25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were Adopted

Simone Biles

During a particularly intimate moment during her time on Dancing with the Stars, Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles opened up about her own adoption, noting that her biological mother suffered from drug and alcohol abuse. Biles’s grandfather and his wife adopted the gymnast, making them her mom and dad—and making her one of the most famous people who were adopted.

“My parents saved me,” she said. “They’ve set huge examples of how to treat other people, and they’ve been there to support me since day one. There’s nothing I could say to them to thank them enough.”

Steve Jobs

Adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, a couple who had been unable to have children, Apple founder Steve Jobs grew up in the part of Northern California now known as Silicon Valley with his adoptive sister, Patti. Though he never met his birth parents, he did meet a biological sister, Mona Simpson, when he was 27.

He even went on to describe Simpson as “one of my best friends in the world,” the Telegraph reports. However close he became with her, the tech icon was always quick to point out that his adoptive parents were the only parents he ever knew.

Kristin Chenoweth

Impacted by the film Lion, which addresses adoption, Kristin Chenoweth chose to share her own adoption story in a personal essay. “Can honestly say being adopted was one of the best things to ever happen to me,” she wrote on HuffPost.

“It was never something that was hidden from me, and it is not something I have ever been ashamed of. I recognize how fortunate I am to have parents who love and support me unconditionally. The fact that they are not my biological parents does not change the fact that they are, simply, my parents.”

Nelson Mandela

One of the most influential and famous adopted people is South African activist, former president and Nobel Prize winner Nelson Mandela. Nine-year-old Mandela was adopted after his father passed away in 1927. He joined the family of Jongintaba Dalindyebo, a leader of the Thembu tribe who lived in the South African village of Mvezo. Dalindyebo saw the potential in Mandela and encouraged him to become a young leader within the tribe. The rest, as they say, is history.

Frances McDormand

Academy Award winner Frances McDormand was adopted when she was 18 months old. Her parents, Noreen McDormand and Rev. Vernon McDormand, worked as a nurse and an evangelical preacher, respectively. The McDormands also adopted two other children and moved around the country quite frequently to help reinvigorate congregations that needed assistance.

Another interesting fact about McDormand’s life is that she, too, adopted a child. Her son, Pedro, joined her family in 1995.

Keegan-Michael Key

A Michigan native, actor Keegan-Michael Key was adopted at a young age by two social workers and raised in Detroit. When he was 25 years old, Key found his biological mother. “I know my biological mother quite well, and we have a wonderful, wonderful relationship,” he said in an interview with NPR.

Maya Angelou

Born Marguerite Johnson, treasured poet Maya Angelou lived with her parents in St. Louis, Missouri, until she was 3 years old, when her parents divorced and sent her to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with her grandmother. Although her grandmother did not legally adopt her, she spent much of her childhood under her roof.

Jamie Foxx

On his Fox game show Beat Shazam, Jamie Foxx brings the funny during the lighthearted (but tense) rounds of contestants trying to win money. During one particular episode, however, Foxx got teary-eyed by a couple trying to win money to send their adopted children to college and shared his own story.

“You know what’s amazing?” he said. “I was adopted at 7 months, and I’m going to tell you what that means. My grandmother? That’s not actually my biological grandmother. That’s somebody who said, ‘I see something in that little boy that’s very special.'”

Debbie Harry

At the age of 4, Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry learned that she had been adopted as an infant. In an interview with MOJO magazine, Harry admits that the relationship she shared with her parents wasn’t always smooth, particularly when she decided to pursue music as a career. ”Unfortunately for me, or unfortunately for my parents, I was determined to be an artist,” she says. “And of course, they weren’t artists, and the whole idea of it was barbaric. My mother came from a family that thought artists were the slime of the Earth. I think it was frightening for them because they, of course, were trying to protect me.”

Ted Danson

Adopted at a young age, actor Ted Danson went on to later adopt children with his second wife, Cassandra Coates. As for his own childhood, Danson told AARP that he always felt like money was tight. The family didn’t own a TV, and he generally looked like a “ragamuffin.” But his parents had the important stuff down. “There wasn’t a day that went by that I wasn’t told that I was loved in one form or another,” he said.

John Lennon

Next on our list of famous adopted people: prolific songwriter and beloved musician John Lennon. Though not formally adopted, John Lennon was raised by his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George after his parents separated—an arrangement that deeply shaped his early years. The couple took him in at their home in Liverpool, where Mimi became a steady (and famously strict) presence in his life.

Faith Hill

As a child, Faith Hill’s parents told her she was adopted, but the story behind how and why that happened was misconstrued, likely to spare her feelings. Hill’s biological parents went on to marry and have another child after she was given up for adoption.

In her 20s, she found her biological mother but “kept the relationship at bay,” she told E! News. She eventually found and met her biological brother as well.

Colin Kaepernick

Teresa and Rick Kaepernick adopted son Colin Kaepernick when he was 5 weeks old. The NFL player’s parents came under fire when they initially remained silent about the controversy surrounding Colin’s decision to kneel during the National Anthem because of his views on the way the U.S. treats minorities.

“As his parents, it pains us to read articles and tweets saying that his family does not support him; this could not be further from the truth,” Teresa and Rick said jointly. “We want people to know that we are very proud of our son and admire his strength and courage in kneeling for the rights of others.”

Dave Thomas

Perhaps one of the most public proponents of adoption was Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas. He was adopted at just 6 weeks old. After experiencing career success with the fast-food chain named after his youngest daughter (Thomas had five children), he set up the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, helping unite children in foster care with their forever families.

Sarah McLachlan

When she learned she had been adopted, Sarah McLachlan recalls taking the news in stride. “I think I was about 9,” she told Parents (in a now-archived interview). “And even then, it wasn’t a big deal. It was like, ‘Oh, OK, good to know. You’re still my mom and dad.'”

Later in life, McLachlan did meet her biological mother, an artist who gave birth to her at the age of 19. Speaking with Rolling Stone, she explained, “I don’t want to hurt my birth mother either, but my mother is my mother. To me, it’s fascinating to know my birth mother, gene-wise. That’s really it. My mom and dad gave me a wonderful life.”

Ray Liotta

For Ray Liotta, knowing he was adopted shaped some of the roles he chose throughout his acting career. For example, his part in The Identical appealed to him because of his personal history. “I found my birth mother, and found out I have not an identical twin but a half brother, five half sisters and a full sister that I didn’t know about until 15 years ago,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014.

Liz Phair

Musician Liz Phair has been very vocal about being adopted, applauding the way her parents relayed the information to her and her brother, who is also adopted. “My parents were very responsible,” she told Women’s Health. “They said, ‘We wanted you more than anything in the whole world.’ They were perfect about it.” Phair has never tried to find her biological parents.

JC Chasez

NSYNC’s JC Chasez keeps a relatively private life, but he has quietly discussed being adopted at the age of 5. “I was aware of the whole [adoption],” Chasez said during a radio interview. “I know who my mother is. She raised me up until I was 5. I have a very clear idea of who she was. She knew who my parents were because she was actually fostered by them at one point because she had been through a lot in her life at a young age. That’s how I ended up being adopted. She reached out to the people she trusted.”

Nicole Richie

If you saw the interactions between Nicole Richie and her dad, Lionel Richie, on her mid-2000s reality show, Candidly Nicole, you know they are like two peas in a pod. The “Hello” singer adopted Nicole at a young age, when he noticed her biological parents, who weren’t getting along particularly well at the time, seemed to struggle to care for the little girl.

“I knew her mother and father … and I said, ‘While you are having difficulty, the kid is sitting in limbo. Put her in my house; when the tour is over, we will sort this out,'” Lionel said in an interview with Piers Morgan. Not more than a year after that, he went on to legally adopt Nicole.

Melissa Gilbert

Actress Melissa Gilbert was adopted as a newborn. So new, in fact, she was only a day old when she became the daughter of Paul Gilbert and Barbara Crane, both of whom were also actors.

The Little House on the Prairie star would eventually learn that her biological parents had come from previous marriages, each with three children of their own, and were concerned they could not financially support another, according to Biography.com.

Andy Dick

Both comedian Andy Dick and his late brother Jeff were adopted by Allen and Sue Dick, a Navy family whose life on the move took them from Charleston, South Carolina to Yugoslavia. With Allen serving as a nuclear submarine officer, the brothers grew up across continents, experiencing the type of childhood that’s familiar to many in military households.

Scott Hamilton

Figure skater Scott Hamilton was adopted as an infant, raised by a loving family that made adoption a wonderful experience for him. Because of this positive experience with his own adoptive parents, Hamilton and his wife adopted two Haitian children, Evelyne and her brother, Jean Paul, when they were 11 and 13, respectively.

“We fell in love with these kids two years ago, and it took us that long to bring them home,” he said in an interview on Today.

Michael Bay

Movie director Michael Bay tells Rolling Stone he was about 5 or six 6 old when he found out he was adopted and didn’t find the news all that surprising. He says that he also recalls picking up his younger sister from an orphanage when he was 3 years old.

“Afterward, we had a big family party, and I was all upset,” he says in the interview. “I took my milk and poured it on the floor.” Well, adopted or not, it seems sibling rivalries and jealousy are universal.

Eric Clapton

Music icon Eric Clapton did not know that the people he believed to be his parents were actually his grandparents (mother and stepfather to his biological mom Patricia, who gave birth to him as a teen) until later in life. Clapton wasn’t legally adopted by the couple, but that clearly did not impact the love he received growing up in the (not surprisingly) musical household.

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi

Beyond her former hard-partying Jersey Shore persona, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi has an interesting story to tell: She was adopted from Santiago, Chile, when she was 6 months old.

“[My parents] flew all the way to Chile to come pick me up, and they said that right when they saw me, I was like, ‘Mama. Dada.’ So it was, like, meant to be. I could tell because, you know, things just work out that way. It’s called fate,” Polizzi shared in a video on her YouTube channel.

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Sources:

• The Telegraph: “Steve Jobs: adopted child who never met his biological father”
• The Guardian: “Frances McDormand: two defining roles, two decades apart”
• NPR: “For Key And Peele, Biracial Roots Bestow Special Comedic ‘Power'”
• YouTube: “My Adoption Story”
• Women’s Health: “A Conversation with Singer Liz Phair”
• E! News: “Faith Hill Was Lied to About Her Birth Mother’s History”
• YouTube: “JC Chasez on the radio – part two”
• YouTube: “Lionel Richie: Piers Morgan’s Life Stories (Full Episode) | Celebs Up Close”
• AZ Central: “Debbie Harry had an adoption ‘identity crisis'”
• Rolling Stone: “Interview: Sarah McLachlan”
• HuffPost: “Kristin Chenoweth On ‘LION’ And Adoption”
• The Hollywood Reporter: “Ray Liotta Filmed ‘The Identical’ Because of His Own Adoption Experience”
• YouTube: “Donna & Avery’s Story Makes Jamie Emotional | Season 1 Ep. 13 | BEAT SHAZAM”
• Houston Chronicle: “You may be surprised to learn Andy Dick isn’t so crazy”
• Today: “‘Our hearts are twice the size’: Scott Hamilton talks about adopting kids from Haiti”
• ESPN: “Colin Kaepernick’s parents break silence: ‘We absolutely do support him'”
• Today: “‘My parents saved me’: Simone Biles tearfully opens up about being adopted on ‘DWTS'”
• Rolling Stone: “Inside the Blockbuster Life of Michael Bay: The Most Loved and Loathed Man in Hollywood”
• AARP: “How Ted Danson Found His Balance”