Top 10 Stars Who Managed to Keep Big Secrets from the Public

These celebrities were able to outwit the paparazzi, the tabloids, and the media overall. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today, we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Stars Who Managed to Keep Big Secrets from the Public. For this list, we’re looking at celebrities who went to great lengths to keep certain information from their private lives private.

#10: Beyoncé & JAY-Z

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Not a couple known to be vocal about their relationship, Jay-Z and Beyoncé wanted a small, private affair when they decided to get married in 2008. The public didn’t find out about the marriage until weeks after the ceremony, which was shocking since few people even knew they were engaged. Beyoncé didn’t discuss any details about the marriage until six months later, and she didn’t share pictures with the public for six years. True to form, Beyoncé later waited until five months into her pregnancy before telling the world she was about to have her first child.

Though news of Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy broke in September 2017, the reality star was able to keep it under wraps until February 2018, a couple of days after her daughter, Stormi Webster, was born. Jenner shared the secret with her family and close friends, who were all committed to staying silent. To avoid giving away the pregnancy during photo ops, Jenner did everything from wearing big t-shirts at public outings to covering herself with a blanket when modeling lingerie. After the cat was let out of the bag, Kylie was nice enough to show a YouTube video to her fans that documented the pregnancy.

#8: Prince

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Normally, one would not consider PBS to be a popular news source for celebrity bombshells, but in 2009, Prince sat down with Tavis Smiley for a revealing interview. Among the topics that were discussed was the singer’s experience with epilepsy, which he credited as the reason for his adopting flair to his personality. Prince claimed to have suffered from seizures early in his childhood, but they mysteriously stopped. While Prince didn’t know what caused his affliction to go away, he speculated it could have been the miraculous work of an angel.

When Katie Holmes filed for divorce against Tom Cruise in 2012, her plans were so secret that even Tom didn't know it was coming. The news was broken to Cruise over the phone while he was shooting his 2013 sci-fi action film “Oblivion”. Holmes had secretly met with lawyers to file for divorce because she didn’t want to lose her daughter Suri to the church of Scientology. The gambit worked, as the actress was able to strike a settlement with Cruise that gave her full custody of their child.

Not keen on sharing her love life with the press, Janet Jackson managed to keep not one, but two weddings secret. For her first marriage, to songwriter Rene Elizondo in 1991, the public didn’t find out until after their divorce was finalized in 2000, with their divorce papers being the only documented evidence of their marriage. In 2012, Janet Jackson tied the knot with Qatari billionaire Wissam Al Mana, and only disclosed that information during an interview in 2013. However, the two separated in 2017, and if Janet's dating anyone now, it may be years before anyone knows.

#5: Sandra Bullock

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In 2010, Bullock not only took home a Best Actress Oscar, but also an adopted son. The actress went through a four year long process before she could adopt Louis, an African American child from New Orleans. Bullock and her then husband, Jesse James, had Louis as early as January 2010, but they didn’t want to tell the public until that current awards season was over, only sharing the secret with a close circle of friends. Then, in April, Bullock posed for the cover of People magazine holding up her adopted child.

In a 2013 op-ed published in the New York Times that was titled “My Medical Choice,” Angelina Jolie made a startling revelation that she had recently gone through a double mastectomy. The actress wrote about how she carried a certain gene that predisposed her to breast cancer, and how her double mastectomy drastically reduced those chances. After Jolie wrote the column, the number of women having mastectomies went up, which has been credited by researchers as the “Angelina Effect.”

#3: Michael J. Fox

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With hits such as “Family Ties” and the “Back to the Future” film series, the 1980s were a good time for Michael J. Fox. Unfortunately, his career took a devastating turn when the actor was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991. Concerned with what news of the diagnosis would do for his acting prospects, Fox kept the news to himself and took on lesser roles as the ‘90s went on. Seven years later, Fox finally shared the news with the rest of us, and has gone on to speak out for stem cell research in the hopes that it will one day cure Parkinson’s.

In June 2011, shortly after leaving office and having served as governor of California, Schwarzenegger told his then-wife Maria Shriver that he had fathered an illegitimate child with their longtime housekeeper. Prior to his confession, Schwarzenegger and his maid were able to keep both their extramarital affair and the child that resulted under wraps for more than a decade. What could be most the impressive aspect about the secret is the child looks just like Arnold, which surprisingly didn’t raise any red flags earlier.

Until she was 65 years old, Caitlyn Jenner had been keeping it secret to herself that she was transgender. During a high profile 2015 interview, Jenner stated she identified as female and revealed other details to Diane Sawyer. The Olympic gold medalist told Sawyer that she first explored her femininity by wearing women’s clothes when she was a kid and had used female hormones for five years in the 1980s. Jenner also shared that the experience of being transgender brought her to the point of thinking about committing suicide, but fortunately, she has instead decided to find out how her “story ends.”