15 Famous Celebrities Who Adopted Children

Rosemary January 15, 2024 | 11:01

Can you name some celebs who adopt children? Do you know stories behind their decision? Check out Top 15 Celebrities Who Adopted Children and learn their stories.

15 Famous Celebrities Who Adopted Children

Top 15 Celebrities Who Adopted Children

Table of Contents
Top 15 Celebrities Who Have Adopted Children 1. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt 3. Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman 4. Viola Davis 5. Sandra Bullock 6. Willie Garson 7. Sia 8. Saira Khan 9. Meg Ryan 10. Ewan McGregor 11. Charlize Theron 12. Emma Thompson 13. Katherine Heigl and Joshua Kelley 14. Julie Andrews 15. Michelle Pfeiffer Conclusion

If you are a parent, your children are the most important part of your life. That is true whether you have biological children or have chosen to adopt.

The urge to become a parent or expand an existing family may envelop anyone, famous or not, whether it is motivated by fertility or a desire to aid a child in need. After all, every child deserves to live in a safe and caring household.

Top 15 Celebrities Who Have Adopted Children

1. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie's name is no longer unfamiliar; she is a well-known figure not just in the arts, but also for her adoption of children. She currently has six children: three biological and three adopted from three separate nations. Her adoption has provided the orphans with a new family and home, something that not everyone is able to achieve.

Jolie adopted her first kid, Maddox, from Cambodia in 2002, along with her ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton. Jolie adopted Zahara from Ethiopia in 2005. Later that year, it was reported that Pitt intended to adopt both children, and in 2006, the children's surname was altered to Jolie-Pitt. A year later, Jolie adopted her son Pax as a single parent (unmarried couples are not permitted to adopt in Vietnam). Pitt had formally adopted all three children by the time their wedding took place in August 2014. Custody of their six children (the couple also has three biological children) is said to be one of the main reasons divorce negotiations have taken so long.

2. Madonna

Madonna has four adopted children, David Banda, Mercy James, and twins Stella and Estere. All four were born in Malawi, Africa. She adopted son David in 2006, and daughter Mercy in 2009. Eight years later, she had twin daughters Stella and Estere.

She also has a biological daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, with Carlos Leon, and a biological son, Rocco Ritchie, with her ex-husband, Guy Ritchie.

3. Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman adopted two infants in 2001, just before their divorce. Connor and Isabella, now 25 and 27, respectively, decided to live with their father, Tom Cruise. They did not live with Kidman because of their differing beliefs in Scientology.

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman both have biological children, though not together. Kidman has two gorgeous daughters with her husband, Keith Urban. Sunday Rose Kidman Urban is twelve, and Faith Margaret Kidman Urban is nine years old. Tom Cruise has a 14-year-old biological daughter with ex Katie Holmes. Her name is Suri.

4. Viola Davis

Viola Davis and husband Julius Tennon decided to expand their family through adoption. In 2011, the Academy Award winner adopted her daughter, Genesis.

"I always tell Genesis she was born from my heart, not my belly," said Viola Davis to InStyle in 2015. "There are so many ways to mother rather than to carry a child in your body."

5. Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock adopted her son Louis during her divorce from Jesse James, and five years later, she adopted daughter Laila. Bullock adopted both children from Louisiana's foster care system. When she revealed Laila's adoption, she described her family as "blended and diverse, nutty, loving, and understanding".

In December 2015, the Bird Box actress claimed that she kept her second adoption a secret to demonstrate her ability to maintain a regular home environment for her children. She likened the secrecy to life in the Witness Protection Program.

6. Willie Garson

Actor Willie Garson, who was most known for his role as Stanford Blatch on Sex and the City before passing away at the age of 57, was also a single father of one. He adopted his 7-year-old son Nathen in 2009. He told PEOPLE about the choice, stating, "We had a smooth transition because we both wanted this adoption." I've always wanted to be a father."

7. Sia

In May 2020, the Chandelier singer disclosed that in 2019, she adopted two adolescent boys who were about to age out of foster care.

Sia told SiriusXM that her boys were "both finding [quarantine] pretty difficult, one more so than the other". She went on to say, "But they're both doing things that are quite beneficial to them right now. They're performing a lot of educational activities that are beneficial to them.

During an interview in October 2020, she discussed how her parenting was progressing. "The entire system is so underfunded and understaffed that there are not enough people to really monitor how the kids are being taken care of," Sia said in an interview with InStyle. "And now my sons very much want to be a part of that change, so I am trying to give them the resources to do that."

8. Saira Khan

The Loose Women panelist and her husband Steve have two children: Zac (12) and Amara (10). The couple adopted their daughter Amara from an orphanage in Pakistan, where Saira's family is from, after undergoing IVF two years prior. Her daughter was abandoned as a baby and cared for by the Edhi Foundation in Karachi. The mother of two burst into tears as she discussed the process of adopting her daughter. "All I remember is when they put her in my arms, she was mine," she added. That was it. I stared into these large eyes, and they were staring back at me like that."

9. Meg Ryan

Ryan had a grown son, actor Jack Henry Quaid, with ex-husband Dennis Quaid when she decided to adopt a 14-month-old Chinese daughter named Daisy True in 2007. When I met Ryan in 2010 and told her I was also the mother of a girl adopted from China, we talked about how we both felt fated to be mothers to our girls. She told me, "I am very certain that there was nothing random about it. She's the daughter I should have. We're perfect for each other. I have a biological son and am now an adoptive parent, and my feelings of love remain the same."

10. Ewan McGregor

McGregor and his wife Eve Mavrakis have four daughters together, one of which is adopted from Mongolia. The actor separated from his wife in 2017 and has since been in a romance with his Fargo co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

11. Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron's two children, Jackson and August, were adopted three years apart in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Although she usually keeps her personal life secret, she did post a nice photo of her eldest child wearing a red outfit on Instagram in 2019. She explained Jackson's choice of attire to the Daily Mail. "Yes, I assumed she was a boy, too. Until she looked at me when she was three and exclaimed, 'I am not a guy!'" Charlize said, "So there you go! I have two lovely girls who, like any parent, I want to protect and see prosper.

12. Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson and her husband informally adopted a former Rwandan child soldier when he was 16. Thompson stated in March 2010 that she met Tindyebwa Agaba (whom she refers to as Tindy) at a Refugee Council function. He was sleeping on the streets of London at the time, having fled his home country, Rwanda. Thompson encouraged him to stay for Christmas, and he's remained a member of the family ever since.

The actress went on to say, "Slowly, he became a sort of permanent fixture, came on holiday to Scotland with us, became part of the family."

Thompson also has a biological daughter, Gaia, who suffered with IVF following her birth before adopting Agaba.

13. Katherine Heigl and Joshua Kelley

Katherine Heigl and her husband, Josh Kelley, adopted their children, Naleigh and Adelaide.

Heigl told Scholastic News in 2011, "I always knew I wanted to adopt." In 2009, Heigl and Kelley adopted Naleigh from South Korea. She was a special needs infant with a congenital cardiac condition that required open-heart surgery.

14. Julie Andrews

Andrews and her husband adopted their daughters Amy and Joanna when they were just two and five months old, respectively. The two did not have biological children together, but they did have children from past marriages.

Andrews discussed her large family in 2015, saying, "In addition to being a stepmother, I am also an adoptive mother. I have a natural-born daughter, Blake has two children, and we also adopted two. "Can you imagine the disarray?"

15. Michelle Pfeiffer

Pfeiffer and Kelley (creator of "Ally McBeal," "Boston Legal," "Big Little Lies," "Big Sky," and more) met on a blind date while she was adopting her daughter Claudia. Three months later, the adoption was finalized, and Kelley and Pfeiffer married shortly after. Claudia's christening occurred on the same day in November 1993.

Pfeiffer gave birth to their son, John, in 1994.

"I was astonished by the prejudice shown in some quarters regarding my intention to adopt a mixed-race baby. It's astonishing that people still place so much attention on this. None of us are pure anything. We are all a blend. Claudia is a stunning child," Pfeiffer told The Independent in 2007.

"As a mother of both an adopted child and my own biological child, there is no difference in the immense love I feel for both of them. I've always wanted to adopt a child and have my own. There is no difference at all," she added.

Conclusion

Statistics suggest that about 135,000 children are adopted in the United States each year. Celebrities are among the families that have welcomed others' children into their homes.

On the one hand, those children are really fortunate to enter a life of fame and money, but the most important thing is that they are loved and well cared for. Every celebrity has a tale to tell about their desire to adopt children.