Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi have just adopted their first child.
In August, the 21-year-old actress and 23-year-old model announced they had welcomed a “sweet baby girl” on Instagram.
“This summer we welcomed our sweet baby girl by adoption,” the statement read.
“We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy.
“And then there were 3… Love Millie and Jake Bongiovi.”
The young stars join a legion of Hollywood stars who have adopted children. Here are some of their stories.
ANGELINA JOLIE & BRAD PITT
Angelina Jolie adopted her first child Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt in 2002 with her then husband Billy Bob Thornton.
The couple abruptly split three months later and Angelina became Maddox’s sole parent. In 2005, she started dating her Mr and Mrs Smith co-star Brad Pitt.
In 2005, Angelina adopted her second child, six-month-old Zahara Marley, from an orphanage in Ethiopia.
Brad later adopted the two eldest children as well, and the couple went on to adopt a third child, three-year-old Pax Thien, from an orphanage in Vietnam.
JAMIE LEE CURTIS
Jamie Lee Curtis and Christoper Guest adopted their first daughter, Annie, in December 1986.
“We were awakened in the middle of the night with the phone call announcing that she was born,” the actress told PEOPLE in 1991.
The couple adopted their second daughter, Ruby, when Annie was nine years old.
In 2020, Ruby came out as trans to her parents.
“It was scary — just the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know,” Ruby told PEOPLE in an interview alongside her famous mother.
“It was intimidating — but I wasn’t worried,” she added. “They had been so accepting of me my entire life.”
SANDRA BULLOCK
In 2010, Sandra Bullock adopted her first child, Louis, from New Orleans with her then-husband, Jesse James. It was during the adoption process she found out her husband had been cheating on her.
The two divorced the same year, and the Two Weeks Notice star became a single parent to Louis.
“I mean, so much had happened,” Bullock told CBS in 2022. “How do you process grief and not hurt your child in the process? It’s a newborn. They take on everything that you’re feeling. So my obligation was to him and not tainting the first year of his life with my grief.”
In 2015, the actor adopted a daughter, Laila, who she had been fostering at the time.
Appearing on Red Table Talk, the now 61-year-old called the adoption process “eye-opening.”
“It gets deep, and it gets dark. When I first went through the process myself, you have to prove that you are a capable parent, and you are in the judgment cage,” she said.
HARRIET DYER & PATRICK BRAMMALL
In 2021, Australian actors, writers and producers Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall welcomed their daughter Joni Jane Brooklyn Brammall, who they adopted through a US agency.
“International Daughter’s Day feels as good a time as any to introduce our little Joni Jane Brooklyn Brammall,” Harriet said on Instagram at the time. “Born September 16, 2021, and with us from her first moments thanks to her incredible birth mother.”
MADONNA
In 2006, Madonna adopted David Banda from Malawi. At 12, he won a spot in the Portuguese football club Benfica’s youth academy and Madonna moved the family to Lisbon, Portugal, so he could take up the opportunity.
“I’ve been desperate to get him into the best academies with the best coaches, but the level of football in America is much lower than the rest of the world,” she told Vogue Italia.
Three years later, she adopted Mercy from Malawi and 2017 she adopted twin girls Stella and Estere, also from Malawi.
“With Stella and Estere, who were in an orphanage for four years; they’re so happy to join in, to help out, to be part of something whether it’s a small or a large group. They’re extremely resilient and full of life and joy,” Madonna said about the twins to Vogue Italia.
CHARLIZE THERON
Charlize Theron always saw adoption as her “first option” for starting a family.
In 2012, the actress adopted her daughter Jackson after applying for adoption in “whatever country” would take her application as a single woman.
“I got out of the car and I saw her through a window, and somebody was holding her,” she told the podcast Five Things with Lynn Hirschberg. “My heart just jumped out of my body, and I almost couldn’t catch it. It was a visceral, emotional feeling.”
In 2015, Charlize adopted another daughter who she named August.
Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone adopted her three sons — Roan, 25, Laird, 20, and Quinn, 19.
The Basic Instinct star adopted her eldest son, Roan, with her ex-husband, Phil Bronstein, in 2000, after suffering a series of miscarriages.
“We, as females don’t have a forum to discuss the profundity of this loss. I lost nine children by miscarriage,” the actress said in 2022. “It is no small thing, physically nor emotionally yet we are made to feel it is something to bear alone and secretly with some kind of sense of failure.”
After the pair divorced in 2004, she adopted Laird in 2005 and Quinn in 2006.
“I have been trying to adopt a second child for years, with general fits and starts,” Sharon told PEOPLE after she adopted Laird. “So I didn’t totally, totally believe it until he was in my arms.”
KATHERINE HEIGL
Katherine Heigl, and her husband musician Josh Kelley, are parents to two adopted daughters, Naleigh and Adalaide, and a biological son named Joshua Jr. The Grey’s Anatomy star’s sister Meg was adopted from Korea and the actress always planned on adopting herself.
“Josh and I started talking about it before we were even engaged,” she told Scholastic. “I wanted my own family to resemble the one I came from, so I always knew I wanted to adopt from Korea.”
The couple adopted Naleigh in September 2009.
They were planning to adopt a second child from Korea but found the adoption process in Korea had become too difficult to navigate, so they adopted Adalaide from the US in 2021.
“My lawyer called and said, ‘There’s a birth mother and she’s due in four weeks. She’s all yours if you want her!’” she later told Jay Leno.
She said Josh had been expecting to wait a couple of years, and was expecting a nine-or 10-month-old.
“He looked at me and said, ‘You’re telling me in a month we’re going to have a newborn?’”
Four years later, Katherine accidentally fell pregnant.
CATE BLANCHETT
In 2015, Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton adopted a baby girl, who they named Edith Vivian Patricia Upton, from the US after welcoming three biological sons.
Shortly after they welcomed Edith into the family, the Aussie icon opened up to Sky News about the joy her adoption brought them.
“It’s wonderful to welcome a little girl into our fold. We’re besotted… Fourth time around, it’s extraordinary,” she said.
SIA
In 2019, Sia adopted two 18-year-old boys who were ageing out of the foster care system.
Speaking to InStyle, she said she’d seen one of her boys in a documentary about foster care when he was 16, and was struck with the feeling: “That’s my son.” Two years later, he and his friend from his group home moved into her Los Angeles home.
“The truth is becoming a mum has changed me in every way,” she said.
“I’ve learned what it means to unconditionally love another person. But the most important thing I’ve learned is that just because my sons didn’t come out of me 19 years ago doesn’t mean they’re not my children. I’ve already started thinking about adopting more kids. And I’ve realised that this is exactly the way that motherhood was supposed to happen for me.”
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