16 celebrities you didn’t know were adopted, from Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe and Bill Clinton, to NFL star Colin Kaepernick of new Netflix show Colin in Black & White

Nov 16 , 2021

Kristin Chenoweth, Jack Nicholson, Marilyn Monroe, and Steve Jobs were all adopted.
Photos: @KChenoweth/Twitter, AP, Getty Images — Kristin Chenoweth, Jack Nicholson, Marilyn Monroe, and Steve Jobs were all adopted. Photos: @KChenoweth/Twitter, AP, Getty Images

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs never met his birth parents, while former reality TV star Nicole Richie was adopted by Lionel Richie at the age of four

Nelson Mandela was just nine when his father died of lung disease, while Jack Nicholson didn’t know who his real mother was until he turned 37

November is National Adoption Month, and according to the last US Census, one in 25 American families with children has an adopted child.

Though celebrities, like the Brangelina brood, are known to adopt children from all over the world, here are 16 celebrities we bet you didn’t know were adopted.

Ray Liotta

Ray Liotta and his sister were both adopted. The Goodfellas star told Larry King in September 2014 that, when he tracked down his birth mother, he “realised when I met her that she did it for very valid reasons and then realised that almost 99 per cent of kids that are put up for adoption, it’s for the betterment of the kid. The household, the situation, the age just dictate that’s the best thing to do for the child”.

“I was really grateful that I was adopted,” the 66-year-old actor told The Guardian in April 2007.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe is a pop culture phenomenon, but she actually bounced around the California foster care system and orphanages until age 11 due to her birth mother’s inability to care for her. Monroe’s mother struggled with mental illness, and her father was unknown.

While several families expressed interest in adopting her, her mother wouldn’t sign the papers. She ended up moving in with her mother’s best friend, Grace, and later her great-aunt Olive. At age 16 she married her 21-year-old neighbour, James Dougherty.

16 celebrities you didn’t know were adopted, from Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe and Bill Clinton, to NFL star Colin Kaepernick of new Netflix show Colin in Black & White

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs never met his birth parents, while former reality TV star Nicole Richie was adopted by Lionel Richie at the age of four Nelson Mandela was just nine when his father died of lung disease, while Jack Nicholson didn’t know who his real mother was until he turned 37

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs never met his birth parents, while former reality TV star Nicole Richie was adopted by Lionel Richie at the age of four

Nelson Mandela was just nine when his father died of lung disease, while Jack Nicholson didn’t know who his real mother was until he turned 37