America’s richest women celebrities in the Rich List 2025 are facing a harsh reality – money isn’t flowing like it used to.
The golden era of celebrity-backed brands has slowed down, and even the most iconic pop stars and actresses are feeling the pinch. Except, of course, Taylor Swift, who continues to ride high on the massive success of her Eras Tour and proves once again she’s in a league of her own.
This year’s Forbes list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women has 16 celebrities among its top 100. To even make the cut in 2025, you’d need a net worth of at least $350 million, a noticeable bump from last year’s $300 million threshold. The combined net worth of these 16 stars? A whopping $14.1 billion. And a huge part of that increase is thanks to Selena Gomez, who enters the list at No. 48 with an estimated net worth of $700 million, thanks largely to the booming success of her beauty brand, Rare Beauty.
Gomez launched Rare Beauty in 2020, right when celebrity entrepreneurship was on fire. The brand pulled in $367 million in revenue by 2023. She’s not alone in cashing in during those peak years. Judge Judy Sheindlin struck gold by moving her courtroom series to Amazon Prime at the end of 2020. Rihanna raised $1 billion for her lingerie brand Savage x Fenty in 2021. Madonna landed a new money-making music deal that same year. And Reese Witherspoon hit the jackpot when she sold a majority stake in her production company, Hello Sunshine, for a reported $900 million in 2021.
But here’s where things start going south. Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, once hailed as the future of female-led content, is now reportedly worth less than a third of what she sold it for. A Bloomberg report claimed the company pulled in under $10 million in profit for 2023, a far cry from the projected $80 million. Hollywood insiders now look back at that 2021 sale as the peak of a short-lived celebrity production boom.
And it’s not just production deals that are taking a hit. The cosmetics industry, once a goldmine for celebrity fortunes, is now struggling. Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Selena Gomez all built empires through beauty, but a sluggish economy is dragging down their brands’ valuations. Forbes estimates Rihanna’s net worth fell nearly 30% in just one year, largely due to Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty leveling out in sales. Market analysts are warning that this downward pressure on valuations could continue throughout 2025.
Music catalogs aren’t safe either. Katy Perry, who cashed in with a $225 million deal in 2023 by selling stakes in her masters and publishing rights, got lucky with her timing. Experts now say that kind of deal would come with a 20–30% discount today. Perry is heading back on tour this summer, but it won’t bring in the kind of monster numbers she’s used to.
Even Beyoncé isn’t immune to the slump. Her net worth got a nice boost thanks to the Renaissance Tour in 2023, but early numbers from her current Cowboy Carter tour suggest weaker ticket sales and lower prices.
And then there’s Taylor Swift, No. 21 on the list and totally unbothered by the chaos around her. Her Eras Tour raked in a historic $2 billion between 2023 and 2024. Add in the revenue from a concert film and a best-selling tour memoir, and Swift walked away with an extra $300 million in just the past year. Her total net worth? A staggering $1.6 billion. While other stars’ fortunes are shrinking or stalling, Swift’s just keeps getting bigger.
The 2025 rankings are a loud wake-up call for celebrity entrepreneurs. The boom is over, and only the smartest and most strategic are surviving the slowdown. Some, like Selena Gomez, are still climbing, but others are watching the foundations of their fortune get shakier by the year.
What’s clear now is that celebrity doesn’t guarantee financial success forever. Trends fade, markets shift, and hype doesn’t always translate into lasting value. But for those like Swift who’ve figured out how to own their empire from top to bottom, this new era might be just the beginning.
Jamie Wells has a knack for getting the inside scoop on Hollywood’s biggest stars and up-and-coming talent. With a sharp eye for industry trends and an ear for viral moments, Jamie covers everything from red-carpet events to behind-the-scenes drama in movies, TV, and celebrity culture.
