After years of booming entrepreneurship, the market is softening for celebrity-backed companies. But eye-watering earnings continue to roll in for the biggest female movie, TV and pop stars in the country.
In business, timing is everything—even for the rich and famous. The boom time for celebrity entrepreneurship took off like a rocket around the end of 2020, and the pop stars, actors and talk show hosts who best took advantage minted fortunes in the hundreds of millions, even billions in a few cases, by putting their name on everything from cosmetics brands to TV and movie production companies. But now they, like many others, are feeling the effects of a cooling economy.
On Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women this year, 16 celebrities rank among the 100 entrepreneurs, executives and entertainers. In order to make the cut, candidates had to be worth at least $350 million—up from $300 million last year and $225 million in 2023.
These stars of the stage and screen are collectively worth $14.1 billion, up from $13.3 billion last year—thanks to the addition of actress Selena Gomez (No. 48), who isn’t yet a billionaire but whose estimated $700 million net worth makes up almost the entirety of that difference. Most of the other 15 stars’ fortunes are little changed from a year ago.
Gomez launched her cosmetics company Rare Beauty at the start of the celebrity business boom, in September 2020, and it disclosed $367 million in revenue by 2023. Similarly, Judy Sheindlin (No. 61) signed a mega deal in late 2020 to move her eponymous TV arbitration show to Amazon Prime; pop star Rihanna (No. 35) raised money for her Savage x Fenty lingerie brand at a $1 billion valuation in early 2021; Madonna (No. 42) signed a lucrative new deal with Warner Music that summer; and, perhaps most notably, movie star Reese Witherspoon (No. 82) sold a majority stake in her production company Hello Sunshine in August 2021 at a reported $900 million valuation.
The Hello Sunshine sale is now referenced regularly throughout Hollywood as the peak of a celebrity production bubble. At the time of the acquisition by Blackstone-backed Candle Media, the company projected $80 million in profit by 2023. But according to an October 2023 report in Bloomberg, it produced less than $10 million that year, and the pace of new productions has only continued to slow in the two years since. As of 2025, Forbes estimates Hello Sunshine is worth less than a third of its sale price. (A representative for Witherspoon disagreed with Forbes, but offered no guidance.)
Markets have similarly cooled in the cosmetics space, the industry behind several women on the list, including Gomez, Rihanna, Kardashian and her half-sister Kylie Jenner (No. 52). Forbes estimates Rihanna’s net worth dropped nearly 30% in the past year, due to estimates of flat sales at Fenty Beauty and lingerie brand Savage X Fenty. “The market condition right now is exerting a sort of downward pressure on valuation,” Morningstar analyst Dan Su told Forbes in early May, referring to cosmetics firms.
The same goes for music catalogs. Katy Perry (No. 97) sold stakes in her master recordings and publishing rights in 2023 for an estimated $225 million, but a similar artist trying to do the same deal today would expect a 20% to 30% discount, analysts tell Forbes.
Perry is headed back out on tour this summer, as is Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (No. 45), who saw a massive jump in her net worth during her blockbuster Renaissance tour in 2023 but has already seen lower ticket prices and sales during early stops of her Cowboy Carter tour.
The big outlier to this trend is Taylor Swift (No. 21), whose wealth increased by $300 million in the past year to $1.6 billion, according to Forbes estimates. Her signature Eras Tour started in 2023 and ended in December 2024, grossing a record-breaking $2 billion and generating earnings in a variety of ways, including ticket sales, a blockbuster movie and a book about the tour, a phenomenon that made her immune to the trend that hit other celebrities.
Here are the celebrities on Forbes’ 2025 Self-Made Women list
Net worths are as of May 2, 2025
Tom Williams/Getty-Images
Oprah Winfrey
Net worth: $3.1 billion | Source: TV shows | Age: 71 | Change in net worth since 2024 list: +3%
Her eponymous talk show has been off the air nearly 15 years, but Winfrey remains a consistent presence on our TV screens, appearing in the Netflix movie The Six Triple Eight and hosting three TV specials in the past year. She also dropped a reported $75 million on a new private jet last year and maintains significant real estate holdings in Hawaii. WeightWatchers, whose board she left in May 2024, filed for bankruptcy this May.
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Kim Kardashian
Net worth: $1.7 billion | Source: Shapewear, skin care | Age: 44 | Change: Even
In February, Kardashian’s nearly $900 million (estimated sales) shapewear business Skims introduced NikeSkims, a new brand with the athletic shoe and apparel giant; product is expected to hit shelves in the coming months. Beauty company Coty divested its 20% stake in Kardashian’s skin care line SKKN by Kim in March, recording a $71 million loss as a result of the divestiture.
Emma McIntyre/TAS24
Taylor Swift
Net worth: $1.6 billion | Source: Music | Age: 35 | Change: +23%
After 149 concerts in 54 cities, her Eras Tour wrapped in December as the most successful tour in music history—grossing over $2 billion in ticket sales, double the previous record. The biggest star in the world has found numerous ways to monetize her devout fandom apart from ticket sales, including movies, books and rerecordings of her albums, all of which earned her more than $200 million in the past two years.
In late May, she bought back the master recordings of her first six albums from private equity firm Shamrock Capital, giving her total ownership over her entire catalog for the first time. In a letter posted to her website, she called it “my greatest dream come true.”
Rihanna
Net worth: $1 billion | Source: Music, cosmetics | Age: 37 | Change: -29%
The pop star’s fortune fell by $400 million amid setbacks at her key businesses. The CEO of her lingerie brand Savage X Fenty quit in August 2024 to take over Victoria’s Secret. Sales are estimated to be flat at her cosmetics line Fenty Beauty, which she coowns with luxury conglomerate LVMH. Fenty Beauty launched in China last year amid what LVMH called a “challenging environment.” In more celebratory news, Rihanna revealed she was pregnant with her third child at the Met Gala in May.
Madonna
Net worth: $850 million | Source: Music | Age: 66 | Change: Even
She’s more than 40 years into her career and isn’t done yet. She revealed on social media this past December that she has been in the studio: “Who wants to hear new music in 2025!” That tease comes on the heels of wrapping up her Celebration Tour last May, grossing nearly $230 million, her sixth to gross more than $100 million since 2001.
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
Net worth: $780 million | Source: Music | Age: 43 | Change: +4%
In late April, the pop star kicked off her Cowboy Carter Tour, which will include 32 stadium shows in nine cities across the United States and Europe this summer. Talks of a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas broke down last year, and tensions with the venue’s owner, James Dolan, escalated this spring when a CGI video of Beyoncé picking up the Sphere was shown at her first several concerts, prompting Dolan to send her a cease-and-desist letter.
Lionel Hahn/Getty Images
Selena Gomez
Net worth: $700 million | Source: Cosmetics | Age: 32 | Change: Newcomer
Five years ago, Gomez launched Rare Beauty, naming it after her third solo studio album. The cosmetics company, known for its punchy liquid blushes and sold through its website and Sephora, brought in roughly $370 million in revenue last year. Forbes estimates that it’s worth $1.3 billion and that she owns at least 51%. The former Disney Channel star reportedly earns $600,000 per episode (40 so far) as an actress in and co-producer of the hit show Only Murders in the Building. She was nominated in December for a best supporting actress Golden Globe for the movie Emilia Pérez. In March Gomez released a new album with her fiancé, producer Benny Blanco.
Kylie Jenner
Net worth: $670 million | Source: Cosmetics | Age: 27 | Change: -6%
Though Coty sold its stake in the skin care line of her half-sister, Kim Kardashian (No. 20), it’s happy with Kylie Cosmetics, citing its successful global expansion into new markets including India and Singapore. Jenner’s new Cosmic fragrance also appears to be boosting sales. Though a bright spot for Coty, valuations of beauty stocks are largely down, and Coty’s stock has tumbled 50% since last year. The youngest of Kris Jenner’s children, Kylie separately debuted a canned vodka soda called Sprinter last year.
Judy Sheindlin
Net worth: $580 million | Source: Television shows | Age: 82 | Change: +4%
Last January, the TV arbiter best known as Judge Judy re-upped her deal with Amazon and still produces an impressive 120 episodes per year of Judy Justice, which not only stream online but also get syndicated to 100 television stations. She has properties in Florida, California, Rhode Island and New York, where she’s currently selling a penthouse apartment for nearly $10 million.
Celine Dion
Net worth: $570 million | Source: Music | Age: 57 | Change: +4%
Dion took an extended break from performing her signature power ballads after revealing in 2022 that she’d been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, an incurable autoimmune condition. A documentary about her disorder, I Am: Celine Dion, was released in June on Amazon Prime Video. The star amazed the world in July when she returned to sing one song at the Paris Olympics.
Barbra Streisand
Net worth: $510 million | Source: Music | Age: 83 | Change: +11%
The vocal powerhouse has a new album of duets coming out in June featuring Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande. She owns a $127 million home in Malibu that was threatened by January’s wildfires but survived.
Ellen Degeneres
Net worth: $450 million | Source: Television shows | Age: 67 | Change: Even
After the 2024 presidential election, the former talk show host went on a selling spree of her enormous U.S. real estate portfolio and reportedly moved to the U.K. with her wife, actress Portia de Rossi. She sold her largest property, a 10-acre mansion near Santa Barbara, California, for a reported $96 million to mining billionaire Robert Friedland.
Dolly Parton
Net worth: $450 million | Source: Music, investments | Age: 79 | Change: Even
Her husband of almost 60 years, Carl Dean, died in March. The famously private Dean had spent decades supporting Parton quietly while staying out of the public eye. On Valentine’s Day, the iconic songstress and Sabrina Carpenter released their Billboard-charting rendition of Carpenter’s “Please, Please Please.” In 2024, she collaborated with Beyoncé on another hit, “Tyrant.”
Reese Witherspoon
Net worth: $440 million | Source: Entertainment | Age: 49 | Change: Even
Witherspoon sold a majority of her production company, Hello Sunshine, in 2021, at the peak of what turned out to be a bubble for celebrity-backed content houses. It’s now worth less than a third of its $900 million sale valuation. Still, the actress remains in demand. She starred in You’re Cordially Invited, a romantic comedy for Amazon Prime Video released in January, and will return for the fourth season of The Morning Show on AppleTV+ later this year. She is also the executive producer of Legally Blonde prequel Elle, now in production.
Katy Perry
Net worth: $360 million | Source: Music | Age: 40 | Change: +3%
Perry’s latest album, 143, was panned by critics upon its release last September. In April, she was mocked for participating in an all-female Blue Origin trip to space and announcing at the time that she would “put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.” Undeterred, the pop star began her Lifetimes Tour days after returning to Earth and will spend the next eight months on the road. She sold the rights to her music catalog in 2023 for a reported $225 million.
Serena Williams
Net worth: $350 million | Source: Tennis, investments | Age: 43 | Change: +3%
The newly inducted U.S. Olympic Hall of Famer, who retired from tennis in 2022, has stayed active. Her Nine Two Six Productions released a docuseries on ESPN last July highlighting her legendary playing career. This year she collaborated with children’s clothing brand Janie and Jack, and joined the ownership group of the Toronto Tempo, a WNBA expansion franchise, set to begin play next summer.
