Former Police frontman Sting says he won’t be leaving his six children an inheritance.
During an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, the 74-year-old singer laughed when he was asked if he planned to leave his children his estimated US$550-million fortune.
“All of my kids have been blessed with this extraordinary work ethic, whether it’s the DNA of it or whether I’ve said to them, ‘Guys, you got to work. I’m spending our money. I’m paying for your education. You’ve got shoes on your feet. Go to work,’” Sting told journalist Mark Phillips.
“That’s not cruel. I think there’s a kindness there and a trust that they will make their own way. They’re tough, my kids.”
He added: “I think the worst thing you can do to a kid is to say, ‘You don’t have to work.’ I think that’s a form of abuse that I hope I’m never guilty of.”
Phillips asked the Roxanne singer if his children ever show frustration with his philosophy and ask him for money.
“No, not to my face, they don’t,” he responded.
“The working class works and wants to work. I’m one of those people; I love to work.”
Sting shares two children with ex-wife actress Frances Tomelty: Joe Sumner, 49, and Fuschia Sumner, 44. He also shares four children with his wife, Trudie Styler: Mickey Sumner, 42, Jake Sumner, 40, Eliot Sumner, 35, and Giacomo Sumner, 30.
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During his interview, Sting was asked if it bugs him when fans shout out Roxanne or Message In A Bottle, two of the Police’s top hits.
“I’m delighted to sing Roxanne every night. My job is to sing a song I may have written 45 years ago with the same curiosity about it that I had the morning I wrote it,” Sting said.
This isn’t the first time Sting has spoken out about the possibility of not leaving his children his fortune.
In a 2014 interview with the Mail on Sunday, the Every Breathe You Take singer said, “I certainly don’t want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses round their necks.”
“They have to work. All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything, which I really respect and appreciate,” he added.
Sting said he’d be willing to intervene if any of his children were in trouble, but the situation has not arisen where he’s had to.
“Obviously, if they were in trouble I would help them, but I’ve never really had to do that,” he continued. “They have this work ethic that makes them want to succeed on their own merit. People make assumptions, that they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but they have not been given a lot.”
He also spoke about his six children in a 2020 interview with People, saying, “My kids are fiercely independent. They’re not sitting there waiting for a handout at all, and I wouldn’t want to rob them of that adventure in life: to make your own living.”
“It’s a wonderful and difficult thing to do,” Sting told the outlet at the time. “So I haven’t promised them anything. I’ll obviously help them if they’re in trouble, but they’re not waiting for a handout. They’re too independent.”
Sting joins a long list of celebrities who have shared their thoughts on leaving their children an inheritance.
In 2021, Anderson Cooper said he doesn’t “believe in passing on huge amounts of money” during an interview on Air Mail’s podcast, Morning Meeting.
“I don’t know what I’ll have. I’m not that interested in money, but I don’t intend to have some sort of pot of gold for my son,” he said. “I’ll go with what my parents said, which is, ‘College will be paid for, and then you gotta get on it.’”
“I grew up watching money being lost and knowing it was being lost,” he added. “From a very young age, I was very aware of, ‘This is not me. This is something my mom has’ or ‘This is money my mom has, but it’s not money I’m going to have and I need to forge my own way.’”
He also told Howard Stern in 2014 that he doesn’t “believe in inheriting money.”
“My mom’s made it clear to me that there’s no trust fund. There’s none of that…. I think it’s an initiative sucker,” Cooper said.
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has also been candid on the inheritance topic.
In 2021, he told finance podcast Earn Your Leisure that he doesn’t plan on any sort of financial handouts for his children.
“My kids are older now. They’re kind of upset with me. Not really upset, but they don’t understand. I tell them all the time, ‘We ain’t rich. I’m rich,’” O’Neal said.
“You gotta have bachelor’s or master’s [degrees], and then if you want me to invest in one of your companies, you’re going to have to present it, boom boom boom, bring it to me. I’ll let you know, I’m not giving you nothing.”
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