Millie Bobby Brown delighted fans after revealing she’d adopted a child with her husband Jake Bongiovi.
The Stranger Things star, 21, who wed her American model and actor husband last year, made the surprise announcement on Instagram yesterday.
While the pair decided against sharing a photograph of their daughter, Millie and Jake explained how excited they are to embark upon the next chapter of their life as parents.
The duo isn’t the only famous pair to choose adoption when building a family, with a string of other A-listers also opting for the same route.
Among them is Australian actor Hugh Jackman, 56, who has raised his adopted children Oscar, 25, and Ava, 20, with his former wife, Deborra-Lee Furness.
Meanwhile, Hugh’s fellow actor Charlize Theron‘s motherhood journey began when she adopted Jackson, 11, in 2012, before also adopting her daughter August, seven, in 2015.
Sex and the City actress Kristin Davis is also a parent to her adopted children Gemma Rose Davis and Wilson Davis.
Here, the Daily Mail reveals the A-Listers who have adopted their children over the years.
A string of A-Listers have adopted children over the years, including actress Charlize Theron, who adopted her children Jackson and August (pictured with August)
MILLIE BOBBY BROWN
Millie Bobby Brown has adopted a baby girl with her husband Jake Bongiovi (pictured February 2025)
The Stranger Things star, 21, who wed Bongiovi, 23, last year, made the surprise announcement on Instagram on Thursday
Jake and Millie, seen here in March 2022, first started dating in 2021 before tying the knot in May 2024
Millie Bobby Brown and her husband Jake Bongiovi surprised fans yesterday after revealing that they’ve adopted a baby girl.
Taking to Instagram to share the news, the post read: ‘This summer, we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption.
‘We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy. And then there were three. Love, Millie and Jake Bongiovi.’
The couple have yet to share any images of their daughter but Bongiovi was seen pushing a stroller on July 20 in a post shared by Brown captioned: ‘Helluva summer thus far.’
In March, Brown opened up about starting a family with Bongiovi and revealed that he already knew ‘how important’ it is to her.
The pair married in May 2024 and the couple had discussed having children, adoption, and their plans on having a big family.
During an appearance on the Smartless podcast, which is hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, the actress said that although she knows she is ‘really young,’ she is looking forward to motherhood.
‘My mom actually had her first child at 21, and my dad was 19. And you know, it’s been my thing since before I met Jake,’ she explained.
KRISTIN DAVIS
Actress Kristin Davis (seen last year in France) is a mother to her two adopted children – Gemma and Wilson
The actress is known and loved for her roles as Charlotte York in Sex and the City (pictured: Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis for Sex and The City)
Kirstin raises her two children as a single parent (pictured with her on-screen child in Sex and the City)
60-year-old actress Kristin Davis is a parent to her adopted children Gemma Rose Davis and Wilson Davis.
Kristin, who starred as Charlotte York on HBO’s Sex And The City and its two spin-off films, lives in Los Angeles with Gemma, 11, and Wilson, five, where she raises her children as a single mother.
‘[In my 20s], I thought I’d never get married. I guess I was right!’ Davis told PEOPLE in 2008.
She continued, ‘I grew up in the South so all everyone talked about was marriage, but all I wanted was to move to New York and do theater. And in my 30s, I was busy doing [Sex and the City] so I just didn’t have time.’
Kirstin has also revealed that she adores being a mother and prefers to keep her children out of the spotlight.
In 2013, two years after adopting her eldest child, Kristin told Haute Living how her journey into parenthood changed her priorities.
She said, ‘Gemma takes up such a big, big part [of my life] in such a wonderful way,’ continuing, ‘Like take going to work: it used to be really important to me, but now I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to go to work. All right.”
The beloved actress added, ‘I used to be like, ‘I want to go to work, I want to go to work!”
BRIDGET MENDLER
Former Disney Channel star Bridgit Mendler revealed that she adopted a then-four-year-old boy last year (pictured in her breakthrough role in Disney Channel’s Good Luck Charlie in 2010)
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, where she had not posted since November 2022, Bridgit, shared the happy news in a heart-warming post
The star married mechanical engineer Griffin Cleverly in 2019 (picture together), and will now join him as the CEO of a new start-up company
Former Disney Channel star Bridgit Mendler revealed that she has adopted a then-four-year-old boy last year.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, where she had not posted since November 2022, Bridgit, 32, shared the news in a heart-warming post alongside a sweet photograph of her husband and son.
She started her career as a child actress aged 11 back in 2004 with a voice role in the animated film The Legend of Buddha.
Bridgit also secured parts on Jonas, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and The Secret World of Arrietty before her breakthrough role in Disney Channel’s Good Luck Charlie.
Sharing the exciting news of her decision to adopt, she wrote: ‘The other news I wanted to share is I’m a mama to a sweet 4yo boy. Started fostering in 2021 adopted near Christmas of 2022.
‘I’m so lucky – being a parent is the biggest gift and most defining experience there is. That’s my news for now folks’.
Reacting to the news on X, fans rushed to congratulate Bridgit on her adoption. One user wrote: ‘You deserve everything in this life and more’.
A second well-wisher added: ‘Congratulations on your journey into motherhood!’ Adopting and fostering truly change lives, and that first holiday season as a family is always extra special. Here’s to many more shared sunsets and precious moments.’
SANDRA BULLOCK
Sandra Bullock (seen at a London premiere in 2022) is a proud mother to her two adopted children
Sandra once said she ‘sometimes’ wishes she ‘matched’ her adopted African-American children’s skin (Pictured with daughter Laila, then-eight, in 2021 on Red Table Talk)
The actress adopted son Louis when he was three-and-a-half months old in 2010 (Pictured above in 2013)
Sandra Bullock, who was once one of the highest-paid actresses, is a proud mother to her two adopted children.
The Miss Congeniality star, 61, adopted Louis Bardo Bullock in 2010, and Laila Bullock five years later in 2015.
Sandra adopted Louis when he was three-and-a-half months old, and daughter Laila from a Louisiana foster home when she was three.
In a Red Table Talk interview in 2021, the Oscar winner said she ‘sometimes’ wished her and her children’s skin colour ‘matched’ because it would be ‘easier’ for how people perceive them as a family.
‘To say that I wished our skins matched… sometimes I do,’ the star confessed, as Jada Pinkett Smith and her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris agreed.
‘Because then it would be easier on how people approach us. And I have the same feelings as a woman with brown skin, and it being her babies. Or a white woman with white babies,’ Bullock continued in the short clip.
In 2015, Bullock spoke to Glamour Magazine about her anxiety in anticipating the racism her son could face. She said, ‘You see how far we’ve come in civil rights – and where we’ve gotten back to now. I want my son to be safe. I want my son to be judged for the man he is,’ she said.
‘We are at a point now where if we don’t do something, we will have destroyed what so many amazing people have done.’
CATE BLANCHETT
Cate Blanchett welcomed her adopted daughter Edith into her family in 2015 (pictured together at Venice Film Festival in 2024)
The mother-of-four (seen at Cannes Film Festival, 2023) said she was thinking about adopting a child for over a decade
Cate is parents to four children with her husband Andrew Upton (seen together in London, 2019): Dashiell, 23, Roman, 21, Ignatius, 17, and Edith, ten
Australian actress Cate Blanchett shares four children with her husband Andrew Upton: Dashiell, 23, Roman, 21, Ignatius, 17, and Edith, ten.
While Cate has three biological sons, she adopted her youngest child, Edith, in March 2015.
‘There’s a lot of children out there that don’t have the good fortune of our biological children so it’s lovely to welcome a little girl. We’re besotted,’ she said at the time via Fairfax Media.
Speaking about the adoption of their daughter at the time, playwright Andrew told Daily Mail Australia: ‘It’s very exciting’.
Cate revealed that the couple had planned to adopt a child for 14 years before welcoming Edith into her family.
‘We actually began the conversation a very long time ago, after our first son was born and he’s about to turn 14,’ she told Women in the World’s Tina Brown, before adding: ‘And then we just had two other children and it sort of dropped off the radar.’
She added, ‘I felt we had space, enough emotional room in our hearts and were privileged enough to have the capacity to have another child, so it wasn’t about biology.
‘It wasn’t about a desire to have a girl, the gender of the children was never particularly important to me,’ she added.
HUGH JACKMAN
Hugh Jackman and his wife Deborra-Lee Furness (pictured together) share two adopted children
The actor shares adopted children Oscar and Ava with the fellow Aussie, whom he wed in 1996 (pictured together in 2009)
Pictured: Oscar Maximillian Jackman and Hugh Jackman out and about in New York back in 2013
Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman, 56, shares two adopted children with his former wife Debora-Lee Furness, whom he married in 1996.
The pair are parents to Oscar Maximillian Jackman, 25, and Ava Eliot Jackman, 20.
In 2023, the actor revealed that he and his wife initially had ‘very different ideas’ about parenting.
Speaking to The Radio Times, Hugh said, ‘You fall in love with someone and you work out your relationship, it’s great! All of a sudden, we had kids’.
‘The way I was parented, the way she was parented… all of a sudden… whoosh! And it wasn’t just Deb and I, it was somehow our pasts coming together’.
‘We had really different ideas about being a parent. And we never really pre-discussed it. We just assumed: we love each other, we don’t argue, that’s going to be fine!’.
Hugh and Deborah married just one year after meeting on the set of Australian drama Corelli. They divorced earlier this year.
The actor previously said he knew he was going to spend the rest of his life with his beloved after just two weeks of knowing her.
CHARLIZE THERON
Actress Charlize Theron’s motherhood journey began when she adopted Jackson, 11, in 2012 and daughter August, seven, in 2015 (seen in LA in 2025)
Charlize (seen with August) has spoken publicly about how she always knew she wanted to adopt children
The actress previously told Jimmy Kimmel that her children (pictured) have little respect for her career
Charlize Theron’s motherhood journey began when she adopted Jackson, 11, in 2012 and daughter August, seven, in 2015.
But it seems her children are not phased by the fact she’s a huge movie star or features on billboards, as she told Jimmy Kimmel, ‘My children have zero respect for me’ when asked if they are impressed by her career.
Laughing towards the audience, she said: ‘My children have zero respect for me. I don’t know how, it’s just unbelievable.
‘I feel like I’m pretty humble, but every once in a while I’m like there’s a f*****g Oscar right there.’
Her appearance on the show comes after she opened up to People in 2018 about her decision to adopt children and shared how it was always a top priority for her.
She explained that she was largely inspired by her own upbringing in South Africa, which exposed her to orphanages and children in need in her community at a young age.
She told the publication: ‘Even when I was in relationships, I was always honest with my partners, that adoption was how my family would look one day.
The star added: ‘This was definitely not a second option for me. It was always my first.’
