Scarlett Johansson reveals government handouts reliance for food
SHE'S a Hollywood star who commands million-pound pay cheques for her film appearances but Scarlett Johansson was once so impoverished she relied on state handouts for food.
WELFARE: Scarlett Johansson wants to send out a message about childhood hunger in America
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron actress, who recently made an appeal to end hunger in America, has spoken out for the first time about the extent to which she and her family struggled. "My family grew up relying on public assistance to help provide meals," says the 30-year-old, who has sevenmonth-old daughter Rose with art-curator husband Romain Dauriac.
"There are 16 million children struggling with hunger in America. That's one-in-five daughters, sons, neighbours and classmates who don't know where their next meal is coming from.''
Scarlett, who last year ranked 12th on the Forbes magazine list of top-earning stars, grew up on a housing project in Manhattan.
My father barely made enough to get by. We moved house every year and finally we settled in a housing development
Her Danish father Karsten, a struggling architect, and her producer mother Melanie found it a battle to pay rent as they raised Scarlett, her twin brother Hunter and siblings Vanessa and Adrian.
"My father barely made enough to get by. We moved house every year and finally we settled in a housing development," she said.
However Scarlett wasn't the only Johansson to see a dramatic change of fortune. Her siblings bought the family's once derelict three-bed apartment at a discount under a tenants' right-to-buy scheme and then sold it for millions thanks to New York's booming property market.