The Broke and the Beautiful: Family Affair Edition

Gabby Douglas may have won two gold medals in the 2012 Olympic Games, but the gymnast’s mother isn’t quite as fortunate. Court documents show Natalie Hawkins filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in January with nearly $80,000 in debt. According to the Associated Press, Hawkins said the bankruptcy was her story and she wasn’t embarrassed about it. “It shows that even though I didn’t like to have to do it,” she said. “I’m glad there was something there for me to be able to protect my home.”

Hawkins’s latest bankruptcy wasn’t her only one; a previous Chapter 13 case was dismissed last year for failure to make payments in a bankruptcy plan. Hawkins is far from the the only parent of an Olympic athlete (or Olympian himself) with financial issues, though. U.S. News & World Report sheds some light on why Olympians’ parents struggle, noting that it’s expensive to support their kids’ dreams.

Actor and comedian Russell Brand’s father may live half the world away from Gabby Douglas’s mom, but Ron Brand has something in common with Natalie Hawkins: financial troubles. Luckily, he’s just managed to avoid a bankruptcy filing from having £13,000 ($20,384) in unpaid rent. According to the Mirror, he avoided bankruptcy after paying off more than $9,400 and saying he’d clear the rest of the debt in two weeks. “I am ashamed that Russell’s name has been dragged into this,” said Ron Brand, who earlier in the week said he’d never want to burden his son by asking for help.

Last time Broke mentioned Jose Canseco, it was in connection to a boxing match with Lenny “Nails” Dysktra that (mercifully) never took place. But now the former baseball player is in bankruptcy with $1.7 million in debt, and he says the government is to blame. In an editorial with Vice, Canseco said the government drained his bank accounts and hit him with penalties and interest and made it “almost impossible to pay anything back.” Those penalties and interest “almost makes it seem like they want to enslave you,” he noted. “The government controls you psychologically.”

We’re not sure if Warren Sapp’s shoes are what this girl would have been in the market for, but some budding athletes may have been looking to get their Size 15 feet into the ex-football star’s Air Jordans. According to the Daily Mail, Sapp auctioned off his entire collection on eBay to try to recoup money for creditors in his bankruptcy case. The sale wasn’t exactly a success, though—the highest bid of $16,800 didn’t meet the auction’s reserve for a collection of 215 pairs.

A company that helped demolish the old Yankee Stadium has crumbled—into bankruptcy, that is. As Bankruptcy Beat reported earlier this week, Buffalo, N.Y.-based Demco Inc. struck out as it has struggled to find work after finishing the $20 million job in 2010. Demco, whose workers dug out memorabilia and took out the old stadium’s 57,000 seats, also worked on the demolition of the Miami Orange Bowl and the Palace Casino.

We’ve talked a lot about Tennessee rapper Young Buck over the years, from the news of his bankruptcy filing to his feud with former mentor 50 Cent to his criminal charges to his recent asset sale. But Young Buck might fall off our radar for a while, because he’s started his 18-month prison sentence. MTV News reported that Young Buck, who was arrested for possessing weapons while being a convicted felon, arrived early this week at Yazoo City Medium Security Federal Prison in Mississippi. He originally was sentenced to three years in prison, but he’ll be serving his two counts concurrently.

Write to Melanie Cohen at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @MelanieLisa.