While we often hear about celebrities adopting children domestically and abroad, there are just as many fascinating stories about celebrities who were adopted as children and how their lives were forever transformed as a result.
Families formed through adoption frequently have fascinating stories about how parents and children met.
In honor of National Adoption Month, we’ve compiled a list of adopted celebrities and the incredible adventures that put them on the fast track to success.
Furthermore, we all came from various backgrounds as children. Even though celebrities live extravagant lives and have the means to do so, many do not have an easy childhood.
Many didn’t have the typical upbringing that most people do; several superstars have had unusual childhoods.
Additionally, several celebrities were adopted as children, whether they admit it or not.
Many children have been adopted through traditional means, while other family members have adopted others since their Biological Parents were unable to care for them.
Regardless, these well-known celebrities had unusual upbringings that shaped them into the people we know and love today.
Some of the Celebrities who were adopted are listed below;
1. Colin Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick is an athlete and activist born to a white mother and an African-American father who divorced before he was born. Furthermore, Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, a white couple who had already lost two kids to birth problems, adopted him when he was five weeks old.
The Kaepernicks could not acquire a white baby through a private adoption agency. So when a multiracial newborn boy became available, they adopted him and named him Colin, whom Teresa described as her “ideal child.
2. Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson is also on our list of celebrities who were adopted. Unusually, Jack Nicholson discovered he was adopted.
When Jack was marketing his most recent film in 1974, he found some surprising details regarding his birth, including that the woman he referred to as “mom” wasn’t indeed his mother. Additionally, Jack always assumed that everything with his family was OK and normal until he was 37.
However, his “mother” was his maternal grandmother, and his “sister” was his mother. The revelation took Jack aback since he had lived in denial for nearly 40 years.
3. Nicole Richie
Nicole’s birth parents were Lionel Richie’s friends, and they agreed to let Nicole live with Lionel and his then-wife, Brenda, for a period.
Additionally, they decided to grant Lionel and Brenda full custody of Nicole Richie after understanding they could provide her with a better life. Lionel and Brenda agreed to adopt her when she was nine years old.
4. Frances McDormand
The two-time Academy Award winner was born in Chicago and was adopted by a Canadian couple living in the United States when she was a baby.
Additionally, Vernon, her adopted father, was a Disciples of Christ minister, and the actress has speculated that her biological mother was a follower of the Church.
5. Ray Liotta
Ray Liotta is also on our list of celebrities who were adopted. His parents, Mary and Alfred Liotta, adopted him when he was six months old.
Ray’s parents were also quite upfront with him about his adoption, as his sister had been adopted as well.
Additionally, he wondered why he was adopted as a child, often feeling upset, and why his biological mother didn’t want him.
Nevertheless, he didn’t find his birth parents until he was in his late forties, and only then did he understand why she did what she did, making him tremendously grateful for his adoptive parents.
6. Steve Jobs
When he was in college, his birth mother put him up for adoption because her parents disapproved of her dating a Syrian Muslim immigrant.
Paul and Clara Jobs adopted him, and they eventually adopted another kid, Job’s sister.
Job’s Biological parents later married and produced a child together, Mona Simpson, Job’s biological sister.
7. Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton is also one of the celebrities who were adopted. William Jefferson Blythe III, the former president, was born in Hope, Arkansas, in 1946.
His father passed away three months before his birth. However, his mother left him with his grandparents, Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, until she returned four years later to study nursing in New Orleans. When she married Roger Clinton, Sr., he adopted Bill, 15.
8. Faith Hill
Faith Hill was adopted by her parents in Mississippi when she was just a few days old. Her adoptive parents were very open about her adoption throughout her youth, ensuring she understood and felt at ease.
Even though she was thankful and understanding, Faith Hill struggled to fit in with the rest of the group. In 1993, she decided to track down her Birthmother.
Faith had no idea what to say or do when she first met her face-to-face or what to anticipate.
In addition, she couldn’t believe she was meeting someone biologically connected to her, and she couldn’t help but gaze at her at first.
Regardless, she is grateful for both her adoptive and biological parents.
9. Jamie Foxx
After being born to young parents, Jamie was adopted by his maternal grandparents when he was seven months old.
Jamie’s grandmother, Esther Talley, significantly influenced his life, and he often praised her.
10. Keegan-Michael Key
Keegan-Michael Key is also on our list of adopted celebrities. The Key and Peele star was reared in Detroit after being adopted as a newborn by Michigan social services.
Additionally, he met his biological mother when he was older and discovered he had two brothers who had died.
However, it appears that innate talent was in Key’s blood from the start: Dwayne McDuffie, a comic book writer and producer of Justice League 10, was one of his two biological siblings.
11. Sarah McLachlan
Sarah McLachlan is an American singer and composer who was adopted as a child. Judy James, her biological mother, gave birth to her in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Furthermore, her mother gave her up for adoption, and she was reared by Jack and Dorice McLachlan, the couple who adopted her.
Additionally, Sarah grew up with two elder brothers, so she wasn’t the only child in the family. Stewart and Ian McLachlan, her brothers, had something in common with their sister: they were both adopted.
12. Kristin Chenoweth
Next on our list of celebrities who were adopted is Kristin Chenoweth. Kristin Chenoweth is a Broadway star and an extraordinary talent.
What are some things that fans may not be aware of? She, too, was adopted. She was adopted into her family when she was just five years old, and they were pretty open and honest with her about it.
Additionally, her biological mother was young and unprepared to bear children, and she ended up with her current family.
However, she considers being adopted one of the most extraordinary things that ever happened to her since it has formed her into the person she is today.
13. Yankees Aaron Judge
The New York Yankees outfielder, adopted by Wayne and Patty Judge the day after he was born, has never contacted his original parents and is incredibly close to his adoptive parents.
Judge also stated, “I know I wouldn’t be a New York Yankee if it weren’t for my mother.”
“Knowing the difference between right and wrong, how to treat others, and how to go the additional mile and put in extra work were all things my mother taught me as a child. She has shaped me into the person I am now.”
14. Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi
Nicole Polizzi is also on our list of adopted celebrities. “Snooki” has been candid about her childhood, and we’ve known her since her time on Jersey Shore.
Helen and Andrew Polizzi adopted Nicole when she was just six months old. Nicole was born in Chile, and her parents traveled there to pick her up and bring her back to the United States.
Furthermore, Snooki stated that she does not consider her parents to be adoptive parents, but rather her parents and has never thought of them differently.
However, she was never concerned that she was adopted as a child, and she doesn’t perceive herself any differently now – as she should!
15. Nelson Mandela
Following the death of his parents, the late Nobel Peace Prize recipient and activist was adopted by an entire tribe. Mandela was born into the Thembu tribe and adopted the chief when his father died at nine.
The tribe owed his father thanks for his role in bringing them to power, and Mandela’s adoption was their way of repaying him.
16. Melissa Gilbert
Melissa Gilbert was adopted by actor and comedian Paul Gilbert and his wife, actress Barbara Crane, the day after birth.
She landed the coveted part of Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie because of her upbringing in a show business family. (On the hit NBC show, her adopted brother Jonathan also starred.)
Additionally, Melissa’s parents split when she was eight years old, and her mother remarried and gave birth to Melissa’s half-sister, Sara Gilbert. The latter featured on Roseanne and its remake, The Conners. Melissa Gilbert is also on the list of celebrities who were adopted.
17. JC Chasez
JC Chasez is most known for his time as a member of the NSYNC boyband. Fans already know a lot about JC. But they may not realize that he was adopted when he was five years old.
JC’s Birth mother raised him until he was five years old, when she decided it was too difficult to care for a child. His biological mother had a difficult childhood due to being placed in a foster home as a child.
Furthermore, the people who had fostered her were the couple she wanted to give JC. Roy and Karen Chasez, she knew, would take care of her kid in a way that she couldn’t.
18. Simone Biles
Next on our list of celebrities who were adopted is Simone Biles. Simone Biles is now regarded as one of the best gymnasts in the world.
She’s worked and trained hard to become the successful gymnast she is today, winning numerous Olympic medals and contests. Her Birth mother was addicted to drugs and alcohol when she was growing up, so she didn’t have the easiest childhood.
In addition, she was placed in foster care when she was three years old because her mother could not care for her. Her biological grandparents continued to visit her while she was in foster care.
However, her grandparents eventually adopted her; she now refers to them as Mom and Dad.
19. Keyshia Cole
Family friends Leon and Yvonne Cole adopted Keyshia when she was two. Due to her drug addiction, her biological mother has come and gone in and out of her life.
After receiving a paternity test in 2016, Keyshia met her biological father, Virgil Hunter, a well-known boxing trainer.
20. Ice T
He was born and raised in Summit, New Jersey. When he was in third grade, his mother died of a heart attack, and four years later, his father died of a heart attack.
Additionally, he relocated to South Central Los Angeles after his parents died, where his aunt raised him.
21. Tim McGraw
Last on our list of celebrities who were adopted is Tim McGraw, Hill’s husband.
Additionally, McGraw didn’t realize his stepfather, Horace Smith, was his biological father until he was 11 years old when he discovered his birth certificate.
Tim Smith had been his name up to that point. Furthermore, Tim’s mother took him to meet his biological father, minor league baseball pitcher Frank Edwin “Tug” McGraw, Jr., who denied paternity until he was eighteen years old.
Following that, the two men began dating.
