Best Celebrity Memoirs of 2021: Hannah Brown, Katie Couric, Will Smith and More

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Best Celebrity Memoirs of 2021: Hannah Brown, Katie Couric, Will Smith and More

Bombshells for days. Hannah Brown, Will Smith, Katie Couric and more celebrities wrote memoirs in 2021 — and they weren't afraid to share some of their deepest truths. The former Bachelorette opened up about her time on the dating show in November's God Bless This Mess: Learning to Live and Love Through Life’s Best (and Worst) Moments, but she also wrote about family tragedy and her childhood. “My life has been shared very openly [and] vulnerably through a lens of a television show. It’s always been for entertainment,” the former Miss Alabama exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the book’s release. “And while a lot of that was my real life, there’s a lot of parts that fall through the cracks [and] that are filtered out. Instead of it being told through a funnel of other people, I really wanted to take the time and be able to share my story my way and the most authentic way.” In the book, the Bachelor Nation alum revealed that her aunt LeeLee and two young cousins were brutally murdered when Brown was just 6 years old. The Alabama native decided to share the tragedy after speaking to a therapist who suggested that writing about the incident would help her process it. [jwplayer 5zTgJtnd-zhNYySv2] "It was kind of, like, an assignment she gave me," Brown explained to Us. "That was really hard because there was obviously a lot of emotions there. But on the other side of that, it was really healing." Earlier in the year, Couric detailed the aftermath of her former colleague Matt Lauer's firing from the Today show in November 2017. “I know Matt thinks I betrayed him, and that makes me sad,” she wrote in her October memoir, Going There. “But he betrayed me too by how he behaved behind closed doors at the show we both cared about so much.” While promoting the book, the Virginia native said that she and the disgraced anchor have "no relationship" anymore. “The side of Matt I knew was the side of Matt I think you all knew. He was kind, generous, considerate, a good colleague,” she recalled during an appearance on the Today show. "I think what I realized is that there was a side of Matt I never really knew. I tried to understand why he behaved the way he did, and why he was so reckless, and callous, and honestly abusive to other women.” Keep scrolling for a look back at the best celebrity memoirs of 2021: [podcast_block]

Credit: Broadimage/Shutterstock; Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Best Celebrity Memoirs of 2021: Hannah Brown, Katie Couric, Will Smith and More

Bombshells for days. Hannah Brown, Will Smith, Katie Couric and more celebrities wrote memoirs in 2021 — and they weren't afraid to share some of their deepest truths. The former Bachelorette opened up about her time on the dating show in November's God Bless This Mess: Learning to Live and Love Through Life’s Best (and Worst) Moments, but she also wrote about family tragedy and her childhood. “My life has been shared very openly [and] vulnerably through a lens of a television show. It’s always been for entertainment,” the former Miss Alabama exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the book’s release. “And while a lot of that was my real life, there’s a lot of parts that fall through the cracks [and] that are filtered out. Instead of it being told through a funnel of other people, I really wanted to take the time and be able to share my story my way and the most authentic way.” In the book, the Bachelor Nation alum revealed that her aunt LeeLee and two young cousins were brutally murdered when Brown was just 6 years old. The Alabama native decided to share the tragedy after speaking to a therapist who suggested that writing about the incident would help her process it. [jwplayer 5zTgJtnd-zhNYySv2] "It was kind of, like, an assignment she gave me," Brown explained to Us. "That was really hard because there was obviously a lot of emotions there. But on the other side of that, it was really healing." Earlier in the year, Couric detailed the aftermath of her former colleague Matt Lauer's firing from the Today show in November 2017. “I know Matt thinks I betrayed him, and that makes me sad,” she wrote in her October memoir, Going There. “But he betrayed me too by how he behaved behind closed doors at the show we both cared about so much.” While promoting the book, the Virginia native said that she and the disgraced anchor have "no relationship" anymore. “The side of Matt I knew was the side of Matt I think you all knew. He was kind, generous, considerate, a good colleague,” she recalled during an appearance on the Today show. "I think what I realized is that there was a side of Matt I never really knew. I tried to understand why he behaved the way he did, and why he was so reckless, and callous, and honestly abusive to other women.” Keep scrolling for a look back at the best celebrity memoirs of 2021: [podcast_block]

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Hannah Brown, 'God Bless This Mess'

Among the many Bachelor-related revelations in Brown's book was her claim that she and Peter Weber secretly slept together in February 2020 while his season of The Bachelor was airing. The pilot later confirmed the hookup, saying that it happened after an engagement party for Dylan Barbour and Hannah Godwin.

“We spent the night with each other, and that was it,” he said during a November episode of his "Bachelors in the City" podcast. “That was the last time that I saw her physically,” he noted.

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Tyler Cameron, 'You Deserve Better'

In July, the Bachelorette alum released his memoir, You Deserve Better: What Life Has Taught Me About Love, Relationships, and Becoming Your Best Self. The model revealed that he lost his virginity to his first girlfriend during his freshman year of high school.

"Once I found out what sex was — once I discovered for myself that it was fun — I wanted to do it all the time. Hooking up was a huge thing at my high school,” he wrote. “Without parents teaching us something different, we didn’t know better; we saw these things modeled on TV or in movies, and we thought that was just what you did. For a long time, I thought that was what being a boy was all about."

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Emily Ratajkowski, 'My Body'

In her November book of essays, the supermodel claimed that Robin Thicke groped her during the shoot for his 2013 "Blurred Lines" music video. (The Masked Singer judge has not publicly commented on the allegations.)

"I didn’t react — not really, not like I should have," she wrote of the alleged incident. "Neither did any of the other women. Despite how many of us were there and how safe I’d felt in their presence, we were in no position to hold Robin Thicke accountable on the set of his music video. We were working for him, after all. We paused awkwardly, and then we continued shooting."

In other chapters of the book, Ratajkowski explained how the "Blurred Lines" video changed her career despite what happened on set and detailed how her role in the film Gone Girl became a mixed blessing.

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Sharon Stone, 'The Beauty of Living Twice'

The Oscar nominee shared plenty of tidbits from her Hollywood career in her March memoir, claiming that she paid Leonardo DiCaprio's salary for 1995's The Quick and the Dead because the studio didn't want to hire him. Writing about her infamous leg-crossing scene in 1992's Basic Instinct, the actress said that she slapped director Paul Verhoeven "across the face" after she saw it for the first time. "I thought and thought and I chose to allow this scene in the film," she added. "Why? Because it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it."

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Will Smith, 'Will'

Cowritten with Mark Manson, the Ali actor's November memoir detailed, among other things, his marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith. The "Summertime" singer revealed that his wife initially wasn't thrilled about the idea of marriage before their December 1997 nuptials.

"Jada had no illusion that love and family would be an easy endeavor; that was another reason she hated traditional wedding ceremonies," he wrote. "She thought that the fluffiness and the pageantry of a classing wedding ceremony was flawed symbolism and give a false sense of the true gravity of the undertaking."

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Katie Couric, 'Going There'

In addition to sharing details from her professional life, Couric wrote candidly about her first marriage to Jay Monahan in Going There. After she became a permanent coanchor on Today in 1991, she said that the gig "took up residence in [her] marriage like an overbearing houseguest.” After the couple welcomed daughters Ellie and Carrie in July 1991 and January 1996, respectively, the attorney died of colorectal cancer in January 1998 at age 42.

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Cicely Tyson, 'Just as I Am'

Released just two days before Tyson's death in January at age 96, Just as I Am included stories from the icon's early days in Hollywood and anecdotes from her brief, tumultuous marriage to Miles Davis. In one chapter, the Emmy winner revealed that she once hung up on former President Barack Obama, believing his phone call to be from someone attempting to prank her. (He was calling to tell her that she would be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.)

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Dorinda Medley, 'Make It Nice'

In her August book, the Real Housewives of New York City alum wrote about her childhood in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, her marriages and her early days in NYC. She didn't, however, delve too much into the drama of her time on RHONY. "I didn't want the book to be about that," she told Entertainment Weekly ahead of the memoir's release. "I think, in that process, you have to be willing to let it play its way out, and I didn't want the book to become my side of my story. I wanted it to be my overall experience on the show."

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Margaret Josephs, 'Caviar Dreams, Tuna Fish Budget'

The Real Housewives of New Jersey star released her first book, Caviar Dreams, Tuna Fish Budget: How to Survive in Business and Life, in April. In the memoir, the Bravo personality revealed that she had an affair with Foreigner lead singer Kelly Hansen before her 2013 divorce from Jan Josephs. “He’ll find out about it for the first time,” she told Us of her ex, whom she wed in 1994. “It happened so long ago. … He’s not going to care.”

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Lala Kent, 'Give Them Lala'

Months before her split from ex-fiancé Randall Emmett, the Vanderpump Rules star dished on the former couple's relationship in her May memoir. "I was shook by how attracted I was to him because he was so different from the guys I had dated in the past,” she wrote. “There was something about him that felt intriguing."

In another chapter, the podcast host revealed that she had an abortion when she was 22 years old. "I couldn’t even bring myself to say the word. I’d always felt weird saying it,” she recalled. "I’d had no sedation or anesthesia, and was fully aware of what was happening. Tears streamed down my face from the pain.”

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Gabrielle Union, 'You Got Anything Stronger?'

The Bring It On star's September memoir explored the moment she found out her husband, Dwyane Wade, fathered a child with another woman during a break in their relationship. "It should go without saying that we were not in a good place at the time that child was conceived,” she recalled. “But we were doing much better when he finally told me about the pregnancy. To say I was devastated is to pick a word on a low shelf for convenience. … I have not had words, and even after untold amounts of therapy I am not sure I have them now.”

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Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo, 'The Hope We Hold'

In their May book, The Hope We Hold: Finding Peace in the Promises of God, the Vuolos revealed that Jinger's dad, Jim Bob Duggar, worried that Jeremy's past career as a soccer player would affect his faith. “I did not see that coming,” the Pennsylvania native wrote. “If anything was a stumbling block, I’d thought it would be my past. I drank and partied in college. I’d been arrested. I could understand parents looking at those issues as red flags. It had never occurred to me that my theology would be the issue.”