C​elebrities are normal people, and many celebrities have given up a baby for adoption before they had enough resources to take care of them. They go to the grocery store, they eat at Taco Bell, and they have the same urging for privacy that all people have They also have huge mansions, luxury cars, and make millions of dollars.

Many celebrities have given up a baby for adoption before they had enough resources. It is an extremely difficult decision that is not taken lightly. Sometimes it’s uncovered while people are sifting through their personal information. Other times, the celebrity tries to make contact later on in life. While they were once young and unsupported, they now have almost endless resources and want to do what they couldn’t do before.

 Adoption

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person’s biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation , from the biological parent or parents.

In many jurisdictions, the adopted person’s full original birth certificate is cancelled and replaced with a fabricated post-adoption birth certificate that states that the child was born to the adoptive parents. This deception, when carried out, may continue with the adopted person for life and can be the cause for many well-documented traumas experienced by the adopted person, including loss of identity, family history, culture, biological family (including not only biological parents but also siblings and extended family), family medical history and records, and increased risk of suicide, homelessness, incarceration, PTSD, depression, and anxiety.

HOLLYWOOD CELEBS WHO GAVE UP THEIR BABIES FOR ADOPTION 

Many celebrities have given up a baby for adoption before they had enough resources to take care of their baby. It is an extremely difficult decision that is not taken lightly. Sometimes it’s uncovered while people are sifting through their personal information. 

• Kate Mulgrew

You probably know Katherine Kiernan Mulgrew for her role as Galina “Red” Reznikov on the show, Orange Is The New Black. When she was 17, she left home to study acting at Stella Adler’s Conservatory. Her first big role came during her junior year, so she quit school to portray Mary Ryan on the soap opera Ryan’s Hope. It was shortly after accepting the lead role that she found out she was pregnant. The producers wanted to keep Mulgrew so they wrote her pregnancy into the show. With no other support from family or the baby’s father, Kate decided to give the baby up for adoption.

• Roseanne Barr

Roseanne admitted that she initially wanted to keep her daughter, Brandi Brown. However, she didn’t think she would be able to provide for her since she was an unwed mother with no support. 18 years later, this story gets a happy ending. Roseanne and her daughter Brandi were reunited at last. Brandi actually went on to work as a production assistant on the set of Roseanne.

• Patti Smith 

When Patti was 19 years old, she got pregnant out of wedlock. She was very young and had no money to support herself or a baby. While she was pregnant, her parents sent her to a foster home so no one would find out about the pregnancy. She gave up the baby for adoption immediately after she gave birth. Patti Smith and her child have never been reunited.

•  Jack Wagner

Wagner tried to get involved but at the time there was nothing he could do. 23 years later, a young girl rushed into his dressing room and ran up to him and hugged him, telling him that she was his daughter. While surprised at the moment, he was happy for the chance to get to know her. The two currently have an ongoing relationship and have gone on trips together. 

• Joni Mitchell

Child with a child pretending, weary of lies you are sending home, so you sign all the papers in the family name.” These are the lyrics to Joni Mitchell’s “Little Green,” from her 1971 album, Blue, and they chronicle her child “born with the moon in cancer ” Mitchell gave up her daughter, Kelly, when she was an unknown folksinger trying to make ends meet. She was reunited with her daughter — renamed Kilauren Gibb — 20 years later.

• Mercedes Ruehl

It’s an ironic and beautiful story. Mercedes Reuhl has an adopted son, Jake, whose godfather is the child Reuhl gave up for adoption some 40 years ago. Reuhl hired a private investigator to help her find her son, Chris, whom she now shares a “powerful relationship with.”

•  Rod Stewart

When Rod Stewart was still in his teens, his girlfriend became pregnant and gave birth in 1963. She tried to keep the baby for a while, without any help from Stewart, but eventually gave the baby up for adoption when it became too much for her to handle.

Rod Stewart tried to make contact in the 1980’s when he first discovered the link with his daughter, Sarah Streeter, but the connection was unsuccessful. At the time, there was still a lot of bitterness held against Stewart by both Rod’s daughter and her birth mother, Susannah Boffey. 50 years after the adoption, after letting the dust settle, Stewart and Streeter finally met, and have been keeping in touch. Sarah is Rod Stewart’s first of eight children.

•  Duane Lee Chapman

When Duane was in his teens, his girlfriend became pregnant. However, she never told Duane. She ended up committing suicide shortly after giving birth to their son, Christoper Hecht, and he was given up for adoption. Dog the Bounty Hunter didn’t find out about him until he was an adult when Christopher’s grandmother called Duane to tell him. The two have since met and reconciled but they still have a rocky relationship.

• Clark Gable

While he was filming in 1935, he had an affair with fellow actor Loretta Young. The baby, Judy, was given to an orphanage for adoption to avoid the scandal of being an unwed mother. However, Loretta then went back to the orphanage and adopted Judy back. Clark only ever met Judy once, and the two didn’t maintain a relationship. Clark Gable died in 1960 after suffering a heart attack.

• Lucille Ball

In 2014, a woman named Cassandria Carlson came forward claiming the Lucille Ball was her grandmother.

Carlson claimed that she was given her up for adoption in 1947 by Ball. Carlson’s mother, Linda Jane Dee would have been born four years before the debut of I Love Lucy. Carlson said she has memories during her early childhood of a red-headed woman called Mrs. Morton coming to visit her house and playing cards or taking her to the playground. She has been trying to get DNA samples to prove her claims but relatives of the Ball-Arnaz family have rejected all attempts.

• David Crosby

Crosby has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He also has several albums listed on the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Crosby had quite the wild past when he was younger. He even spent several months in prison for drug charges. In 1962, he also had a biological son, James Raymond, who was placed for adoption. The two were happily reunited when James Raymond was an adult. In turns out the two had several similarities when they reunited. James Raymond is also a talented musician. He played so well that he has performed on stage with Crosby and has done work in the studio with him as well.

• Andy Kaufman

When Kaufman was in high school, his girlfriend got pregnant. They ended up placing their daughter, Maria Bellu-Colonna, up for adoption. After digging up information, Maria discovered who her biological mother was, and was soon reunited with her birth family. Unfortunately she never had the chance to meet her biological father, Andy Kaufman. Maria’s daughter, Brittany, ended up appearing in Man on the Moon playing the role of Kaufman’s younger sister which meant she was playing the role of her own great aunt.

It is not easy but… everyone has their own reason

The life-changing decision to give up a baby for adoption is as controversial as it must be heart-wrenching. It’s certainly not something anyone ever plans to do, and celebrities are certainly not immune from such fate. Just like the rest of us, they, too, are confronted with situations that affect them for the rest of their lives.  

These celebrities have faced the harrowing decision of placing their babies up for adoption. Many were young, broke, struggling actors and musicians at the time. See which ones, by a twist of fate, have reunited with their child.

“Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, But still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, you didn’t grow under my heart but in it.”