Hayley Mills Says She Lost Most of Her Disney Fortune After Financial Scheme Left Her With Massive Tax Bill
Hayley Mills says the vast majority of the money she earned during her years as one of The Walt Disney Company’s biggest child stars never actually reached her hands.
During a recent appearance on the Rosebud Podcast, the actress reflected on the financial fallout that followed her early success in films such as The Parent Trap, That Darn Cat!, and In Search of the Castaways. Mills explained that a trust arrangement set up during her teenage years eventually resulted in British tax authorities claiming the overwhelming majority of her earnings. “It was most of it,” Mills said while discussing the money she lost. “I gave it to the tax man.”
The actress became one of Disney’s defining young stars in the early 1960s after first gaining attention in the British film Tiger Bay. Her performance in that drama earned her a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer, launching a career that quickly expanded internationally. Just two years later, she headlined The Parent Trap, playing twins Susan and Sharon in the studio comedy that became one of Disney’s most enduring live-action hits.
At the height of her fame, Mills said she was advised to place her earnings into a trust structure overseen by financial adviser Stanley Passmore, who also handled financial matters for her father, acclaimed actor John Mills. According to the actress, the arrangement was intended to shield her income from Britain’s extraordinarily high “supertax” rates at the time, which could reportedly climb as high as 90 percent for top earners.
Instead, the trust structure eventually collapsed under scrutiny from tax authorities. Mills described learning the full extent of the problem when she turned 21 and expected to gain access to the fortune she had earned during childhood. Rather than receiving financial freedom, she said she was handed documents informing her that most of the money was owed in taxes.
“When I reached 21, instead of being handed the key to the door, I was handed an envelope,” Mills recalled. Inside, she said, was a notice from Britain’s Inland Revenue demanding payment amounting to nearly all of her earnings.
The actress said she struggled to fully understand the financial situation at the time because she had little experience handling money or contracts herself. She also sharply criticized Passmore, calling him “a crook” and accusing him of failing to properly protect her interests.
According to Mills, the issue grew larger after tax authorities challenged the legality of similar trust arrangements involving other actors, including late British star Jack Hawkins. The dispute reportedly helped establish legal precedents around taxation and entertainment earnings in the United Kingdom.
The financial consequences significantly shaped the next phase of Mills’ career. In a previous interview with The Times in 2021, the actress said losing her fortune removed the ability to make career decisions freely. Rather than choosing projects out of artistic interest, she often had to continue working because of financial necessity.
“It would have been very nice to have had the money,” Mills said at the time, adding that financial security would have allowed her to turn down projects she did not want to take and avoid relocating for work opportunities.
Despite the financial turmoil, Mills remained a recognizable figure in film and television for decades. Following her Disney years, she continued acting in both British and American productions, appearing in stage plays, television dramas, and family films. Her work during the 1960s remains especially influential within Disney’s live-action legacy, where she became synonymous with a certain era of family entertainment before the studio shifted direction in later decades.
Mills’ experience stands out partly because of the scale of her early fame. At a time when Disney was building an international audience for its live-action films, she became one of the studio’s most bankable stars while still a teenager. Yet despite appearing in commercially successful productions and becoming a household name, she says the wealth generated from those years largely disappeared before she ever gained control over it.
