When celebrities and fears come together and begin struggling for dominance, the famous, never wanting to lose their exalted status, cover up their weaknesses and put up an impregnable facade. All these bespoke outfits and exorbitant accessories serve the same purpose – prove that they are on top of the world, worlds from others like chalk an cheese. But in fact many of them are besieged by anxieties and insecurities just like the next fellow. And some of the illustrious feel they can afford to be open about what is eating them.
While some of the phobias affecting the rich and mighty are quite commonplace, others may be dumbfounding and can even seem amusing (although really they are not).
Martin Freeman: Choking Phobia
Expounding about himself on “The Graham Norton Show,” the much-accoladed British actor opened about his fear of choking on food – and the food that puts most fear in him is avocado!
The thing about avocado, it turns out, is its formidable stone. “Every time I have an avocado, every time I cut through an avocado, and I see the stone, I envision that stone being lodged in my windpipe,” Freeman revealed. It is recurrent so often that he doesn’t go for avocado that much.
Cher: afraid to fly
Cher’s is actually a very widespread and understandable phobia: she is afraid to fly. She shares it with a lot of other stars. Tony Curtis was reported to resort to hypnosis in an attempt to shake it off; Muhammad Ali, Johnny Cash, Jennifer Aniston, John Madden, were onset by panic at the very idea of flying. Not even Michael Jackson nor Whoopi Goldberg were immune. All of them would rather never approach a plane at any cost.
Tyra Banks — Dolphinophobia
The model and former Victoria’s Secret Angel doesn’t mind to discuss her trepidation when there are dolphins around. She confessed to Howard Stern (when her own talk show was still running) that these animals infested her nightmares!
As she described it to Stern, “I am afraid of dolphins … I used to have dreams that I was in a swimming pool and dolphins were, like, bumping into my legs.”
Justin Timberlake: Fear of Spiders
The singer-cum-actor (and lately author) has long been terrified by spiders, a condition known as arachnophobia. Along with arachnoids, the pop icon shies away from snakes and all biting animals including sharks.
Britney Spears: Fear of Reptiles
The pop star finds reptiles extremely loathsome. This is another often-encountered phobia scientifically termed as herpetophobia. Spears says she is not afraid of all of them, but only of the Komodo Dragon and some kinds of lizards.
Khloe Kardashian: Fear of Belly Buttons
Khloe isn’t comfortable with belly buttons, hers or other people‘s – as she let out five years ago on her website for the world to know.
The reality star feels strong about it: “I hate belly buttons,” it ran on her app, People reported. “You can’t touch mine and I don’t want to touch yours. When I’m in the shower, I wear hand mitts and I scream every time I wash my belly button, LOL!”
Kristen Stewart suffers from Fear of Horses
The Twilight and Snow White and the Huntsman star Kristen Stewart suffers from equinophobia, a.k.a. hippophobia, that is, horse-phobia. The actress regards horses as abhorrent animals, but she has a good reason for feeling bad around them: at the age of nine she happened to take a bad fall off a horse which resulted in a shattered elbow.
Kendall Jenner — Tiny Holes
Kendall Jenner’s phobia story told in 2016 is about trypophobia — a rather rare repugnance arising from a sight of a random set of small bumps or holes chaotically clustered.
As the socialite/model expounded online,“Trypophobics are afraid of tiny little holes that are in weird patterns. Things that could set me off are pancakes, honeycomb or lotus heads (the worst!).”
Scarlett Johansson — Birds
During the promotion of the comedy “We Bought a Zoo” in 2011, the actress was sounded on the topic of animals she loathed – and they proved to be birds.
In her Hitchcock-like revelations to the New York Magazine she averred: “I’m only scared of birds. Something about wings and beaks and the flapping. I’m terrified of them. That still hasn’t gone away. My uncle is terrified of birds as well, so it runs in the family.”
Johnny Depp and many more: Fear of clowns
When Stephen King was conceiving IT, he drew on the dread of clowns which is quite understandable: heavy masklike makeups of exaggerated gaiety, fixed leers that are so obviously fake – no wonder a lor of people shy away from them. Fear of clowns, or coulrophobia, affects many; among the celebs owning up to it are rapper P. Diddy, Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame and even Johnny Depp.
Nicole Kidman: Fear of Butterflies
The actress is mortified by butterflies – a phobia that is fairly common. It goes by the name of lepidopterophobia. Kidman recounts that her lepidopterophobia takes its start from her childhood spent in Australia. She has expended much effort trying to get her fear of butterflies in control, like going to the Museum of Natural History and trying to relate to the winged horrors in a butterfly cage, but nothing could avail.
Woody Allen has many fears
The famous comedian, actor, screenwriter, and master-of-all-trades Woody Allen is top in many things, in phobias as well! He is tortured by myriads of fears, being apprehensive of dogs and deer, insects, sunshine; he is uncomfortable with children and in small rooms; cancer puts a great scare into him. It seems that Allen collected all the phobias raging all over Hollywood.
Walt Disney: Fear of Mice
Walt Disney’s legendary creation, Mickey Mouse, famously sprang from the sight of mice cavorting in Disney‘s garage; nevertheless, the founder of Disney World was known to be afraid of mice and suffered from musophobia. This just goes to show that great men can be possessed by small fears!
