Already have an account?
Get back to the

Halle Berry Recalls Being Homeless in NYC: “I Had to Work It Out”

Things haven’t always been easy for actress Halle Berry — and in a new interview, she opened up about living in a homeless shelter when she first came to NYC. With no help from her mother, the Kidnap star was forced to fend for herself while she followed her dreams, and told People that “giving up was never an option.”

“It was to prove to her and everybody else. It took me right back to my high school years. You say, ‘I can’t, watch me. I’m going to figure this out.’ And shelter life was part of figuring it out for a minute until I could get a waitressing job. Then I got a bartending job, and until I could figure that out, that’s what I did,” she told the publication.

MORE: Halle Berry Just Made Literally Everyone Want to Hire Malia Obama as an Intern

halle berry getty images

While this did cause a strain on their mother-daughter relationship for awhile, Halle admitted, “That’s probably one of the best things she did for me. She said, ‘If you want to be there, then you work it out.’ And I had to work it out.” At this point — it definitely seems like she worked it out!

Scroll through the gallery to see more Hollywood rags-to-riches stories!