Long before Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown adopted a baby girl with husband Jake Bongiovi, a number of celebrities paved the way.
Once considered taboo, adoption later became more open, with celebrities helping to lift the secrecy surrounding bringing a child into a family.
In fact, while some stars who adopted did so as a result of infertility, others chose the once unconventional route to parenthood for other reasons – whether they were going it alone or simply adding to their family alongside biological children.
Let’s take a look at some of the stars who have adopted over the years.
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Jamie Lee Curtis
The daughter of Hollywood stars Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis and her actor-director husband Christopher Guest adopted a daughter Annie in December 1986 after battling infertility.
Curtis spoke to People in 1991 about the call they received in the middle of the night telling them they were parents.
Nine years later, the actress was in the delivery room to cut the cord of their second child, Ruby.
In 1996, Curtis released a children’s book, Tell Me About the Night I Was Born, for families who welcomed a child through adoption.
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Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman met on the set of the 1990 film Days of Thunder and wed on Christmas Eve 1990.
Kidman told Vanity Fair in 2007, “From the minute Tom and I were married, I wanted to have babies [but] we lost a baby early on, so that was really very traumatic.”
The couple adopted their first child, daughter Isabella Kidman Cruise, in December 1992, and son Connor in January 1995.
They travelled the world together, often with their two children in tow, including a 1996 trip to Australia when they posed for photographers.
Kidman described her role as an adoptive mother in the 2016 film Lion as a “love letter to my children”.
After the couple split in 2011, Kidman went on to marry Keith Urban and welcome two biological children with him, daughters Sunday and Faith, while Cruise welcomed daughter Suri with now former wife Katie Holmes.
Kidman has refused to address claims her two eldest children ceased contact with her due to their ties with Scientology.
She told Who magazine in 2018, “They have made choices to be Scientologists and as a mother, it’s my job to love them”.
Michelle Pfeiffer
By the time Michelle Pfeiffer welcomed daughter Claudia Rose, whom she adopted as a single mum in March 1993, she had just started a relationship with TV writer and producer David E Kelley, who was behind hit TV shows including Ally McBeal.
“The adoption process was already in motion when he and I met,” she told Good Housekeeping in 2007.
“When she came, he and I had only been together for about two months, so we had this child with us right away, and most people don’t have that.
“But I really got to see him in a situation that certainly would separate the boys from the men. Obviously, he really rose to the occasion.”
The two married just six months later, on November 13, 1993, and Claudia Rose was christened the same day.
Kelley legally adopted the little girl shortly after, and the couple welcomed a biological son, John, in August 1994.
Calista Flockhart
Calista Flockhart was the star of Kelley’s hit show Ally McBeal, which ran from 1997 to 2002, when she adopted a baby boy named Liam, in January 2001.
At the time, she released a statement in which she said, “I have always wanted to adopt a child and I am overjoyed that I have been blessed with a beautiful and healthy son.
“I’m completely enchanted and awe-struck.”
Like Pfeiffer, she was not a single mother for long. Flockhart was at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2022 when she started chatting to Harrison Ford.
Despite a 22-year age difference, the two hit it off and went public in September that year. The two married in 2010 and Ford adopted Liam that same year.
Harrison Ford
Soon after marrying his partner of eight years, Ford legally adopted Liam, but their bond was there long before.
He told Parade in 2010, “I think Liam was about six or eight months old when I met him and Calista. We have been together ever since.”
During a 2008 interview with Reader’s Digest, Ford, who has four older children from his two previous marriages, said he was grateful to Flockhart for bringing a child “back into my home.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to be part of a child’s growing up, which is always an endless springtime,” he said.
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Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness
After a series of miscarriages and failed IVF attempts, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness adopted their first child, son Oscar, in 2000, followed by daughter Ava in 2005.
The former couple was always vocal about adoption. In 2008, Furness launched National Adoption Awareness Month (NAAM) in Australia and founded the charity Adopt Change.
While Jackman said they deliberately chose to adopt a mixed-race baby, the comments attracted some backlash.
Years later, Furness told People they included aspects of their children’s genetic background in their upbringing.
“When my son was younger, he found out he was part Bosnian, so we went and got this Croatian/Bosnian cookbook and he was very proud to carry that around when he was seven,” she said
“My daughter has a Mexican lineage, so we’ve been to Mexico.
“We completely embrace the ancestors and the extended family; they’re family to us. And it’s in there, even though it’s generational. It may be subtle, but it’s in there.”
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Angelina Jolie adopted her first child, son Maddox, in 2002.
She started the adoption process while married to second husband Billy Bob Thornton, but after their relationship ended, she went ahead alone.
Jolie had met Maddox in a Cambodian orphanage while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and felt an immediate connection to him. She finalised the adoption when he was seven months old.
Three years later, she adopted daughter Zahara from an Ethiopian orphanage when she was six months old.
By then, Jolie had started dating Brad Pitt. In January 2006, he legally adopted both Zahara and Maddox, whose last names were legally changed to Jolie Pitt.
In May that year, the couple welcomed their first biological child, daughter Shiloh, after travelling to Namibia for the birth.
Far from getting preferential treatment, Jolie said in an interview with Elle UK the following year she found the opposite to be true.
“I think I feel so much more for Madd and Zee because they’re survivors, they came through so much,” she said.
“Shiloh seemed so privileged from the moment she was born, I have less inclination to feel for her. I’m conscious that I have to make sure I don’t ignore her needs, just because I think the others are more vulnerable.”
She and Pitt welcomed three more children together, adopting Pax from a Vietnamese orphanage in 2007, when he was aged three-and-a-half, then biological twins, daughter Vivienne and son Knox, the following year.
The couple separated in 2016 and were officially divorced in 2024.
Pitt is reportedly estranged from all of his children.
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock was in the process of adopting a baby with then-husband of five years Jesse James when it was revealed he had been having an affair, so she proceeded alone.
Louis was three months old when he joined her in early 2010, with Bullock waiting three months to reveal her news to People.
“He’s just perfect, I can’t even describe him any other way,” she said, “It’s like he’s always been a part of our lives.”
She went on to adopt daughter Laila in 2015 when she was two.
“When I look at Laila, there’s no doubt in my mind that she was supposed to be here,” she told People.
“I can tell you absolutely, the exact right children came to me at the exact right time.”
Speaking about adoption, Bullock told Red Table Talk in 2022, “I don’t know why that was the only route, but I’m so glad the universe had me wait.”
Madonna
Pop superstar Madonna has adopted four children from the African nation of Malawi.
David Banda was the first to join her family, which also included eldest daughter Lourdes Leon, from her relationship with dancer Carlos Leon, and Rocco, the son she shares with Guy Ritchie.
Madonna and Ritchie met David in a Malawi orphanage in 2006, when he was one.
The singer told British Vogue in 2018 she has “the most in common with” David than her other children.
“I feel like he gets me; he has more of my DNA than any of my children so far.”
After Madonna and Ritchie divorced in 2008, she adopted daughter Mercy, then three, in 2009.
Twin daughters Stella and Estere joined the family in February 2017, when they were four.
Charlize Theron
The Hollywood superstar adopted her first child, Jackson, in 2012.
Theron said she had always planned to adopt a child, telling Elle in 2018, “This was always my first choice, even when I was in a relationship.
“I was very honest with my partners that I was open to having my own biological kids but that adoption had to be a part of my life. I felt that strongly about it.”
She said growing up in South Africa she became aware of how many children were living in orphanages.
In the end, she became a single mum to both Jackson and daughter August, whom she adopted in August 2015.
In 2019, Theron revealed Jackson identified as a girl, telling The Daily Mail, “Yes, I thought she was a boy too, until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: ‘I am not a boy!’
“So there you go! I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive.”
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Katherine Heigl
Like Theron, rom-come queen Katherine Heigl always wanted to adopt, having grown up alongside sister Meg, who was adopted from Korea three years before she was born.
So when it came time to start a family with her musician husband Josh Kelley, they went down a similar path, with the pair adopting daughter Naleigh from South Korea in 2009 when the tot was 10 months old.
She told Parent & Child magazine, “I wanted my own family to resemble the one I came from, so I always knew I wanted to adopt from Korea.
“We talked about having biological children as well, but we decided to adopt first.”
In 2012, they adopted daughter Adalaide, who was born in the US.
They added to their family in 2016 when Heigl gave birth to their biological son, Joshua.
Heigl had said she sees no difference between her kids, telling Parent & Child: “Anyone who doesn’t have experience with adoption wonders, does love for a child come through DNA? I knew it didn’t.
“My mother had biological children and an adopted child and said it made absolutely no difference. They’re yours. You love them the moment they’re put into your arms.”
Other celebrities who have adopted include Mia Farrow, Sharon Stone, Meg Ryan, Kristin Davis, Diane Keaton, Ewan McGregor and Emma Thompson, who adopted son Tindyebwa when he was 16.
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