Most of us dream of what we'd do if we inherited a life-changing sum of money. However, history shows us that going from riches to rags is an all too real prospect. According to wealth consultancy firm the Williams Group, a shocking 70% of wealthy families lose their fortune by the second generation, rising to a staggering 90% in the following generation.
With that in mind, read on to discover the sad stories of seven unlucky heirs with the reverse Midas touch who frittered away their huge inheritances. Figures have been adjusted for inflation to give you an idea of the scale of their squandering in today's money, and we've ranked them from smallest to the biggest.
All dollar amounts in US dollars.
Up to her eyeballs in debt, Tori Spelling just couldn't stop burning through cash. The actress and reality star's free-spending ways prompted her late TV producer father, Aaron Spelling, to leave his daughter just $800,000 (£635k) out of a $500 million (£395m) legacy after his death in 2006.
This inheritance would be just over $1.2 million (£950k) in today's money.
According to her mother, Candy, Tori would close a designer store and drop $60,000 (£48k) in one session. Candy has come to the rescue and shored up her daughter's finances on more than one occasion over the years.
Needless to say, Spelling's inheritance was gone in no time.
In fact, Spelling is said to have blown her inheritance along with a further $17 million (£13.5m) by 2014. Since then, the big spender's finances have been in rough shape.
In 2016, Candy Spelling revealed she was covering her daughter's rent and bills, and in 2017, Tori and her husband, Dean McDermott, were hit with a $1 million (£790k) tax bill. Further financial woe followed in 2019 when the hard-up celebrity was ordered to pay an outstanding American Express credit card debt of $88,246.55 (£70k).
Things haven't got much better in recent years. In 2023, Spelling was targeted by California tax authorities over $96,000 (£76k) in unpaid taxes. In the same year, she was reportedly living in an RV with her five children.
Her troubled marriage to McDermott appears to be coming to an end too. In March 2024, she filed for divorce and McDermott has since asked the star for spousal support.
One half of 1990s TV cookery sensation the Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright inherited $3.7 million (£2.9m) – which would be $21.6 million (£17.1m) in today's money – after her mother died of a heart attack in 1975.
A high-earning London barrister, Dickson Wright was flush with cash during the late 1970s.
Yet the sudden death of her mother, to whom she was especially close, followed by her father's passing not long after, plunged Dickson Wright into a deep depression, and she turned to alcohol, drinking two pints of gin a day at her lowest ebb.
Dickson Wright's spending went off the scale too, and she splashed huge amounts of money chartering yachts and private jets, staying in luxury hotels, and partying and gambling 24/7.
By the early 1980s, the money had completely dried up and Dickson Wright, who was barred from practising law in 1982, was effectively homeless.
After reinventing herself as a cook and going sober, the reformed alcoholic managed eventually to claw back some of her wealth thanks to her successful TV and writing career in the 1990s and 2000s.
Still, following Dickson Wright's death in 2014, a number of her personal items had to be sold to settle an outstanding tax bill.
The half-brother of model Lady Isabella Hervey and socialite Lady Victoria Hervey, John Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol, inherited a cool $6 million (£4.8m) by his 21st birthday in 1975, around $34.9 million (£27.7m) in today's money.
A flamboyant character, Hervey modelled himself on Oscar Wilde and embraced a suitably decadent lifestyle. His family seat was Ickworth (pictured) in Suffolk, England.
During his 20s, Hervey increased his fortune by investing successfully in oil, real estate, and farming, but an uncontrollable drug habit and propensity to spend eye-opening sums of money on partying, fast cars, and yachts led to his downfall.
The hard-living peer later confessed to spending $9 million (£7.1m) on cocaine and heroin in less than a decade. He was imprisoned twice for drug offences and even deported from Australia.
By the early 1990s, Hervey was virtually bankrupt.
Drowning in debt, the 7th Marquess offloaded heirlooms and sold the lease on the sprawling Ickworth estate to the National Trust, downsizing to Little Horringer Hall in 1998.
Pretty much penniless, Hervey died there a year later from drug-related organ failure at the age of 44.
Politician Maureen O'Connor was running for the San Diego City Council when she met her future husband Robert O. Peterson, the founder of the Jack in the Box fast food chain. The couple tied the knot in 1977.
In 1986, O'Connor was elected mayor of San Diego, the first woman to hold the position, and remained in office until 1992. When her husband died in 1994, O'Connor inherited an estimated $50 million (£39m) which translates to $105 million (£83.1m) in today's money.
O'Connor struggled to cope with the loss of her husband. The death of several close friends in the early 2000s tipped her over the edge and the former mayor began to indulge in what her lawyer describes as “grief gambling” on an epic scale.
O'Connor developed an all-encompassing addiction to video poker, which she also put down to a brain tumour that was diagnosed in 2011.
The compulsive gambler won a staggering $1 billion (£790m) from 2000 to 2008 but lost even more. In 2013, O'Connor was charged with money laundering after it was revealed she took $2.1 million (£1.7m) from her late husband's non-profit to cover some of her casino debts.
Sentencing was deferred on the condition she pay back the money, and the judgment reportedly left her destitute.
Dubbed the "Poor Little Rich Girl", Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton inherited a total of $50 million (£40m) by the time of her 21st birthday in 1933, the equivalent of $1.2 billion (£950m) in today's money.
Deeply insecure, the troubled heiress experienced a thoroughly unhappy childhood in spite of her riches. Hutton's mother died when she was very young, and her father, who is said to have worked every day of his life, was largely absent during her formative years.
Hutton dealt with her insecurities by spending money like there was no tomorrow on herself and her loved ones. The compulsive shopper splurged millions on jewellery, including museum-worthy pieces that used to belong to Marie Antoinette, exquisite artworks, haute couture, and more.
Unlucky in love, Hutton went through seven husbands, including two princes, a count and Hollywood star Cary Grant (the couple were nicknamed Cash 'n Cary), and had numerous affairs, all of which cost her dear.
When she died in 1979 at the age of 66, the unfortunate heiress was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
Heir to the A&P grocery store empire, Huntington Hartford II was spoiled rotten as a child, boasting a coterie of servants to cater to his every whim, and parents willing to buy him anything he wanted.
This overindulgence didn't bode well for the rich kid's future...
Upon his father's death in 1922, Hartford, who was just 11 years old, inherited $90 million (£71m), a whopping $1.7 billion (£1.4bn) in today's money.
The pampered scion went on to study at Harvard but despite the expensive Ivy League education, Hartford was far from intelligent with his finances.
The hapless heir pumped millions into a series of failed projects, from a money pit art gallery (pictured) and modelling agency to a disastrous resort project in the Bahamas that lost $30 million (£24m).
His love life was just as luckless with four marriages ending in costly divorces.
Hartford declared bankruptcy in 1992 and lived alone in a rundown rented house in Brooklyn before his daughter Juliet whisked him off to the Bahamas, where he passed away in 2008, leaving the world considerably poorer than when he had arrived.
Clint Murchison Jr. was bequeathed a bumper $200 million (£158m) when his oil tycoon father died in 1969. In 2024 money, that's the equivalent of around $1.7 billion (£1.4bn).
Murchison was all about having fun rather than making serious investments. In 1960, the Texan heir founded the Dallas Cowboys, steering the iconic NFL team through 20 consecutive winning seasons, bankrolled, of course, by his father's money.
As well as channelling millions into his football team, Murchison invested in oil, real estate, restaurants and even a pirate radio station. Many of Murchison's investments were ill-judged, and when the real estate market and oil prices collapsed in the 1980s, he was laden with debt.
Murchison (pictured here on the left), who was suffering from a rare nerve disease and confined to a wheelchair by this point, filed for bankruptcy protection in 1985, owing his creditors millions in what was one of America's largest personal bankruptcy cases.
He died two years later, having been forced to sell off assets including his beloved childhood home.
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