In our society, we’re used to seeing celebrities flaunt their children for social media likes and lucrative endorsements. After all, what better saves a star’s flagging career than cashing in on their adorable mini-mes? However, other celebs take a different route and, if they don’t keep their kids out of the press, opt to deny their existence altogether. This is largely done because they doubt the child’s paternity or think some nobody is trying to cash in on a long-ago tryst. Sometimes, these secret love children are kept in the dark for months, and other times it lasts for decades.
These 20 celebs – all male, naturally – have since ‘fessed up to being the daddy or have slipped away, sending checks to pay for the product of their late-night antics. Who needs Maury Povich when we can say unequivocally that these 20 celebs ARE the father?
20 Bow Wow
Rapper Bow Wow now has a “lil” of his own! It took years for Bow Wow to admit that he had become a father with baby mama Joie Chaves, to a daughter named Shai who was born back in 2011. It wasn’t until Bow Wow admitted on his website that he was a dad a few months after Shai’s birth that the news was finally made public.
19 Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy has loads of baby mama drama, thanks to being the father of 10 children with five different women! The most drama was had with former Spice Girl Melanie Brown, who claimed Murphy was the father of her daughter Angel – a claim Murphy vehemently denied. It took a paternity test to determine that Murphy was the dad.
18 Gavin Rossdale
Shaking their marriage at the time, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale and No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani were floored to learn that Rossdale was the father of daughter Daisy Lowe with fashion designer Pearl Lowe, with whom he’d had a brief fling in the 1980s. It wasn’t until Daisy was 15 that – via a DNA test – it was revealed that Rossdale was her dad.
17 Pauly D
Jersey Shore has no shortage of personal drama, and even Pauly D got in on the action with some baby mama shenanigans. Following a Vegas DJ gig, Pauly D hooked up with Amanda Markert, which produced a daughter, Amabella. Markert tried to pass off Amabella as the offspring of her then-boyfriend, and it wasn’t until later that Pauly D was revealed to be the daddy.
16 Steven Tyler
Sometimes, the kids just know! According to model Bebe Buell, daughter Liv Tyler guessed that Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler was her real father, and not Buell’s boyfriend Todd Rundgren. Bonding between the Tyler ensued and it wasn’t until five years after the revelation that the public learned the truth – when Liv legally changed her last name.
15 Chris Brown
He doesn’t have the best track record with women, but perhaps his daughter can change that! Stepping out during his relationship with Karrueche Tran, Brown impregnated model Nia Gonzalez. Their tryst produced a daughter, Royalty, whom Tran only learned about when the child was nine months old, which prompted her to hit the road.
14 Arnold Schwarzenegger
Keeping his love child a secret for quite a while, Schwarzenegger actually had a baby with the family maid, Mildred Baena. News of the actor and former governor’s indiscretion didn’t come to light until the son, Joseph, was a teenager, which led to the dissolution of Schwarzenegger’s marriage with wife Maria Schriver.
13 Flo Rida
Sometimes even science won’t let people believe the truth. After hooking up with Alexis Adams in December 2015, rapper Flo Rida soon became a father to son Zohar Paxton. The thing is, Flo Rida refused to believe he was the dad, despite a DNA test proving otherwise. To this day, the rapper has no relationship with his son.
12 Liam Gallagher
Infidelity is often what leads to secret love children, as was the case with Oasis frontman Gallagher, who was married to singer Nicole Appleton when he became a father to daughter Gemma by journalist Liza Ghorbani. The two still have no relationship and have fought in court for millions of dollars. Gallagher is also the dad to three other kids.
11 James Marsden
With two kids already and an 11-year-long marriage, actors James Marsden’s good life fell apart, which led to him jumping back into the dating scene – and knocking up model Rose Costa. Marsden hid his role in the pregnancy for months, only admitting that son William Luca Costa-Marsden was his after the baby’s birth.
10 Busta Rhymes
Another example of someone ignoring DNA test results was Busta Rhymes, whose relationship with Jill Miskelly ended up producing a daughter, Mariah Elizabeth, in 1998. Rhymes maintains no contact with his daughter (despite having four other kids: T’Ziah, T’Khi, Trillian, and Cacie), although he did voluntarily pay child support since January 1999.
9 Jude Law
Jude Law has a reputation for being a bit of a ladies’ man, especially in the early- to mid-2000s, which saw him step out on actress Sienna Miller and his previous wife Sadie Frost. Law ended up having two surprise kids, first with model Samantha Burke in 2008 and then with Catherine Harding in 2015. In total, Law has five children from three women.
8 Drake
Sometimes rap beef is where the truth lies, and listeners were shocked when rapper Pusha T alluded to Drake being a daddy to a kid he never saw. Drake’s reps initially denied paternity of his son with adult star Sophie Brussaux, but the rapper has since admitted to being the father to Adonis, and the former couple is on much better terms since.
7 Chuck Norris
How’s this for keeping a child secret? Chuck Norris waited over 40 YEARS before revealing that he had fathered a daughter back in 1962, which he disclosed in his book, which was published in 2004! Norris himself didn’t know about daughter Dina until she wrote to him in 1991, and he didn’t ask for a DNA test, deciding upon meeting her that they looked alike.
6 Eric Clapton
1991 was the year for revealed love children, as it was the same year that musician Eric Clapton learned that he had a daughter, Ruth, who was born in 1985 following his affair with Yvonne Kelly. Despite her secretive beginnings, the two became close, although they later had a falling out in 2015 over Ruth’s social media over-sharing.
5 Clint Eastwood
We all know about Clint Eastwood’s lookalike son Scott, but less is known about his secret love child Kimber, who was born back in 1964. Eastwood didn’t own up to being the daddy until 1996 – and he’s done the same things two more times! After fathering two children (including Scott) with flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves in the 1980s, he didn’t admit paternity until 2002!
4 Oscar de la Hoya
Money talks, and, in the case of Oscar de la Hoya, it helps admit paternity. Back in 1999, the boxer became a dad to daughter Atiana with Playboy model Shanna Moakler, but de la Hoya denied he was the father until later in 2000. This was after Moakler hit him with a $62.5 million lawsuit! They settled out of court.
3 Donald Glover
Who knew that Childish Gambino had a child of his own? It actually wasn’t until Glover accepted his Golden Globe for his show Atlanta that the world learned that he had a son! It was later revealed that Glover’s son – named Legend – is his first with girlfriend Michelle White, who is also the mother of his second child, another son whose name hasn’t been disclosed.
2 Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant has a bit of a naughty past when it comes to his womanizing, but it wasn’t until he was the ripe old age of 53 that the British actor became a father. During his on-off relationship with receptionist Tinglan Hong, he had two children by her, as well as one with TV producer Anna Eberstein. He now has five children.
1 Charlie Heaton
Who knew the Stranger Things star was a daddy? Considering the fact that Charlie Heaton was a bit of an unknown prior to the Netflix series, it’s only natural that he’d have a few skeletons in his closet. One of those is his secret baby boy with ex-girlfriend Akiko Matsuura, who was born back in 2014. Heaton’s son is named Archie.
