Every year, people across the U.S. pause to remember the lives lost on September 11, 2001.
Those who lived through that day will never forget what happened at the Twin Towers in downtown Manhattan, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
A few celebrities are also haunted by the memories of 9/11 because of their own connections to what did or what could have happened on that horrific day. Here are some of their stories.
Pete Davidson
Saturday Night Live alum Pete Davidson lost his father on September 11, 2001, when the comedian was just 7 years old.
Scott Davidson was a firefighter assigned to Ladder Company 118 in Brooklyn Heights. After his firehouse arrived on the scene, Scott began assisting with evacuation efforts. He died when the North Tower collapsed. He was last seen running up the stairs of the Marriott World Trade Center. All six responding members of Ladder 118 lost their lives that day.
In 2025, Pete welcomed a daughter, Scottie Rose, named after his dad whose nickname was Scotty.
Mark Wahlberg
Actor Mark Wahlberg was supposed to be on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center.
He was booked on the flight from Boston Logan International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport but changed his travel plans at the last minute to go to a film festival in Toronto instead.
Wahlberg later claimed in an interview with Men’s Journal that if he had been on the flight, the hijacking would not have happened because he would have fought off the hijackers. Those comments drew ire from the families of the victims. Soon after he apologized, saying that speculating about what he would have done in the midst of a tragedy was irresponsible and offensive.
Seth MacFarlane
Like Wahlberg, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane was supposed to fly out of Boston back to Los Angeles.
When MacFarlane was asked about that during an interview on The Howard Stern Show, he recalled, “I was giving a lecture at my old college in Rhode Island and went out for a few drinks after and was hungover the next day and missed the flight.”
He shared that when he arrived at the airport gate, he was too late, so he waited in the airport lounge and fell asleep. He later awoke to news reports that the flight had been hijacked and flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson, who was in town for his concert at Madison Square Garden, was scheduled to attend a meeting at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, but he overslept and missed his appointment. Michael’s brother, Jermaine Jackson, revealed the details about that in his book titled You Are Not Alone: Michael: Through a Brother’s Eyes.
“Thankfully, none of us had had a clue that Michael was due at a meeting that morning at the top of one of the Twin Towers,” Jermaine wrote. “We only discovered this when Mother phoned his hotel to make sure he was okay. She, Rebbie [Jackson] and a few others had left him there around 3 a.m.”
“‘Mother, I’m okay, thanks to you. You kept me up talking so late that I overslept and missed my appointment,” Michael is said to have told his mom.
The King of Pop died nearly eight years later on June 25, 2009.
