1. Frances Mcdormand
Frances McDormand is one of four adoptive kids of a traveling minister and his wife. She said that her parents even took in stray cats. She and her longtime husband—writer and director Joel Coen adopted their son Pedro, now 17, when he was 6 months old.
2. Faith Hill
Faith Hill was adopted as a baby. She always shows appreciation that she was adopted into a loving, positive home, but on the other hand, she’s eager to learn about her origins. “I had a spirit that was completely outside what my family was. I didn’t know anyone I was related to, biologically, which gives you a sense of not knowing who you are.” Luckily, she finally found her biological mother and forgave her for giving her up for adoption. As she said “I’d never seen anyone that looked anything like me. It was the awe of seeing someone you came from. It fills something.”
3. Nicole Richie
Everyone knows that Nicole Richie is the daughter of legendary singer Lionel Richie, but a lesser known fact is that she was adopted by Lionel and his then-wife. About being adopted, Nicole has said: “My parents were friends with Lionel. They trusted that they would be better able to provide for me.” Now Nicole remains close with both of her parents. In 2005, she wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Truth About Diamonds, which is loosely based on her life, about the drug-addicted adopted daughter of a Hollywood icon, but it is mostly fictional.
4. Snooki
Nicole Elizabeth “Snooki” may have become a major TV icon representing Italian-American culture, but to the surprise of many she is actually of Chilean descent. She was adopted by Italian-American parents when she was 6 months old. As the only child in her adoptive family, she confessed that she was lonely and wanted to be a mother of three kids. Now she’s already had two children and is very close to her dream. Regarding her origins, it seems that she has a big family with 10 other brothers and sisters, and that’s possibly the reason that her parents have to give her up.
5. Sarah Mclachlan
Sarah Mclachlan was adopted by Jack and Dorice Mclachlan but still has a friendly relationship with her birth mother, Judy – an artist who had her when she was 19. “When I think about my mother who raised me, you know, she’s my mother,” she told parents magazine. “I think about how she did things and how I said, ‘I’ll never be like her,’ and how I’m very much like her now. It’s not that important to me. It was a very matter of fact; I was happy I had the parents I had. I’m not much to dwell on what may have been.”
6. Melissa Gilbert
Melissa Gilbert’s biological parents were scared of not being able to raise Melissa due to financial constraints and decided to give her up for adoption. She was adopted the next day by actors Paul Gilbert and his wife Barbara Crane. Despite her lack of celebrity genes, she seems destined for stardom after excellent performances in Little House the Prairie icon and Dancing With the Stars.
7. Jamie Foxx
Actor Jamie Foxx was raised by his grandparents and said he was never short on maternal and paternal love, as it simply came from an earlier generation of the family. As an Oscar winner and a dad too. “Connecting with my daughter is the most important thing in my life—the priority. I want to be a man who shows up for her. I want to have such a big influence on her so that she knows she can call me about anything, which she does.”
8. Kristin Chenoweth
American actress Kristin Chenoweth was raised by Jerry and Junie in Oklahoma, and had a happy childhood. “I’ve never heard from my birth mom, and for me, that’s a blessing. I don’t feel that burning desire to meet my biological parents,” she told American Way magazine. “I’ve had such a great upbringing, and if you met my parents, you would say, “Of course she’s their daughter!” If I ever did meet my birth mom, I’d just say, “Thank you for deciding to give me such a great life.”
9. JC Chasez
JC Chasez, the former *NSYNC member, was handed over to his former foster parents Roy and Karen Chasez by his biological mother at the age of 5. She made the decision in the hope that they could provide him with an education and stable home life. As to who his father is? No-one knows.
10. Liz Phair
Rocker Liz Phair was born in Connecticut in 1967. She was raised in Illinois by her adoptive parents, Nancy, a historian at the Art Institute of Chicago, and John, an AIDS researcher at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Liz Phair described that her foster parents were very responsible. They said, “We wanted you more than anything in the whole world.” They were perfect about it.
11. Debbie Harry
The Blondie singer, Debbie Harry was given up by her mother when she was only a few months old. She had struggled to deal with her past as a child after being told of her adoption when she was four. She was determined to be an artist and had fantasized that Marilyn Monroe was her biological mother. “I saw her as the mother of invention, or something like that” Harry said. “She had a profound effect on a lot of people.”
12. Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson was adopted by his maternal grandmother as an infant. He grew up believing she was his mother but his actual biological mother, who gave birth to him as a teenager, was his sister. He did not find out the truth until he was 37 years old and both his mother and grandmother were already deceased.
13. Bill Clinton
The 42nd president of the United States Bill Clinton lost his father three months before his birth, and his mother moved to New Orleans to study nursing, leaving her baby boy with family members. He was raised by his grandparents during that time until his mother returned four years later. She married Roger Clinton, Sr., who adopted Bill as his own.
