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Leighton Meester rose to fame for the favored teen drama ‘Gossip Lady.’ Earlier than her large break, nevertheless, she had a tough upbringing. Discover out all about her mother, Constance Meester, and her troublesome previous.
Regardless of all of Leighton Meester‘s nice profession and private success in life, dwelling wasn’t all the time straightforward for the Texas native. Right here we breakdown all the things to know concerning the Gossip Girl star’s mom, Constance Meester, and the way her tussles with the regulation result in a hard relationship together with her daughter.
Constance Meester had a troubled historical past
Earlier than having Leighton, Constance helped her boyfriend on the time, Douglas Jay Meester (Leighton’s father), smuggle marijuana from Jamaica to the U.S. through a drug ring. These actions later landed her in jail, together with Douglas, and Leighton’s maternal aunt and grandfather.
Leighton was born on April 9, 1986 in Fort Price, Texas, and Constance was in a position to give delivery in a hospital outdoors of jail and nurse her child for just a few months in a midway home earlier than giving up Leighton to stay together with her paternal grandparents. Constance was launched 16 months later, whereas Leighton’s aunt Judy turned the primary girl underneath U.S. Marshal’s 15 most needed after she escaped from jail.
Even together with her very completely different childhood, Leighton nonetheless had a considerably regular upbringing in Marco Island, Florida, collaborating in productions on the native playhouse. “She’s very gifted, she’s very gifted, she’s very clever,” Constance stated of her daughter in an early Us Weekly profile in 2008, per New York journal. “I really like her dearly.” She added, “Something that her mom and I did that was questionable occurred earlier than she was born.”
A mother-daughter feud & authorized battle
As Leighton rose to Gossip Lady fame and expanded her orbit into music, she had been reportedly sending her mom $7,500 a month. Leighton then alleged her mother truly spent the cash on “cosmetic surgery, botox, and hair extensions,” per TMZ in 2011.
After Leighton lower her off, Constance claimed that they had an oral contract the place Leighton agreed to pay her $10,000 a month for all times and threatened to sue. Leighton then fought back with a lawsuit of her own. In June 2012, a decide dominated there was no current contract, telling Leighton she wasn’t required to pay her mother one other dime.
It was additionally reported by Day by day Mail on the time that Leighton wanted to get custody of her younger brother, Lex, resulting from his critical well being points. It appeared that Lex didn’t transfer out of his mother’s house on the time. Constance did report back to InTouch in 2014, “I solely have $26 left. If one thing doesn’t occur quickly, we’ll be homeless by the vacations.”
She continued within the profile, “The opposite evening I used to be homeless shelters, and Lex confirmed me pictures he’d discovered of 1,000,000 greenback home she purchased in LA and stated, ‘Mother, how can she do that to us?’ ”
Constance additionally made accusations of assault, submitting a $3 million countersuit to try to procure the cash she believed she was owed by the actress. She additionally made accusations of assault, alleging Leighton repeatedly hit her with a bottle in Dec. 2010, saying the battle escalated to such an prolong Leighton’s brother Lex needed to pull them other than one another. Constance in the end dropped the countersuit in late 2011.
The place they stand now
Though Leighton nor Constance haven’t spoken out explicitly about their relationship because the countersuit was dropped, Leighton has expressed some grievances to the press concerning the traumatic moments she confronted in her familial upbringing, though leaned towards some sense of forgiveness.
“I feel it simply makes me respect the issues that I’ve now,” the star as soon as advised US Weekly throughout an interview, through Fox News. “My household has a loopy historical past. In all probability the craziest I’ve ever heard of,” she confessed. “I look again now and I see it in a pleasant mild. It wasn’t uncomplicated, however I performed outdoors, I went to the seashore. There have been completely happy, enjoyable instances.”