September 11: 10 Celebrities Who Were Personally Affected

The 10 celebrities in our gallery either narrowly escaped death on September 11, 2001, or were personally affected by the events. These tragedies really get under your skin...

Pete Davidson was only seven years old when his father, a New York City firefighter, lost his life while fighting a fire. To this day, the comedian has his father’s badge number, 8418, tattooed on his body. The loss shaped his childhood and, later, his public persona.

As a teenager, the future singer was standing on the roof of her high school with classmates when the second tower collapsed. Years later, she recalled to MTV News how the sky above the city turned black. That experience remained etched in her memory as one of the most formative moments of her youth.

The King of Pop had been invited to a meeting in one of the towers on the morning of September 11, but overslept after a long phone call with his mother, Katherine. His brother, Jermaine Jackson, described in a biography how the family only learned later of this narrow escape.

The Duchess of York regularly worked on the 101st floor of the North Tower of 1 World Trade Center, but that morning she was elsewhere for a television appearance. She was just a few minutes away from returning to the office when the attacks began. She later told “Hello!” that she has been more mindful of every minute ever since.

The former Beatle was waiting on the tarmac at JFK Airport for takeoff when he saw smoke rising from the Twin Towers. Shortly afterward, a flight attendant informed him of the gravity of the situation, and the flight was subsequently canceled. In memory of the victims, Paul McCartney later organized “The Concert for New York City.”

On the morning of the attack, the actress happened to run into office worker Lara Lundstrom Clarke, who missed her train as a result. Without that delay, the woman would have been on the 77th floor of the South Tower when the plane struck. It wasn’t until later that Gwyneth Paltrow realized what a crucial role that brief encounter had played.

Mark Wahlberg was originally booked on the flight that later crashed into the North Tower, but he spontaneously decided to travel with friends to a film festival in Toronto.

Months after the attacks, Rob Lowe realized that he had been on a plane with several men who had planned the September 11 attacks.

The native New Yorker left a meeting immediately after the first crash and watched the events unfold from the window of his apartment. Through binoculars, Robert De Niro watched the fire spread across the North Tower; shortly thereafter, the South Tower also collapsed. It wasn’t until he saw the coverage on CNN that he fully realized the reality of what was happening.