13 Celebrities Who Have Had Eerie Paranormal Encounters

Whether it's their charm, flair for the dramatic, or extravagant lifestyles, we simply can’t get enough celebrity gossip. It seems the living aren't the only ones drawn larger-than-life personas.

By: Maggie Miller

Related To:

Shop This Look

Photo By: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic via Getty Images

Photo By: Kristy Sparow/Getty Images

Photo By: Douglas Miller/Getty Images

Photo By: Trae Patton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Photo By: David Benett/Getty Images

Photo By: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Photo By: Robin Marchant/Getty Images

Photo By: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic via Getty Images

Photo By: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Photo By: Jacopo Raule/Getty Images

Photo By: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Photo By: Noam Galai/Getty Images

Holly Madison

The Girls Next Door star Holly Madison is no stranger to the paranormal. When @gothicparainvestigator asked in a now-deleted TikTok comment if she owned anything haunted, Holly responded with an emphatic, “Yes, a house!” Madison says she’s had multiple strange encounters in her home. Most recently, when she told her boyfriend there’d been a lot of activity in the house he began egging on the spirit to “mess with Holly”. Right after the phone call, she found a mysterious greeting scrawled into her kitchen counter.

In a later video, she recounted her first encounter with a ghost at the Playboy Mansion, teasing that she’s got more to share on her guest episode of the podcast Ghost Magnet with Bridget Marquardt, who also conducted a séance in her home for a TMZ Halloween special.

This season on Ghost Adventures, the team investigates Madison’s house to get to the bottom of these strange occurrences.

Kristen Stewart

Stewart has dabbled both on and off-screen with the paranormal. In a 2019 interview for the September issue of Vanity Fair, she mused, “Who knows what ghosts are, but there is an energy that I’m really sensitive to. Not just with ghosts, but with people. People stain rooms all the time.” Connecting to her role as a medium in the 2016 film Personal Shopper, Stewart said if she picks up on something strange on set or in an apartment, she’ll talk to the entities. “I will literally be like, ‘No, please, I cannot deal. Anyone else, but it cannot be me.’”

Megan Fox

In a 2014 interview with MTV, Fox confirmed that she’s open to the possibility of bigfoot, absolutely believes in aliens, and has heard ghosts. She described an experience in Mexico City, during which both she and her Nanny heard what they presumed to be room service enter the adjacent living area and pour coffee. When they entered the room there was no evidence that anyone had been there, and thirty minutes later they were both startled when the actual room service knocked on their door.

Join Fox as she delves deeper into some of the world’s biggest unsolved mysteries on Legends of the Lost.

Cher

Powerhouse singer Cher revealed that she believes she is visited by her late husband and business partner Sonny Bono. During a Reddit Q&A, she explained to fans, “I actually think that Sonny makes a light go on.” She went on to tell TMZ, “It’s a totally peaceful thing”. Cher believes it can only be Sonny flipping the switch, not some lingering specter, because she is the one who built the house.

Howie Mandel

“I was not a believer in the paranormal. Though sometimes things happen to you or you experience something, and you look at every possible other avenue. You use words like "coincidence" or "figment of my imagination". But as those boxes are checked off the list...I don't have any other answer for what my experience was.” Mandel’s home was harassed by a presence that appeared as a bearded man. First, the family’s Au Pair was targeted, then his daughter. The events were traumatic enough that Mandel eventually ended up selling the home.

The TV host and judge shared his own metaphysical experiences on the series premiere of Famously Afraid.

Helena Bonham Carter

Carter is known for the extensive research and charisma she brings to each of her roles. For her portrayal of The Crown’s Princess Margaret that included reading every biography, interviewing friends and family, and consulting with a psychic. In an interview with The Guardian, Carter revealed that she had reached out to the Princess, who passed away in 2002, through a medium to ask for her blessing. “So I asked her: ‘Are you OK with me playing you?’ and she said: ‘You’re better than the other actress’” Margaret did have a few pointers for Carter, “...she said: ‘But you’re going to have to brush up and be more groomed and neater.’ In parting the princess, a lifelong smoker, made a point to emphasize the conversational utility of a cigarette holder.

Jessica Alba

"There was definitely something in my parents' old house - I don't know what it was. I can't really explain it,” Alba told The Sydney Morning Herald in a 2008 interview. Alba says when she was 17 she woke up immobilized, feeling pressure on her bed. Whatever was there pulled the covers from her bed, sending her heading straight for the door. “I screamed, ran to my parent’s room and I don't think I spent many nights in that house ever again!”

Ariana Grande

In the summer of 2013 Grande visited Kansas City’s Stull Cemetery, known as one of the “gates of hell”. She told US Weekly "I felt this sick, overwhelming feeling of negativity over the whole car and we smelled sulfur, which is the sign of a demon… I was like, 'This is scary, let’s leave.’ The singer says she snapped a photo that captured three faces of “textbook demons”. Following the incident, a number of strange occurrences including “loud rumbles”, whispers, and shadowy figures inspired her to delete the photo.

Keanu Reeves

As a child of 6 or 7, Reaves had a spectral encounter worthy of The Matrix. “There was a doorway and all of a sudden this jacket comes waving through the doorway, this empty jacket — there's no body, there's no legs, it's just there. And then it disappears.". Retelling the event on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Reeves said his Nanny’s shocked expression confirmed he’d really seen the bizarre apparition.

Miley Cyrus

During a European tour, singer and actress Miley Cyrus decided to rent a house in London with her family. They didn’t stay long. Cyrus reported to Elle UK that she, her mother, sister, and fiance Liam Hemsworth all had paranormal encounters at the apartment. During one incident, something increased the water temperature while her sister was taking a shower, scalding her. Cyrus said prior to that incident “...I thought I had seen a little boy sitting on the sink watching me take a shower so I felt really freaked out. I was sitting there the next night and maybe I’m crazy, but I could have sworn I could see this little boy sitting there on the sink, kicking his feet.” The family quickly relocated to a SoHo hotel.

Gigi Hadid

A bedroom in the attic of an old house sounds like the perfect setup for a horror flick, but that was Gigi Hadid’s reality as a child. She told Vogue that she and her sister would hear strange noises in the closet. When they brought their concerns to her father he informed them that the home had previously been owned by an older woman. Taking it in stride, the girls made friends with the spirit, “...we would talk to her. We'd be like, 'Girl, we'll bring you some tea.'"

Emma Stone

“I’ve had a few”, Emma Stone responded when David Letterman asked if she’d had any unexplainable metaphysical experiences. She went on to explain that she’s had objects materialize out of thin air. “My grandfather leaves quarters. It's him. It's absolutely him." Despite Letterman’s skepticism, Stone is resolute in her belief. "It's not a logical thing, it's magical."

Matthew McConaughey

Ironically, during a press release for his film Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, McConaughey revealed that his home was host to an entity called Madame Bleu. “She wasn't that happy, it didn't seem like she was going to be much fun to hang around or have in my house, so I went ahead and stood my ground. I opened the door and said 'You can move around all you want but I'm not going anywhere.'” He said visitors to the house would inevitably come up to alert him that there was someone standing in the hallway. However, things eventually calmed down in the Hollywood home, and now his guests are invariably in love with Madame Bleu’s room.