celebrity.

The star from Canada came to fame as a Playboy model and Tool Time girl on Home Improvement before finding international fame with TV’s Baywatch.

That led to films like Barb Wire, Crimes Of Passion and Scary Movie 3 as well as another TV series, Stacked.

Though her career never reached the heights it could have, she has always stayed in the spotlight in part because of her love life.

In her book she dished on her husband Tommy Lee of the band Motley Crue with whom she has two kids.

She also mentioned Kid Rock and The Batman producer she maybe married for a minute.

In the tome, the siren reclaims the narrative of her life. She defies expectation in content, blending prose with snippets of original poetry.

At the start of Pamela, A Love Story, Pamela reveals that her babysitter molested her for three to four years. 

Pamela stated that the babysitter would act nice in front of her parents while threatening her not to tell anyone behind closed doors. 

Pamela then said that she attempted to kill the babysitter, saying, ‘I tried to stab her in the heart with a candy cane pen.’

The following day, the babysitter died in a car accident, which Pamela believed she had some how caused.

And Pamela said her romance with Lee was violent.

Pamela described how Tommy twisted her arm while she was holding their son, Dylan, which caused her nail to tear off. 

Tommy then threw the pair into a wall and was later arrested and served six months in jail for spousal abuse. But they are amicable today. 

 

 

I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED BY JENNETTE MCCURDY
2023 

 

She worked her tail off as a child actress.

But her mother never gave her the support she needed, often calling her ugly as she micromanaged her.

Sometimes she would even shower with her.

It is a heartbreaking memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy.

When she was a child actor she had eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother.

McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. 

Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. 

So she went along with what Mom called ‘calorie restriction,’ eating little and weighing herself five times a day.

She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, ‘Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?’ 

She was even showered by mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this. 

The Nickelodeon series called iCarly brought her instant fame. 

Though her mom is ecstatic, Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. 

These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. 

Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience.

 

 

WILDFLOWER BY DREW BARRYMORE

2016

 

Drew Barrymore has a story most people know: A child actress with a party crazed stage mom who got her a top role in ET.

She went on to be a wild teen who hung out with Courtney Love but still made big movies. 

Next, she stood on her own with films she produced and starred in like Charlie’s Angels, her Cinderella redo and Fever Pitch. 

Now she is a talk show queen. 

Wildflower is a portrait of Drew’s life in stories as she looks back on the adventures.

It includes tales of living in her first apartment as a teenager, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and being a mom.

‘Wildflower is a portrait of Drew’s life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences she’s had throughout her life,’ read the release from Penguin Publishing Group in 2016.

‘It includes tales of living in her first apartment as a teenager (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck under a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more journeys and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.’

When on her US book tour for her memoir in 2015 she stopped by Seattle Arts and Lectures and 3rd Place Books at the Center For Spiritual Living in Seattle, Washington.

The acclaimed actress appeared to give a very impassioned speech as she spoke alongside US writer/director, Lynn Shelton, reading excerpts from her new book to the crowds.

The FLOWER beauty founder – who’s mother to Olive and Frankie with her art consultant husband Will Kopelman – sported minimal make-up, allowing her barefaced beauty to shine through.

According to the Seattle Arts & Lectures website, the format of the evening was ‘Drew Barrymore in conversation via an interview format’, followed by a book signing. 

Wildflower is the first book the former child actress has written about her life since Little Girl Lost, which she wrote when she was just 14.

Unlike Little Girl Lost, it takes the form of autobiographical essays that contemplate moments that led her to being a wife and mother. 

 

MY LIFE SO FAR BY JANE FONDA

2006 

 

America knows Jane Fonda as actress and activist, feminist and wife, and workout guru. 

In this memoir, Fonda shows that she can dish. 

From her youth among Hollywood’s elite to her film career and her activism today, Fonda reveals intimate details and personal truths she hopes ‘can provide a lens through which others can see their lives and how they can live them a little differently.’ 

My Life So Far is filled with insights into the personal struggles.

She also named CNN founder Ted Turner, whom she married and divorced, as the biggest love of her life. 

‘In the process of writing this book I discovered there were clear, broad, even universal themes that ran through my life, a coherent arc to my journey that, if I could be truthful in the telling, might provide a road map for other women as they face the challenges of relationships, self-image, and forgiveness,’ she said.

‘What I did not anticipate was how my journey would also resonate with men.’ 

 

 

BY MYSELF BY LAUREN BACALL

1985

Although written many years ago, Lauren Bacall By Myself is an absorbing and relevant book.

She opened up about falling in love with her To Have And Have Not costar Humphrey Bogart when she was only 19-years-old and very nervous.

He was married to another actress at the time, but he dumped her for teen Lauren.

They had two kids together, then his death devastated her.

Her first-person memoir shows the couple as very real people who reach Hollywood stardom and are very much in love. 

A marriage to Jason Robards was unsuccessful but they had a child together that kept them friends. 

Then there was a romance with Frank Sinatra too. She reveals how he coldly dumped her before they were supposed to wed.

And she also revealed what she thought of the bombshell of her day, Marilyn Monroe. 

Bacall, born Betty Joan Perske, died in 2014.

 

 

STORIES I ONLY TELL MY FRIENDS BY ROB LOWE

2012 

 

He was the pretty boy opposite Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze in The Outsiders.

But he had screen charisma too which landed him roles in St Elmo’s Fire and About Last Night. 

His TV work would prove to be his most memorable: West Wing, Parks And Recreation and 9-1-1: Lone Star. 

Actor Rob Lowe’s memoir presents a funny and surprisingly moving account of an extraordinary life lived almost entirely in the public eye.

A teen idol at fifteen, an international icon and founder of the Brat Pack at twenty, and one of Hollywood’s top stars to this day.

Lowe chronicles his experiences as a painfully misunderstood child actor in Ohio uprooted to the wild counterculture of mid-seventies Malibu, where he embarked on his unrelenting pursuit of a career in Hollywood.

He also talked struggling with addiction. 

The Outsiders placed Lowe at the birth of the modern youth movement in the entertainment industry.

During his time on The West Wing, he witnessed the surreal nexus of show business and politics both on the set and in the actual White House. 

And in between are deft and humorous stories of the wild excesses that marked the eighties, leading to his quest for family and sobriety.

Never mean-spirited or salacious, Lowe delivers unexpected glimpses into his successes, disappointments, relationships, and one-of-a-kind encounters with people who shaped our world over the last 25 years. 

These stories are as entertaining as they are unforgettable.

 

IN PIECES BY SALLY FIELD

2018 

Sally Field dished on her Smokey And The Bandit costar and boyfriend Burt Reynolds – that alone made the cost of In Pieces worth it.

Burt died on September 6, 2018, while Sally’s book was released on September 18, 2018. So he never read what she said.

She did not want Burt to read her memoir because of her raw passages about their time together. 

‘This would hurt him,’ she told the Times. ‘I felt glad that he wasn’t going to read it, he wasn’t going to be asked about it, and he wasn’t going to have to defend himself or lash out, which he probably would have. I did not want to hurt him any further.’ 

Back in 2016, Burt told The Daily Mail that Sally was ‘the love of my life.’ He also called the split his ‘biggest disappointment.’

‘That sense of loss never goes away. I have no idea what Sally thinks about it. She could pick up the phone and speak to me but she never does. I spoke to her son recently,’ he explained. ‘He said that his mum talks about me all the time. Maybe she’ll phone me one day. I’d love to have that conversation.’

Field was the girl next door whom millions of fans watched in Mrs Doubtfire and – more recently – Lincoln and 80 For Brady.

The actress took her time with In Pieces, her first memoir. It was written over seven years without the assistance of a ghostwriter. 

In this intimate memoir the icon tells her own story for the first time – about a challenging and lonely childhood, the craft that helped her find her voice, and a powerful emotional legacy that shaped her journey as a daughter and a mother.

Field has an infectious charm that has captivated the nation for more than five decades, beginning with her first TV role at the age of seventeen. 

From Gidget’s sweet-faced ‘girl next door’ to the dazzling complexity of Sybil to the Academy Award-worthy ferocity and depth of Norma Rae and Mary Todd Lincoln, Field has stunned audiences time and time again with her artistic range and emotional acuity.

Yet there is one character who always remained hidden: the shy and anxious little girl within.

With raw honesty and the fresh, pitch-perfect prose of a natural-born writer, and with all the humility and authenticity her fans have come to expect, Field brings readers behind-the-scenes for not only the highs and lows of her star-studded early career in Hollywood, but deep into the truth of her lifelong relationships–including her complicated love for her own mother. 

 

THE BEAUTY OF LIVING TWICE BY SHARON STONE 

2021

 

The Beauty of Living Twice is a 2021 memoir by movie glamazon Sharon Stone.

The book debuted at #4 on the New York Times Bestseller list for Hardcover Nonfiction Books. 

There was plenty to dish on.

The top subject was her ragtag childhood in Pennsylvania where her father beat her, one of her brothers bullied her and her grandfather sexually abused her and her sister.

There there was her health.

Stone suffered a massive stroke that cost her not only her health, but her career, family, fortune. 

In The Beauty of Living Twice, Stone chronicles her efforts to rebuild her life and writes about her slow road back to wholeness and health.

In a business that doesn’t accept failure, Stone found the power to return, the courage to speak up, and the will to make a difference around the globe.

The book cover shows the Academy Award nominee – who is best known for the films Basic Instinct and Casino – in a black-and-white image with her arms up to her face.  

‘Possibility made me write this book: the opportunity to grow, and to share that growth. I have learned to forgive the unforgivable. My hope is that as I share my journey, you too will learn to do the same,’ the mother-of-three said in her caption.

 

 

LET’S JUST SAY I WASN’T PRETTY BY DIANE KEATON  

2014 

 

Diane Keaton has starred in some of the best films – The Godfather, Annie Hall, Baby Boom, Book Club.

But she felt she was not a conventional beauty which tore her apart.

In Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty, she shares what it was like to be a movie star who lacked confidence.

In a smart and funny tone, she shared the ups and downs of living and working in a world obsessed with beauty.

Keaton offers up a message of empowerment for anyone who’s ever dreamed of kicking back against the ‘should’s and ‘supposed to’s that undermine our pursuit of beauty in all its forms.

From a mortifying encounter with a makeup artist who tells her she needs to get her eyes fixed to an awkward excursion to Victoria’s Secret with her teenage daughter, Keaton shares funny and not-so-funny moments from her life in and out of the public eye.

Then there was her love life.

She dated Al Pacino for years, and also Woody Allen and Warren Beatty.

Then there was Jack Nicholson and Sam Shepard.

Wryly observant and as fiercely original as Keaton herself, Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty is a page-turner of a book.

 

THE GIRL WITH THE LOWER BACK TATTOO BY AMY SCHUMER

2017

 

In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex.

She admitted to one night stands. And said she has slept with a total of 28 men over her lifetime; she is now happily married to a chef.

And Amy revealed she was in an abusive relationship.

Amy writes candidly about the details of her relationship with an ex she calls Dan: Dan screaming and shaking her, pulling open the shower curtain to laugh at her body, ‘accidentally’ shoving her. 

She shares the experiences that have shaped who she is—a woman with the courage to bare her soul.

Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this highly entertaining and universally appealing collection is the literary equivalent of a night out with your best friend—an unforgettable and fun adventure that you wish could last forever. 

Emmy-winning actress, director and comedian stripped topless for the revealing book cover.

The cover shows an apparently naked Amy from behind, peering over her shoulder with her arms across her chest.

Amy’s blonde hair tumbled down her back and she wore smoky eye make-up and false lashes, with a coy smile on her face.

The Inside Amy Schumer star revealed in the accompanying caption that this is her official book cover.

The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo – a play on the famous Steigg Larsson novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – was released on August 16, 2017.

Ever since she wrote her debut film Trainwreck, which was released last summer, Amy’s career has catapulted to new heights and she is now one of the most in demand stars in Hollywood.