The most famous stepmothers of legend — thanks largely to Walt Disney with a bit of help from the Brothers Grimm — tried and failed to ruin the lives of Cinderella and Snow White.
In real life, a long list of celebrity stepmums have had varying success in coping with the burdens of an easily caricatured role. Here are a few who tried.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
Prince Charles’s first wife, Diana, referred to Camilla as “the rottweiler”. It was never going to be easy for the woman who eventually became stepmother to Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry. Yet few public tensions have surfaced and Harry has described Camilla as “a wonderful woman” who has made their father “very, very happy . . . William and I love her to bits”.
Catherine Zeta-Jones
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When the Welsh-born actress married Michael Douglas in 2000, she became stepmother to his troubled son, Cameron, who was only nine years younger than her. When Cameron faced a jail sentence on drug-dealing charges in 2010, Zeta-Jones sent the judge a letter pleading on behalf of “a caring, considerate, worthy human being”. He was given five years.
Ellen Kardashian
There is no love lost between reality TV’s Kardashian sisters — Kim, Khloe and Kourtney — and their former stepmother Ellen, who married their father, Robert, a few weeks before he died of cancer in 2003. Kim called Ellen “a slippery snake”. Khloe labelled her a “whore”. The sisters sued Ellen and Ellen sued them back. It all made for great TV.
