Having children biologically is not the only way to parent, and there are a lot of diverse, modern families who have been able to experience the joy that children bring, thanks to the process of adoption. Celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Madonna are known for their decision to adopt, and they get a lot of attention for their large, multicultural broods, but there are other celebrities out there who you may not have realized have also decided to adopt.
Take Tom Cruise as an example; when you think of his children, it’s possible only Suri Cruise (who he shares with ex-wife Katie Holmes) comes to mind, but he actually has two now-grown-up children who he adopted with ex-wife Nicole Kidman. And Cate Blanchett and her husband decided to welcome a little girl into their lives, after having three biological boys.
Plus, not all children are adopted when they are babies, and Emma Thompson has an interesting story about how she added a Rwandan refugee to her family when he was a teenager. Their reasons for wanting to adopt and their situations are all different, but below are 20 celebrities who have added more joy into their lives by opting for adoption.
19 Suri Cruise Is Definitely Not Tom Cruise's Only Child
When you think of Tom Cruise’s children, you probably think of Suri Cruise, his daughter who he shares with ex-wife, Katie Holmes. However, long before Suri was born, Cruise and his then-wife Nicole Kidman made the decision to adopt two children, Isabella and Connor.
According to PopSugar, the couple adopted Isabella, or Bella, in “the height of their married bliss,” ahead of their divorce in 2001. Three years later, a son named Connor was adopted. Both Isabella and Connor are now all grown up, and they have chosen to keep their lives out of the public eye and have remained in the Church of Scientology.
18 Ewan McGregor Is Notoriously Private, But A Proud Father
Actor Ewan McGregor and his now ex-wife, Eve Mavrakis, have four daughters and they adopted two of them. The couple is notoriously private about their personal lives, but what we do know is that he first spoke about their fourth child in 2011, during the promotion of his film, Beginners, Daily Mail reports. She is a girl named Anouk, however, she’s not the first child that the couple has adopted because they also have an adopted daughter named Jamiyan from Mongolia.
17 Cate Blanchett Had Been Discussing Adoption For Years Before She Got Her Daughter
Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton have a big brood. They have three biological sons named Dashiell, Roman, and Ignatius, who Blanchett told Harper's Bazaar U.K have become "extraordinary" big brothers to their adopted sister, Edith.
Blanchett and Upton adopted their daughter in 2015, after reportedly receiving a call that there was a baby in need of a home, E! News reports. But adoption was something that the couple had been discussing for many years, and she told Women in the World's Tina Brown (via Daily Mail) that they “began the conversation a very long time ago," after their first son, Dashiell, was born in 2001.
16 Viola Davis' Experience With Motherhood Has Changed Her Life In The Best Way
Viola Davis became a mother in 2011, when she and her husband Julius Tennon adopted their daughter, Genesis, when she was a baby. Davis spoke about motherhood in an interview with InStyle magazine, and how it had completely changed her life. She said,
"I always tell Genesis she was born from my heart, not my belly."
She also spoke about how adoption is a great way to become a parent, saying: "There are so many ways to mother rather than to carry a child in your body. So many children need parents, and so many of us want to mother. Know that you will experience motherhood to the full extent."
15 Fate Brought Meg Ryan And Her Daughter Daisy Together
Meg Ryan shares a son Jack with her former husband Dennis Quaid (the two divorced in 2001), but in 2006, she decided to adopt her daughter, Daisy True, as a single mom.
She spoke to Redbook magazine (via People) about how the adoption process in China — where Daisy is from — is like a lottery system, and her daughter was randomly assigned to her. But despite Daisy being assigned to Ryan, she is convinced there is “nothing random about it.” Adding, "She is the daughter I should have. I never felt like I was on a rescue mission or anything like that."
14 Katherine Heigl Prefers Adoption
Katherine Heigl and husband Joshua Kelly adopted their first daughter Naleigh from South Korea in 2009. Then in 2012, the couple adopted their second daughter, Adelaide, from the United States, USA Today reports. Heigl and Kelly were not done adding to their brood, and in 2016, they had their first biological child, a baby boy named Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr. Heigl told People,
“I actually prefer the adoption way because I wasn’t subject to hormones.”
But continued to say the only difference in raising her children was the hormones. She added, “The moment you hold your child, you’re wholly in love. And you’ll do anything to protect them and shelter them.”
13 George Lucas Has A Mixture Of Biological And Adopted Children
George Lucas is a filmmaker celebrated for his work on Star Wars, but something you may not have known about him is that he and wife Mellody Hobson welcomed their first biological child into the world in 2013, E! News reports. According to the publication, their daughter, Everest, was born via surrogate in August of 2013, but she wasn’t Lucas’ first child because he already had three adopted children Amanda, Katie, and Jett.
Amanda, the eldest of his children, was, according to The New York Post, adopted shortly before his split from first wife Marcia Griffin in 1983. Lucas later adopted the other two as a single father.
12 Denise Richards' Adopted Her Third Daughter As A Single Mom
Denise Richards had two daughters, Sam and Lola, with her ex-husband, Charlie Sheen, but as a single mom, she decided to add a third girl to her brood, a daughter, Eloise. In 2012, she spoke to People about her decision to adopt, saying that it came from a maternal instinct she could not ignore.
“I felt like I wasn’t done having children, and I’ve always wanted to have a large family.
And so after my divorce, I felt like, ‘Oh well, I’m sure I’ll soon enough get remarried and have my family [grow],’ and that wasn’t in the cards at the time, so I decided to expand my family on my own.”
11 Steven Spielberg Has Even More Kids Than Angelina Jolie
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has a lot of children, some biological and others adopted. According to All That’s Interesting, Spielberg has seven children in total; Max Spielberg from his marriage to first wife Amy Irving, his second wife Jessica Capshaw’s daughter Kate Capshaw, and the pair adopted Theo Spielberg, Sasha Spielberg, Sawyer Spielberg, George Mikaela Spielberg, and Destry Allen Spielberg. And to his children, Spielberg is just a regular dad, as People quotes him as saying,
“I’m not a great man to my children. I’m just Pop.
The more involved I am with my kids, it keeps my head flat on top.”
10 Emma Thompson Has A Very Special Young Man In Her Life
Emma Thompson already had a daughter Gaia with her husband Greg Wise, but the couple later decided to unofficially adopt a Rwandan refugee named Tindyebwa. According to The Australian, Tindyebwa was taken from his village when he was a child and forced to become a child soldier. He finally escaped and ended up in London, where he met Thompson at a Refugee Council event in 2003. He was 16.
In 2006, three years after meeting Tindyebwa, Thompson spoke to The Telegraph about her son and how “brilliant” he is. She also revealed that he calls her “mum.”
9 Walt Disney Was A Family Man And His Daughter Claims To Have Had A Great Childhood
When you think of Walt Disney you think of theme parks and childhood movies, but he was also a father to two daughters. According to CBS San Francisco, Walt’s wife, Lillian Disney, gave birth to their daughter, Diane Disney in 1933, and three years later, they added to their family with Sharon Mae Disney, who was adopted.
According to The Telegraph, in a rare interview, Diane Disney spoke about what it was like growing up with such a famous man. She revealed she had a happy childhood, and the family was close, dining together every evening.
8 Neve Campbell Is Madly In Love With Her Adopted Son
In 2018, Neve Campbell made headlines for the new man in her life, a baby boy who she named Raynor. Campbell and her partner, JJ Feild, adopted their son, and she took to Instagram to share the special moment in their lives by expressing how they were already “madly in love with him.”
According to People, Campbell gave birth to their first son, Caspian, in 2012, and her Instagram post revealed he loves being a big brother and is continually asking to hold, feed, and play with his little brother.
7 Hugh Jackman And Deborra-Lee Furness Adopted Two Beautiful Children
Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness have been married since 1996 (so they are one of Hollywood’s success stories) and the couple has two children, daughter Ava Eliot, and son Oscar Maximillian, both of whom they adopted.
Jackman spoke about the adoption journey with People, revealing that they tried to have children straight away because his wife was aged 40 when they married. He explained, “We struggled, a couple miscarriages, [in vitro fertilization] — it was not easy. It was difficult, obviously particularly on Deb. I remember saying to her, 'We were always going to adopt — let’s just adopt now.'"
6 Calista Flockhart's Son Brought Joy Into Her Home, And Relationship With Harrison Ford
Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford have been dating since 2002, finally tying the knot in 2010, but a few months before she met the actor, she decided to adopt as a single mom. Flockhart adopted her son, Liam, in 2001.
The couple now raise Liam together, and in 2009, Ford spoke about the experience of raising yet another child, but this time later in life. He told Reader’s Digest: “She’s brought a child back into my home.” He also spoke about how it was a “wonderful opportunity to be part of a child’s growing up.”
5 Ty Burrell Says Having Children Brought Him Closer To His Wife
We know Ty Burrell as one of the most famous dad’s on TV, thanks to his role in the hit series, Modern Family, but he is also a dad in real-life. He and wife, Holly Burrell, adopted their first child, Frances, in 2010, and their second, Greta, in 2012.
When Burrell and his wife adopted their first daughter, he was happy to share his thoughts on adding a child to their relationship, telling People it had brought them closer. He said, “There’s lots of problem-solving in any marriage, but when you have this collective goal that is a human being, it’s an inspiring rally point.”
4 Sheryl Crow's Boys Changed Her Life Forever, And For The Better
Sheryl Crow is a proud mom to two sons, both of whom she adopted from the United States. Crow adopted her children as a single mother, first Wyatt, in 2007, and just three years later, she adopted Levi in 2010. In 2017, Crow spoke about motherhood and her boys, revealing how much her life has changed since she became a mom. She told People,
“Adopting my boys, that’s just been the biggest everlasting event that has informed everything, and really for the better.”
She also spoke about how she didn’t want to spend any more time away from home after she became a mama.
3 Sharon Stone Wanted To Adopt Since She Was Young
Sharon Stone must love being a mom because she didn’t adopt just one, but three children, and they are all boys. The first was her son Roan Joseph Bronstein, who was born in 2000, who she adopted with her husband at the time, Phil Bronstein.
Following their divorce four years later, Stone decided to add to her brood, and according to CBS News, in 2005 she adopted Laird Vonne and the following year Quinn Kelly.
Stone’s sons are her whole world, and she revealed as much in an interview with Closer Weekly. But she has also shared with AARP that she always planned to adopt, saying, “I always thought I would adopt. Even when I was young, I used to look up how to adopt.”
2 Jamie Lee Curtis Thinks Adoption Is A Beautiful Way To Start A Family
Jamie Lee Curtis adopted two children with her husband, Christopher Guest; a daughter named Annie, and a son, Thomas. But what makes Curtis different to so many other celebs featured on this list, is that she has also spoken out about the difficulties of the adoption process. She told Parents magazine (according to the blog, Kris and Robert Adopt),
“Adoption is a very complicated road filled with incredibly emotional and challenging aspects.”
She acknowledged it was a “beautiful” way to start a family, but also wanted others to be aware that there is a lot of sensitive subjects and emotions involved that need to be navigated carefully.
1 Sandra Bullock Didn't Need A Man To Become A Mama
In 2010, Sandra Bullock made the decision to become a mom as a single parent. She adopted a son, Louis Bardo Bullock, who was born in New Orleans. This was a little boy she had wanted in her life for a long time, and according to CBS News, she had started the process with her former husband Jesse James, although their relationship ended after it emerged that he had been unfaithful.
Bullock later added to her family by adopting her daughter Laila from a foster care system, Sydney Morning Herald reports.
References: PopSugar, Daily Mail, E! News, Daily Mail, E! News, People, USA Today, People, E! News, New York Times, People, All That's Interesting, People, The Australian
