No Handouts: Sting Applauds His Kids’ Hustle
No silver spoons: Daniel Craig and Ashton Kutcher are among a growing wave of celebrity parents rejecting trust funds for their kids, embracing an earn-it, enjoy-it, give-it-away ethos that echoes Andrew Carnegie’s legacy.
Some very rich parents are saying the quiet part out loud: the kids are not getting giant trust funds. Not exactly the norm in Hollywood, but when James Bond and a sitcom star both make the same call, it turns into a trend worth clocking.
- Daniel Craig: Dad to Ella (born 1992 with ex-wife Fiona Loudon); welcomed a daughter with Rachel Weisz in late 2018; became stepdad to Weisz's son, Henry (with Darren Aronofsky), when the couple married in 2011.
- Ashton Kutcher: Shares daughter Wyatt and son Dimitri with his former That '70s Show costar, Mila Kunis.
Daniel Craig would rather give it away now
In an August 2021 interview with Candis, Craig laid out his philosophy about wealth and inheritance in terms that leave very little wiggle room.
"Isn't there an old adage that if you die a rich person, you've failed? I think Andrew Carnegie gave away what in today's money would be about 11 billion dollars, which shows how rich he was because I'll bet he kept some of it, too. But I don't want to leave great sums to the next generation. My philosophy is get rid of it or give it away before you go."
So, yeah, he is not interested in passing down a mountain of Bond money. The logic is straightforward: enjoy it, put it to work, give it away; just don't park it in a trust for the kids.
Ashton Kutcher is not building a trust, on purpose
Kutcher spelled out a similar plan on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert in November 2019, explaining why he and Mila Kunis don't plan to earmark a pile of cash for their two kids.
"I'm not setting up a trust for them. We'll end up giving our money away to charity and to various things. My kids are living a really privileged life, and they don't even know it. And they'll never know it, because this is the only one that they'll know."
It's not about being harsh; it's about making sure the money does something beyond sitting in an account while their kids grow up in a reality where, frankly, they're already plenty comfortable.
Different careers, same conclusion: less inheritance, more giving, and a push for the next generation to find their own lane without a safety net the size of a small country.