Marie Osmond plays a countess in her soap opera debut — but she won’t be leaving her children a huge inheritance.
“To me, why would you harm your children [like that]? When you tell a child — I know, I’ve seen it throughout my life — that you’re leaving them all this money it un-inspires them,” Osmond, 64, told The Post in an interview about her role as Countess Von Frankfurt starting Friday, Oct. 27 on “The Bold and the Beautiful” (CBS).
“They don’t learn the joy of hard work, of picking themselves up when things don’t work,” Osmond said. “I believe in general that you rob children of the experience of figuring out who they are.
“They don’t learn that you cannot buy your child self-esteem — they have to earn that.”
In January, Osmond made headlines when she revealed her money won’t be going to her kids, noting it “breeds laziness.”
Osmond, who has seven children and is married to Stephen Craig — her son Michael died by suicide in 2010 — said that children who’ve been left fortunes, are for the most part (“I’m sure there are exceptions,” she noted) robbed of learning about life’s realities.
And she’s not alone in this belief. Celebrities including Warren Buffet, Sting and Mick Jagger have sworn off leaving their kids the bulk of their fortunes.
“I don’t believe in it,” she told The Post. “Now, that doesn’t mean that I’m not helping [my children] along a little here and there. I’m not going to leave my children in trouble. That’s not going to happen. But my children know that I’m proud of them for being able to make their own living.
“They’re all really wonderful kids who work hard,” she said. “I don’t have a slacker in the group. And they love what they do. I have children rehabilitating drug-addicted people; another child works with elderly, mentally challenged people and helps them through their day.”
She added that she wants to enjoy the money that she’s earned through her nearly-60-year show business career (recording star, stage, screen, television, Broadway), which started when she was 6.
“Besides, I have a lot of places to go and a lot of bucket-lists still to do,” she said. “I’ve worked hard all my life and I want to enjoy those years I have with my husband, you know?”
