After years of booming entrepreneurship, the market is softening for celebrity-backed corporations. However eye-watering earnings proceed to roll in for the most important feminine film, TV and pop stars within the nation.
In enterprise, timing is the whole lot—even for the wealthy and well-known. The growth time for superstar entrepreneurship took off like a rocket across the finish of 2020, and the pop stars, actors and discuss present hosts who greatest took benefit minted fortunes within the tons of of tens of millions, even billions in a number of circumstances, by placing their title on the whole lot from cosmetics manufacturers to TV and film manufacturing corporations. However now they, like many others, are feeling the consequences of a cooling economic system.
On Forbes’ listing of America’s Richest Self-Made Girls this yr, 16 celebrities rank among the many 100 entrepreneurs, executives and entertainers. With a view to make the lower, candidates needed to be value no less than $350 million—up from $300 million final yr and $225 million in 2023.
These stars of the stage and display are collectively value $14.1 billion, up from $13.3 billion final yr—because of the addition of actress Selena Gomez (No. 48), who isn’t yet a billionaire however whose estimated $700 million web value makes up virtually everything of that distinction. Many of the different 15 stars’ fortunes are little modified from a yr in the past.
Gomez launched her cosmetics firm Uncommon Magnificence initially of the superstar enterprise growth, in September 2020, and it disclosed $367 million in income by 2023. Equally, Judy Sheindlin (No. 61) signed a mega deal in late 2020 to maneuver her eponymous TV arbitration present to Amazon Prime; pop star Rihanna (No. 35) raised cash for her Savage x Fenty lingerie model at a $1 billion valuation in early 2021; Madonna (No. 42) signed a profitable new take care of Warner Music that summer season; and, maybe most notably, film star Reese Witherspoon (No. 82) offered a majority stake in her manufacturing firm Good day Sunshine in August 2021 at a reported $900 million valuation.
The Good day Sunshine sale is now referenced frequently all through Hollywood as the height of a celeb manufacturing bubble. On the time of the acquisition by Blackstone-backed Candle Media, the corporate projected $80 million in revenue by 2023. However based on an October 2023 report in Bloomberg, it produced lower than $10 million that yr, and the tempo of recent productions has solely continued to sluggish within the two years since. As of 2025, Forbes estimates Good day Sunshine is value lower than a 3rd of its sale value. (A consultant for Witherspoon disagreed with Forbes, however supplied no steerage.)
Markets have equally cooled within the cosmetics area, the business behind a number of girls on the listing, together with Gomez, Rihanna, Kardashian and her half-sister Kylie Jenner (No. 52). Forbes estimates Rihanna’s web value dropped practically 30% previously yr, as a consequence of estimates of flat gross sales at Fenty Magnificence and lingerie model Savage X Fenty. “The market situation proper now’s exerting a kind of downward stress on valuation,” Morningstar analyst Dan Su advised Forbes in early Might, referring to cosmetics corporations.
The identical goes for music catalogs. Katy Perry (No. 97) offered stakes in her grasp recordings and publishing rights in 2023 for an estimated $225 million, however an identical artist attempting to do the identical deal immediately would anticipate a 20% to 30% low cost, analysts inform Forbes.
Perry is headed again out on tour this summer season, as is Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (No. 45), who noticed an enormous bounce in her web value throughout her blockbuster Renaissance tour in 2023 however has already seen decrease ticket costs and gross sales throughout early stops of her Cowboy Carter tour.
The large outlier to this pattern is Taylor Swift (No. 21), whose wealth elevated by $300 million previously yr to $1.6 billion, based on Forbes estimates. Her signature Eras Tour began in 2023 and resulted in December 2024, grossing a record-breaking $2 billion and producing earnings in quite a lot of methods, together with ticket gross sales, a blockbuster film and a guide in regards to the tour, a phenomenon that made her resistant to the pattern that hit different celebrities.
Listed below are the celebrities on Forbes’ 2025 Self-Made Girls listing
Internet worths are as of Might 2, 2025
Tom Williams/Getty-Photographs
Oprah Winfrey
Internet value: $3.1 billion | Supply: TV reveals | Age: 71 | Change in web value since 2024 listing: +3%
Her eponymous discuss present has been off the air practically 15 years, however Winfrey stays a constant presence on our TV screens, showing within the Netflix film The Six Triple Eight and internet hosting three TV specials previously yr. She additionally dropped a reported $75 million on a brand new personal jet final yr and maintains important actual property holdings in Hawaii. WeightWatchers, whose board she left in Might 2024, filed for chapter this Might.
Taylor Hill/Getty Photographs
Kim Kardashian
Internet value: $1.7 billion | Supply: Shapewear, skincare | Age: 44 | Change: Even
In February, Kardashian’s practically $900 million (estimated gross sales) shapewear enterprise Skims launched NikeSkims, a brand new model with the athletic shoe and attire large; product is anticipated to hit cabinets within the coming months. Magnificence firm Coty divested its 20% stake in Kardashian’s skincare line SKKN by Kim in March, recording a $71 million loss because of the divestiture.
Emma McIntyre/TAS24
Taylor Swift
Internet value: $1.6 billion | Supply: Music | Age: 35 | Change: +23%
After 149 live shows in 54 cities, her Eras Tour wrapped in December as probably the most profitable tour in music historical past—grossing over $2 billion in ticket gross sales, double the earlier report. The most important star on the earth has discovered quite a few methods to monetize her religious fandom aside from ticket gross sales, together with motion pictures, books and rerecordings of her albums, all of which earned her greater than $200 million previously two years.
In late Might, she purchased again the grasp recordings of her first six albums from personal fairness agency Shamrock Capital, giving her complete possession over her whole catalog for the primary time. In a letter posted to her web site, she known as it “my best dream come true.”
Rihanna
Internet value: $1 billion | Supply: Music, cosmetics | Age: 37 | Change: -29%
The pop star’s fortune fell by $400 million amid setbacks at her key companies. The CEO of her lingerie model Savage X Fenty give up in August 2024 to take over Victoria’s Secret. Gross sales are estimated to be flat at her cosmetics line Fenty Magnificence, which she coowns with luxurious conglomerate LVMH. Fenty Magnificence launched in China final yr amid what LVMH known as a “difficult setting.” In additional celebratory information, Rihanna revealed she was pregnant together with her third little one on the Met Gala in Might.
Madonna
Internet value: $850 million | Supply: Music | Age: 66 | Change: Even
She’s greater than 40 years into her profession and isn’t performed but. She revealed on social media this previous December that she has been within the studio: “Who desires to listen to new music in 2025!” That tease comes on the heels of wrapping up her Celebration Tour final Might, grossing practically $230 million, her sixth to gross greater than $100 million since 2001.
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
Internet value: $780 million | Supply: Music | Age: 43 | Change: +4%
In late April, the pop star kicked off her Cowboy Carter Tour, which is able to embody 32 stadium reveals in 9 cities throughout the US and Europe this summer season. Talks of a residency on the Sphere in Las Vegas broke down final yr, and tensions with the venue’s proprietor, James Dolan, escalated this spring when a CGI video of Beyoncé choosing up the Sphere was proven at her first a number of live shows, prompting Dolan to ship her a cease-and-desist letter.
Lionel Hahn/Getty Photographs
Selena Gomez
Internet value: $700 million | Supply: Cosmetics | Age: 32 | Change: Newcomer
5 years in the past, Gomez launched Uncommon Magnificence, naming it after her third solo studio album. The cosmetics firm, identified for its punchy liquid blushes and offered by way of its web site and Sephora, introduced in roughly $370 million in income final yr. Forbes estimates that it’s value $1.3 billion and that she owns no less than 51%. The previous Disney Channel star reportedly earns $600,000 per episode (40 to date) as an actress in and co-producer of the hit present Solely Murders within the Constructing. She was nominated in December for a greatest supporting actress Golden Globe for the film Emilia Pérez. In March Gomez launched a brand new album together with her fiancé, producer Benny Blanco.
Kylie Jenner
Internet value: $670 million | Supply: Cosmetics | Age: 27 | Change: -6%
Although Coty offered its stake within the skincare line of her half-sister, Kim Kardashian (No. 20), it’s pleased with Kylie Cosmetics, citing its profitable international growth into new markets together with India and Singapore. Jenner’s new Cosmic perfume additionally seems to be boosting gross sales. Although a vibrant spot for Coty, valuations of magnificence shares are largely down, and Coty’s inventory has tumbled 50% since final yr. The youngest of Kris Jenner’s youngsters, Kylie individually debuted a canned vodka soda known as Sprinter final yr.
Judy Sheindlin
Internet value: $580 million | Supply: Tv reveals | Age: 82 | Change: +4%
Final January, the TV arbiter greatest often called Choose Judy re-upped her take care of Amazon and nonetheless produces a powerful 120 episodes per yr of Judy Justice, which not solely stream on-line but in addition get syndicated to 100 tv stations. She has properties in Florida, California, Rhode Island and New York, the place she’s at the moment promoting a penthouse condo for practically $10 million.
Celine Dion
Internet value: $570 million | Supply: Music | Age: 57 | Change: +4%
Dion took an prolonged break from performing her signature energy ballads after revealing in 2022 that she’d been identified with stiff-person syndrome, an incurable autoimmune situation. A documentary about her dysfunction, I Am: Celine Dion, was launched in June on Amazon Prime Video. The star amazed the world in July when she returned to sing one music on the Paris Olympics.
Barbra Streisand
Internet value: $510 million | Supply: Music | Age: 83 | Change: +11%
The vocal powerhouse has a brand new album of duets popping out in June that includes Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande. She owns a $127 million house in Malibu that was threatened by January’s wildfires however survived.
Ellen Degeneres
Internet value: $450 million | Supply: Tv reveals | Age: 67 | Change: Even
After the 2024 presidential election, the previous discuss present host went on a promoting spree of her monumental U.S. actual property portfolio and reportedly moved to the U.Okay. together with her spouse, actress Portia de Rossi. She offered her largest property, a 10-acre mansion close to Santa Barbara, California, for a reported $96 million to mining billionaire Robert Friedland.
Dolly Parton
Internet value: $450 million | Supply: Music, investments | Age: 79 | Change: Even
Her husband of virtually 60 years, Carl Dean, died in March. The famously personal Dean had spent a long time supporting Parton quietly whereas staying out of the general public eye. On Valentine’s Day, the long-lasting songstress and Sabrina Carpenter launched their Billboard-charting rendition of Carpenter’s “Please, Please Please.” In 2024, she collaborated with Beyoncé on one other hit, “Tyrant.”
Reese Witherspoon
Internet value: $440 million | Supply: Leisure | Age: 49 | Change: Even
Witherspoon offered a majority of her manufacturing firm, Good day Sunshine, in 2021, on the peak of what turned out to be a bubble for celebrity-backed content material homes. It’s now value lower than a 3rd of its $900 million sale valuation. Nonetheless, the actress stays in demand. She starred in You’re Cordially Invited, a romantic comedy for Amazon Prime Video launched in January, and can return for the fourth season of The Morning Present on AppleTV+ later this yr. She can be the manager producer of Legally Blonde prequel Elle, now in manufacturing.
Katy Perry
Internet value: $360 million | Supply: Music | Age: 40 | Change: +3%
Perry’s newest album, 143, was panned by critics upon its launch final September. In April, she was mocked for collaborating in an all-female Blue Origin journey to area and saying on the time that she would “put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.” Undeterred, the pop star started her Lifetimes Tour days after returning to Earth and can spend the following eight months on the highway. She offered the rights to her music catalog in 2023 for a reported $225 million.
Serena Williams
Internet value: $350 million | Supply: Tennis, investments | Age: 43 | Change: +3%
The newly inducted U.S. Olympic Corridor of Famer, who retired from tennis in 2022, has stayed lively. Her 9 Two Six Productions launched a docuseries on ESPN final July highlighting her legendary taking part in profession. This yr she collaborated with youngsters’s clothes model Janie and Jack, and joined the possession group of the Toronto Tempo, a WNBA growth franchise, set to start play subsequent summer season.
