For most of us, living or staying in a haunted house is far from the ideal — and others don't even believe that such a thing actually exists. But in Hollywood, a surprising number of celebrities are totally open to the existence of the supernatural, and they're not afraid to talk about it.
Celebs have been sharing their ghost stories for years, and some of them (like Demi Lovato) have even made their own TV series out of it. Most recently, Vanessa Hudgens has admitted she believes she can communicate with the spirit world — and that's just scratching the surface of what stars have recounted about their brushes with the other side over the years.
Whether the supernatural is something you believe in or not, hearing our favorite celebrities share their ghost stories is fun. And in some cases, they even believe they're communicating with other famous people (though they died long ago).
Read on for celebs who claim to have had a supernatural encounter.
Lily Collins
When Lily Collins played Ted Bundy's ex-girlfriend in the movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, she said she felt she was visited by the ghosts of Ted's victims.
"I would go downstairs and have a cup of tea, trying to figure out why I had woken up again," she told The Guardian. "I started being woken up by flashes of images, like the aftermath of a struggle. I didn't feel scared — I felt supported. I felt like people were saying, 'We're here listening. We're here to support. Thank you for telling the story.'"
Vanessa Hudgens
During an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show in April 2022, Vanessa Hudgens said she has "accepted the fact that I see things and I hear things," even admitting that she uses something called a spirit box to communicate with the supernatural.
"I kind of shut it down for a while because it's scary," she said. "The unknown is scary. But recently I was like, 'No, this is a gift and something that I have the ability to do, so I'm going to lean into it.'"
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato believes in ghosts so much that they even have their own Peacock show, Unidentified With Demi Lovato, about communicating with them. In one episode, Demi sung to the ghosts when they found out that they were dealing with trauma, and the EMF detector they were using at the time gave a "standing ovation" — at least, according to Demi.
Octavia Spencer
During a December 2021 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Octavia Spencer revealed that she believes her house is haunted by a fellow actor.
"I grew up watching Westerns and I bought this house, and it was owned by a guy who did Westerns, so I must have been a fan of his," she said. "I think he is my protector. I love him because he kind of sorts out the bad people who shouldn't be there. He runs them out."
Kristen Stewart
Somehow, we're not too surprised that Kristen Stewart believes in ghosts — and attempts to communicate with them, as she told Vanity Fair in 2019.
"If I'm in a weird, small town making a movie, and I'm in a strange apartment, I will literally be like, 'No, please, I cannot deal. Anyone else, but it cannot be me.' Who knows what ghosts are, but there is an energy that I'm really sensitive to. Not just with ghosts, but with people. People stain rooms all the time."
Keanu Reeves
Going all the way back to 2014, Keanu Reeves told Jimmy Kimmel that he'd seen a ghost as a child.
"I was living in New Jersey when I saw and felt this ghost," he said. "I remember just staring at this suit, which had no body or legs in it as it came into the room before disappearing. It was a double-breasted suit in white, and I looked at my nanny, who was just as shocked as me. I just couldn't get back to sleep afterwards, and I still see the figure in my dreams."
Helena Bonham Carter
Princess Margaret may not have been alive to give Helena Bonham Carter her blessing before portraying her in The Crown, but the actress believes she found a way to communicate with her nonetheless — with the help of a psychic medium.
"She said, apparently, she was glad it was me. She said, 'You're better than the other actress' they were thinking of," she told The Guardian. "They will not admit who it was. It was me and somebody else. That made me think maybe she is here, because that is a classic Margaret thing to say. She was really good at complimenting you and putting you down at the same time."
Lady Gaga
Not only does Lady Gaga believe in ghosts, but she thinks they help her write her music — specifically, that the late designer Alexander McQueen helped her with "Born This Way."
"I think he planned the whole thing," she told Harper's Bazaar UK. "Right after he died [in 2010], I wrote 'Born This Way.' I think he's up in heaven with fashion strings in his hands, marionetting away, planning this whole thing."
Kendall Jenner
As Kendall Jenner told Vogue, she believes that she's witnessed ghosts at mom Kris Jenner's house — though there's no word on how Kris feels about that!
"In the house my mom lives in, Kylie and I would always hear footsteps on the roof while no one was home," Kendall said. "Kylie's shower used to turn on all the time, and we never knew why. So yeah, I'm convinced it was a ghost."
Kesha
Kesha has admitted to believing in the supernatural, and in an interview with Rolling Stone, she even said that she once underwent an exorcism of her own. "I know it sounds like the most ridiculous story, but I went to my healer … and she told me that because of my job, I exude energy," she said.
Gigi Hadid
Gigi Hadid once told Vogue that she believes her childhood home was haunted, and that she and sister Bella would even offer the ghost tea. "When we were kids, we lived in this really old house, and I was given the attic as my room," she said. "We used to hear this weird sound in the closet, and then we asked my dad, and he said this old lady used to live in the house."
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus believes that an apartment she stayed in while in London was haunted, with the shower being a particular hot spot of activity. According to what she told Elle UK, the temperature once turned to hot by itself while sister Noah was in there, and Miley herself once saw "a little boy sitting on the sink watching me take a shower so I felt really freaked out."
Ariana Grande
After Ariana Grande visited Stull Cemetery in Kansas (which she says is "known as one of the seven gates of hell to Earth"), she started getting very bad vibes.
"I felt this sick, overwhelming feeling of negativity over the whole car and we smelled sulfur, which is the sign of a demon, and there was a fly in the car randomly, which is another sign of a demon," she told Complex.
Matthew McConaughey
In 2015, Matthew McConaughey told ScreenSlam that he was haunted by the ghost of a woman named Madame Blu. He said: "She wasn't that happy. It didn't seem like she was going to be much fun to hang around or have in my house, so I went ahead and stood my ground. I opened the door and said, 'You can move around all you want, but I'm not going anywhere.'"
Chloë Sevigny
As she told Entertainment Weekly, when Chloë Sevigny spent the night at Lizzie Borden's house in Massachusetts, she definitely felt like spirits were there. "I kept hearing all these weird moaning and groaning noises, but there wasn't anybody else in the house," she recalled. "It was terrifying. It was pretty early, and [my then-boyfriend] was like, 'I have to leave.'"
Kate Hudson
Not only does Kate Hudson believe in spiritual encounters, but during an appearance on the Chatty Man show, she said she feels like she can communicate with spirits, too. "I believe in energy," she said. "I believe our brains can manifest into visual things. When you see something, you are supposed to tell the energy what year it is and that they don't belong there."
Emma Stone
The ghost Emma Stone sees isn't just anyone — as she told David Letterman in 2014, it's actually her grandfather, who she was never able to meet while he was alive. She said: "There's a long family history with quarters. My grandfather leaves quarters. It's him. It's absolutely him."
