Randy Spelling is the 44-year-old son of late Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling and Candy Spelling. While many people assumed that Randy would follow his father and sister Tori into stardom, he ended up taking a wildly different path. In fact, Randy now works as a life coach in Oregon.
Randy is the first to admit that his dad's death in 2006 sent him on a downward spiral that was difficult to come back from. He ended up in rehab after wrestling with addiction.
"I was just trying to fill myself in any way I could and started filling myself with the wrong things and got caught up in addiction," he told Page Six. "So I went to rehab and after I thought, ‘Gosh, I have this second chance, who do I want to be? What makes me happy? What am I here for?’ And all these existential questions that I really set out on a path to answer."
Randy told Page Six that a friend asked him if he would ever be a life coach:
"It was just, 'Hey this sounds really interesting,' so I did it and it was suggested I work with people and I started doing that and I realized, 'I think I'm good at it,' and it just propelled me to do more."
Randy has now been working as a life coach for 13 years:
"I've been on both sides of the coin from having everything to being very concerned, 'How I am going to make this happen for my family?' and I can tell you happiness doesn't come from money."
He continued, "It can bring less stress and afford more choice but I work with people who have very little and CEOs and I can tell you happiness has nothing to do with money."
Randy has also spoken about what it was like growing up in such a Hollywood-centric family. In 2017 he published an essay in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Growing up, it didn't feel that there was life outside of Hollywood. Much of our family’s socializing growing up — whether it was holiday parties, dinners out or special occasions — revolved around the industry. Since my sister was an actress from an early age, I didn't aspire to be an actor straight out of the gate."
He contemplated becoming a doctor:
"For a brief period, I wanted to be a doctor because I had spent so much time at hospitals and in the doctor's office. (I was born two and a half months premature so I was often sick with pneumonia and other illnesses.)"
But then things changed. While on vacation with his family, Randy was blown away by how many people connected with his father and sister:
"The insecure part of me — the part that didn't feel very big or important — latched on to that. Maybe if I were famous, I could connect to people and I would feel better about myself. That was the moment that kickstarted my acting career."
But enjoying success didn't resonate the way he thought it would:
"When I hit the goals I was striving for, they didn't hold the treasure I thought they would. I've since learned that If you place too much value on something external, it almost makes it worse when you actually achieve it and it doesn't bring all that you had hoped it would. Misaligned success is disappointing."
He hit a low point in 2006 after losing his dad:
"My dad had just died, and I was still on camera running out to nightclubs and partying. All I really wanted to do was lock myself in a room, lick my wounds and cry. Late into the night — it was 2 or 3 in the morning — I sat on my bedroom floor and called out to anyone who could hear me, including my father. I said, 'Pops, if you can hear me, help me. If this is what my life is meant to be, I don't want to live anymore.'"
Randy ended up signing up for a life coach training program in 2007 and finding his calling:
"I started working with other people, and as I helped them change, I changed. I've worked with people in Hollywood and out of Hollywood, in Europe and other countries and people from various economic backgrounds. Fundamentally, we all want the same things. What makes for a fulfilled life, no matter who you are, is very similar: feeling purposeful."
He and his girlfriend ended up falling in love with Portland, Oregon:
"Moving away from Los Angeles was a big step for me. I wanted to stay on the West Coast, and I wanted to live in a place where I could find myself and carve out a new life. Portland checked a lot of the boxes. My girlfriend (who is now my wife) and I visited Portland and fell in love. All I had ever known before Portland was living in a town dominated by the entertainment industry. It's refreshing to live in a city where not everyone is trying to be famous."
Now he's found a lot of inner peace for himself and for others:
"As fast-paced as everything is in life right now, we still have the tendency to wait. We wait to live. We wait for happiness. We think it will come later. I found mine and I feel the same can happen for everyone. Don't wait. Your true north is finding how you want to live your life right now and then doing it."
