Each year, Americans pause to honor and remember the lives taken on September 11, 2001.
For those who experienced that day, the attacks on the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, remain impossible to forget.
Several celebrities also carry deeply personal memories of 9/11, shaped by loved ones they lost or by frighteningly close connections to the events of that horrific day. Here are their stories.
Pete Davidson
Saturday Night Live alum Pete Davidson was 7 years old when he lost his father on September 11, 2001.
Scott Davidson was a firefighter assigned to Ladder Company 118 in Brooklyn Heights. When his firehouse reached the World Trade Center, he joined evacuation efforts. He was killed when the North Tower collapsed and was last seen running up the stairs at the Marriott World Trade Center. All six Ladder 118 members who responded that day died.
In 2025, Pete welcomed a daughter, Scottie Rose, whose name honors his father, known by the nickname Scotty.
Mark Wahlberg
Actor Mark Wahlberg had been scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center.
He was booked on the flight from Boston Logan International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport, but changed his plans at the last minute to attend a film festival in Toronto.
In a later interview with Men’s Journal, Wahlberg said he believed the hijacking would not have happened had he been aboard because he would have fought the hijackers. The remarks drew criticism from victims’ families. He soon apologized, saying it was irresponsible and offensive to speculate about what he might have done during such a tragedy.
MORE STORY: Mississippi Man Arrested After Woman Found Hanging From Tree
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.