What to Know
Mickey Rourke needs help paying his rent, so a friend and member of his management team has launched a GoFundMe fundraiser for the 73-year-old actor and former boxer. We often think of celebrities as experiencing an immense amount of privilege. However, the GoFundMe page for Mickey emphasizes that fame does not mean people will never struggle.
“Fame does not protect against hardship, and talent does not guarantee stability,” the fundraiser states. “What remains is a person who deserves dignity, housing, and the chance to regain his footing.”
Mickey recently made headlines due to his exit from Celebrity Big Brother UK.
He was removed from the show due to “inappropriate language and instances of unacceptable behavior” in April 2025. That same month, his manager Kimberly Hines said Mickey had plans to take legal action against the reality show after “publicly embarrassing him and using his removal as a marketing tool.”
In a statement shared with People at the time, Mickey’s manager said, “There’s no question that when Big Brother booked Mickey Rourke, they were fully aware of both his public persona and how it aligned with his Hollywood rebel image.” Kimberly argued that the show benefited from this and “promoted his provocative personality.”
She added, “To add insult to injury, Big Brother is now refusing to pay Mickey his full agreed-upon fee. His legal team is currently pursuing the matter.” While on the show, Mickey revealed that he borrowed $500,000 during the 2023 Screen Actors Guild strike.
Speaking to fellow cast member Chris Hughes, he said, “Yeah, it was a long one. Two years of Covid and then a seven-month actor strike. I had to borrow half a million dollars from the bank to get by and pay bills off.”
Now, Mickey is struggling to pay rent.
Though the GoFundMe page did not specify exactly what led to Mickey’s financial troubles, the fundraiser’s organizer, Liya-Joelle Jones, mentioned “years of struggle not defined by spectacle, but by survival: health challenges, financial strain, and the quiet toll of being left behind.”
On the GoFundMe page, Liya-Joelle wrote, “Today, Mickey is facing a very real and urgent situation: the threat of eviction from his home. This fundraiser is being created with Mickey’s full permission to help cover immediate housing-related expenses and prevent that from happening. Mickey Rourke is an icon—but his trajectory, as painful as it is, is also a deeply human one. It is the story of someone who gave everything to his work, took real risks, and paid real costs.”
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Mickey signed a lease for his apartment in March 2025, agreeing to pay $5,200 per month in rent. Later, the rent was raised to $7,000. He reportedly owes $59,100 in rent.
The GoFundMe has reached the goal, now over $100,000 but drama has followed, too.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the actor shared a message to social media claiming he is denouncing the fundraiser, saying his longtime manager started it without his permission.
“Something’s come up that I’m really frustrated, confused and I don’t understand,” he said in the video. “Somebody set up some kind of foundation or fund for me to donate money. A charity. And that’s not me. If I needed money I wouldn’t ask for no charity.”
Then, in another update shared by the publication, Rourke’s manager tried to clear up the confusion about the fundraiser and why the actor says he has no idea who started it.
Kimberly Hines, who the publication notes has been Rourke’s manager for nine years, said that she started the fundraising efforts and had no idea it would take off like it did.
“This thing has taken off like crazy. I looked at it this morning. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, he’s almost raised $100,000,'” Hines tells the Hollywood Reporter. “The only contact we’ve had with GoFundMe was, how do we get the money to Mickey? He doesn’t have a bank account. We’re just doing everything we can to get it to him.”
