{"id":2401057,"date":"2026-05-04T07:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T07:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2401057"},"modified":"2026-05-04T07:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T07:05:12","slug":"parent-trap-star-hayley-mills-lost-her-disney-fortune-to-the-tax-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/parent-trap-star-hayley-mills-lost-her-disney-fortune-to-the-tax-man\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Parent Trap\u2019 star Hayley Mills lost her Disney fortune to \u2018the tax man\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft wp-block-nypost-editor-partner-article-links\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Hayley Mills skyrocketed to fame as a child star under Walt Disney\u2019s wing for seven years \u2014 only to see her once-promising fortune slip away.<\/p>\n<p>The actress, whose most memorable roles included \u201cPollyanna\u201d and \u201cThe Parent Trap,\u201d recently appeared alongside her sister, Juliet Mills, on\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CaUFKk3hq7o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cThe Rosebud Podcast.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0The appearance celebrated Mills\u2019 80th birthday.<\/p>\n<p>When host Gyles Brandreth pressed Mills on what became of \u201cthe millions\u201d she earned <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/09\/02\/hayley-mills-isnt-holding-back-details-in-her-new-memoir\/\">during her Disney years<\/a>, she replied, \u201cI gave it to the tax man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was rather a big chunk,\u201d she admitted. \u201cIt was most of it because it was all put into a trust fund, because super tax was 90% in those days, so they had to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do know the background of this, and it\u2019s partly because you were poorly advised,\u201d said Brandreth. \u201cBut also, it was partly to do with the na\u00efvet\u00e9 of your father, I think. There was an innocence about him and a sort of optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Hayley Mills poses at her home in West London on August 25, 2021 to promote her memoir \u201cForever Young.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Joel C Ryan\/Invision\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHe had a business manager who made those sorts of decisions,\u201d Juliet, 84, chimed in.<\/p>\n<p>The Mills sisters come from a celebrated British acting family. Their father, Sir John Mills, was one of Britain\u2019s most respected actors and had a career that spanned decades. Their mother, Mary Hayley Bell, was also an actress and a playwright.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStanley [Passmore] also advised Daddy, and not very well,\u201d said Mills, referring to the family\u2019s solicitor.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Hayley Mills stars as Pollyanna Whittier, March 8, 1975. <span class=\"credit\">NBC Photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe trust company was set up for me. Stanley was also involved in setting up a trust company for\u00a0[actor] Jack Hawkins. And the Inland Revenue attacked his trust company, which affected British law. It created the precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so, when I reached 21, instead of being given the key to the door, I was handed an envelope across a green baize tablecloth by Stanley, which was the Inland Revenue basically saying, \u2018Thank you. You owe us 90% of your earnings,\u2019\u201d Mills continued. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve never been good at figures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018Well, what does this mean? I don\u2019t understand.\u2019 And Stanley laughed and said, \u2018Well, I think it means you have to move to America [for work].\u2019 And that\u2019s all he ever said. He was a crook. He didn\u2019t give a flying Dutchman.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hayley &amp; Juliet Mills | Vivien Leigh, Walt Disney &amp; Not Wasting Time...\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CaUFKk3hq7o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/culture\/books\/article\/hayley-mills-id-literally-grown-up-in-disneyland-l9hwdkq0k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Times of London<\/a>\u00a0reported that when Mills turned 21, she went to collect her money from the trust that her father and Passmore set up for her.<\/p>\n<p>However, she discovered that the trust hadn\u2019t been set up correctly, and she had to pay a surtax of 91% on everything in it. While she contested it fiercely, there was no solution beyond suing her father or Passmore, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p>On the podcast, Mills said she had a meeting with a prominent lawyer in hopes of fighting the case, but \u201cit didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Juliet Mills and Hayley Mills smiling at the Chiller Theatre Expo in Parsippany, NJ, October 25, 2019. <span class=\"credit\">Dave Allocca\/StarPix<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lord Denning, one of Britain\u2019s most powerful judges at the time, briefly gave Mills a win in her fight with the tax authorities. In the 1970s, he ruled in her favor, agreeing that it was unfair to tax her Disney earnings the way the government had.<\/p>\n<p>However, the victory didn\u2019t stick. The case went to the\u00a0House of Lords, which overturned Denning\u2019s decision, leaving Mills on the hook for the massive bill that wiped out much of her fortune.<\/p>\n<p>Mills pleaded her case to the British government for years, the\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/books\/story\/2021-09-02\/hayley-mills-memoir-pollyanna-parent-trap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Los Angeles Times<\/a>\u00a0reported. However, her appeal was denied for good in 1975. If she had won, Mills said she would have been able to keep about \u00a32 million, which is well over $17 million today.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Hayley Mills as twins in \u201cThe Parent Trap,\u201d May 22, 1961. <span class=\"credit\">celebrity.land<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t have a sensible enough sense of my career and what I ought to be doing, but I didn\u2019t want to do more\u00a0Disney movies,\u201d said Mills. \u201cI wanted to spread my wings and have a greater choice and not be limited by that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[But] I didn\u2019t know what to look for. I didn\u2019t know who I was. There was this moment when we\u2019re growing up where we\u2019re really on that uncomfortable seesaw, being still one foot in childhood and the other foot in being a woman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I found it awfully difficult to get both feet into womanhood because [there] was a part of me that didn\u2019t want to disappoint people. \u2018Oh, she\u2019s not that cute little girl anymore. She\u2019s what?\u2019 I didn\u2019t know what sort of thing to look for.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Hayley Mills attends the \u201cIndian Ink\u201d Off-Broadway opening night on September 30, 2014 in New York City. <span class=\"credit\">WireImage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After she became a mother, Mills did some stage work and took on a handful of TV gigs in the US, the Los Angeles Times reported. She still acts occasionally.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2021, Mills told Fox News Digital she was \u201cfortunate\u201d to have had a better outcome than many other\u00a0child stars\u00a0in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was working for a studio with a boss who was a genuinely good man,\u201d she explained at the time. \u201cHe cared about the people who worked for him. I also had the support of my parents, who were both in the business. So I had support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe business can really come at people like an express train. You\u2019re suddenly surrounded by wealth and showered with attention at an immense pace. It\u2019s very intense and very, very easy to lose your way unless you have that support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI certainly had my struggles,\u201d Mills admitted. \u201cBut I think we all face struggles growing up. You\u2019re trying to make sense of life and who you are, except you\u2019re trying to figure all of this out in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re in that environment, it\u2019s hard to hang on to reality. But after I worked, I went home. I went to boarding school in England. So, in some ways, I think I had it better than others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a recently reshared 2017 interview with\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/remembering-lennie-weinrib-the-voice-of-h-r\/id1807090804?i=1000762378536\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cNostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Mills spoke of her close relationship with Disney, who died in 1966 at age 65.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was a great friend of my family as a result of my working there,\u201d she told the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe got on terribly well with my mother and father, particularly my mom, who was very funny and had a wicked sense of humor, which Walt really appreciated. So, I always felt very happy in his company. He was a very warm, kind and sweet man. I loved him. I was really fond of him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always knew he was a brilliant, wonderful, amazing man,\u201d Mills shared. \u201cAnd he took us around his fantastic Disneyland. He took us all around. And how amazing is that, to be taken around Disneyland by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/tag\/walt-disney\/\">Walt Disney<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I didn\u2019t appreciate at the time how lucky I was to have actually begun my career in that studio with him at the head of it, because he ran it so well, and it was small, and everyone knew everyone else, and everyone knew everyone\u2019s name. And so did he.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hayley Mills skyrocketed to fame as a child star under Walt Disney\u2019s wing for seven years \u2014 only to see her once-promising fortune slip away. The actress, whose most memorable roles included \u201cPollyanna\u201d and \u201cThe Parent Trap,\u201d recently appeared alongside her sister, Juliet Mills, on\u00a0\u201cThe Rosebud Podcast.\u201d\u00a0The appearance celebrated Mills\u2019 80th birthday. When host Gyles [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2401058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[25538,24003,361906,23301,346502,320853],"class_list":["post-2401057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-actors","tag-celebrity-news","tag-child-stars","tag-disney","tag-money","tag-walt-disney"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/\u2018Parent-Trap-star-Hayley-Mills-lost-her-Disney-fortune-to.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2401057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2401059,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401057\/revisions\/2401059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2401058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2401057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2401057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2401057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}