The Financial Issues Sydney Sweeney Faced Before Her Fame

These days, A-list Actor Sydney Sweeney isn't short on work or cash. The thespian has landed note-worthy roles in the likes of "White Lotus," "Euphoria," "Anyone but You," and an upcoming horror film titled "Immaculate," which she just so happened to produce as well. But that's not all. She's also perfected the art of acquiring endorsement deals, inking contracts with brands such as Armani, Miu Miu, and Laniege. Cha-ching!

Alas, Sweeney's path to fame and fortune wasn't exactly paved with glitter and gold, and one of the tragic details of her life is that she grew up surrounded by financial instability. "We lived in one room. My mom and I shared a bed, and my dad and little brother shared a couch," Sweeney told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, speaking about her family moving to Los Angeles. They took up residence in a motel during the early days of her career while she was trying to carve out a name for herself in Tinseltown. But just how dire was Sweeney's financial situation? Here's what we know.

Sydney Sweeney grew up on a rural lake in a town on the border of Washington State and Idaho. "I grew up on the water," she gushed to Women's Health in November 2023. Sadly, her childhood wasn't exactly as charming as some might imagine — namely when it came to her family's finances. Once Sweeney's parents made the decision to uproot the family to Los Angeles to allow her to chase her acting dreams, all bets were off. "I watched my parents lose a lot. We filed for bankruptcy, and they lost their house back home on the lake," Sweeney recalled. According to Sweeney, in addition to taking acting gigs that paid very little, she also babysat, cleaned toilets, and even had a surprising job working as a Universal Studios tour guide to help her parents make ends meet.

Sadly, it appears that some of those feelings of financial instability and scarcity have spilled over into Sweeney's adult life. She made headlines in 2022 when she publicly lamented about not being able to take a six-month break from acting for fear of going broke. "I don't have someone supporting me, I don't have anyone I can turn to to pay my bills or call for help," she confessed during her candid 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. 

Fortunately for Sydney Sweeney, along with mastering her acting craft, she has also honed the invaluable skill of self-reliance. In addition to acting and taking endorsement deals, she's also diversified her streams of income to include that of a movie producer. "So excited to finally announce my company Fifty-Fifty Films and partner with @crazyrosefilms on my first project!" Sweeney penned in a revelatory Instagram post on July 31, 2020.

As one can imagine, with all of the money-making endeavors Sweeney has racked up, she's been able to carve out a pretty comfortable nest egg for herself that includes a reported net worth of $10 million and a budding real estate portfolio including not one, not two, but three properties. Ironically, one of the properties Sweeney managed to scoop up was a familial home that her great-grandmother lost due to financial hardship. In December 2023, during an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," Sweeney revealed that she was able to buy back the cherished home. "I called up the owners, and I said, 'I want to buy my great-grandmother's house back,” Sweeney proudly recalled. Alexa, play "Rags to Riches" by Tony Bennett.