Having a baby is a miracle and it can show parents a new kind of love that they never even knew was possible. So many people are lucky enough to be able to have a little one of their own, but not everyone is blessed with the ability to create new life since some people are unable to conceive for whatever reason. Then there are some people who just want a bigger family since they still have more love to give. While others want to help give a child a better life so they look toward adoption.

About 135,000 children are adopted in the US each year, according to Archive.pov.gov, but that is nothing compared to the millions of children in the world who are still looking for a good and happy home.

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Non-famous people aren’t the only ones who choose to adopt, celebs have been known to adopt children from all over the world, too. There are some extremely well-known celebrities who have adopted children. There are some obvious celebs who have chosen adoption such as Angelina Jolie and her now ex-husband Brad Pitt. Then there are some celebs that many people may not even be aware of who have chosen to adopt such as Mariska Hargitay, Michelle Pfeiffer, and even Mary-Louise Parker. Read on to see 20 celebs we never knew adopted kids!

20 Hoda Kotb

Hoda Kotb, 54, is a TV personality, journalist, and author. She is well-known as the co-host on the Today show. Hoda has two beautiful daughters with her partner, Joel Schiffman. She is a cancer survivor. However, her battle against cancer left her unable to have children of her own and, for a while, she thought that being a mother was out of the question for a long time until Joel came along and then suddenly the thought of adoption was there, according to People.com.

Hoda adopted her first daughter, Haley Joy Kotb, in 2017. Haley’s birthday is February 14, 2017 – which means that, yes, she is, in fact, a Valentine’s Day baby, according to People.com. Hoda also had called into the Today show in April of this year and proudly announced that she adopted another daughter, Hope Catherine Kotb.

19 Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock is a 54-year-old mom of two adopted children. She has a son named Louis and a daughter named Laila. According to Washingtonpost.com, Laila was adopted “from the Louisiana foster-care system” in December 2015 when she was 2 years old. Louis was 5 years old at the time of his new sister’s adoption. Louis was also adopted from Louisiana as well.

Sandra knew that adoption was in her cards after the frightening Hurricane Katrina caused mayhem in 2005. Sandra explained, “[When Hurricane] Katrina happened in New Orleans, something told me, ‘My child is there.’” She went on to say, “It was weird,” according to iol.co.za.

The actress also has an unfavorable opinion about saying things like, “My adopted child,” according to Huffpost.com, since “No one says their ‘IVF child’ or ‘Oh, [snap], I went to the bar and got [pregnant] child.’” She instead wants people to “just refer to these kids as ‘our kids.’”

18 Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay, 55  years old, is the mother of three beautiful children; one who is biological and two who were adopted. Mariska and her husband, Peter Hermann, were wed in August of 2004. They had their first child, a son who they named August, just two years after they said their “I do’s,” according to Closerweekly.com. Then, in October 2011, the couple adopted a daughter they named, Amaya, and they were even able to be present at her birth.

To make their family whole, they decided to grow it even more and within six months of their daughters' adoption, they adopted a son named Andrew, according to Etonline.com. Mariska happily said, “Our family is so perfect, or at least perfect for me. Together we’re just this whole, happy, joyful, chaotic, crazy unit. I’ve never known anything that was more right,” according to Closerweekly.com.

17 Michelle Pfeiffer

Michelle Pfeiffer, an actress who just turned 61 on April 29, is the mom of two beautiful now-adult children. Michelle and her husband, David E. Kelley, have one gorgeous daughter named Claudia Rose, who was born in February of 1993, and one handsome son they chose to name John Henry Kelley, who was born in August of 1994.

According to Bravotv.com, “Michelle adopted [her] daughter Claudia Rose when she was 35, and then married [her] husband David E. Kelley, who later adopted [Claudia] as his own.” About a year after Michelle married her hubby, the couple gave birth to their son David, according to Bravotv.com.

16 Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett is a 50-year-old actress and mother of four beautiful children. She has three boys who are named Dashiell John, Roman Robert, and Ignatius Martin Upton. Her daughter, Edith Vivian Patricia Upton, was adopted in February 2015. According to Eoline.com, the actress even chose to take a break from acting back in 2016 to be a full-time mom to her four kids. Cate got married in December 1997 to her husband Andrew Upton.

According to Dailytelegraph.com.au, during the Women in the World India Summit, Cate said, “I felt we had space, enough emotional room in our hearts and we’re privileged enough to have the capacity to have another child, so it wasn’t about biology.” Also, according to Dailytelegraph.com.au, the actress stated that she already knew that she wanted to adopt another child since her first son was born back in 2002.

15 Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman, a 50-year-old actor, married his wife Deborra-Lee Furness in 1996 when he was 27 years old and she was 40. According to Zimbio, during a 2011 interview, Hugh called it “destiny” for the couple to adopt. The actor and his wife adopted two children; a daughter named Ava Eliot and a son Oscar Maximillian Jackman, according to People.com.

The couple had tried IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatments and ended up losing two pregnancies, according to Heavy.com. And as People notes, Hugh said that adopting mixed-race children was of great importance to them. Hugh said, “A lot of people go into [adoption thinking] it’s really important to them that the kid looks like them, and honestly, for Deb and I, that [was] never an issue.”

14 Katherine Heigl

Katherine Heigl, according to Scholastic.com, knew that she would always adopt because of growing up with her adopted sister. Since her sister is from Korea, Katherine also said that she knew that she wanted her adopted child to be from Korea as well to “resemble the family” she grew up in. Katherine adopted her first daughter, Naleigh, in 2009, according to Scholatstic.com. Then she chose to adopt another daughter, Adelaide, to add to her family in 2012. According to Thesun.co.uk, to the actress’s surprise, after her two adoptions, she got pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy whom she and her husband, Josh Kelly, decided to name Joshua on December 20, 2016.

13 Mary-Louise Parker

Mary-Louise Parker, a 54-year-old actress, is a solo mother to two children; a son named William and a daughter named Caroline. According to Nbclosangeles.com, Parker said, “I would daydream about [adopting] all the time. I thought about the fact that there were children who didn’t have anything, and I felt like I could help. It was something that weighed on me.” Mary-Louise is the biological mom to her son William Atticus Parker, whose father is Billy Crudup.

Billy was rumored to have left Parker while she was pregnant with their son for an actress by the name of Claire Danes, according to Nbclosangeles.com. In August 2007, during a trip to Africa with a group called Worldwide Orphans, Parker adopted her daughter, Caroline Aberash, according to Nbclosangeles.com.

12 Kristin Davis

Kristin Davis is a 54-year-old actress who is best known for her role as Charlotte from the Sex and the City series and movies. Kristin has a beautiful daughter named Gemma Rose Davis. She adopted Gemma Rose in 2011 through a “domestic adoption,” according to People.com.

Kristen said, “This is something that I have wanted for a very long time. Having this wish come true is even more gratifying than I had ever imagined.”  In May 2018, a journalist by the name of Marc Malkin reported that Davis had adopted another child–a son–and he made this announcement on a popular social media site, according to People.com. However, upon further investigation, this claim has yet to be confirmed.

11 Connie Britton

Connie Britton is a 52-year-old actress with one adorable son named Eyob “Yoby” Britton. Connie always wanted to be a mom but didn’t pursue that dream until her father passed away in 2008 when she was left thinking, “What am I waiting for?” according to People.com. She decided on adopting a child “from Ethiopia after spending time there working on a documentary and getting involved with the African Children’s Choir and Worldwide Orphans,” according to People.com.

Connie waited three extremely long years to get the phone call that she was eagerly waiting for from the adoption agency notifying her that her wait to adopt a child from Ethiopia has come to an end, according to People.com. When Connie went to Ethiopia to bring her son, Yoby home with her, she said she was “grinning from ear to ear” and that, “It was such a wonderful moment of completion.”

10 Denise Richards

Denise Richards, 48, is an actress, former model, and mom of three beautiful girls; Eloise Joni Richards and Sam and Lola Sheen. Denise adopted Eloise, who is named after her mother who passed away, in 2011, according to Usatoday.com. Denise said, “To me, it feels like I always had Eloise – there’s no difference between an adopted child or biological child, or Eloise and my older daughters,” according to Closerweekly.com.

Denise, according to Usatoday.com, revealed that when her youngest daughter was younger, she wasn’t able to achieve developmental milestones and that she “has a chromosomal disorder and can only say 'a handful of words.’” Denise also stated that dealing with her daughter’s special needs has “been challenging” but that she is learning every day.

9 Jillian Michaels

Jillian Michaels, 45, has two beautiful children with her now ex-partner, Heidi Rhoades. Together they have a son named Phoenix and a daughter named Lukensia. According to Parenting.com, Jillian explained, “In 2010 my partner, Heidi, and I started trying to adopt, a process that became more discouraging and heartbreaking by the day. As a result, we decided to get pregnant. Of course, the day we found out we were having a baby, we learned that we’d been matched with a child from Haiti.” Ironically enough, in May 2012, within 72 hours of Jillian and Heidi’s son, Phoenix, being welcomed into this world, Jillian was on a flight to Port-au-Prince to meet the couples’ daughter, Lukensia, and to bring her home in order to make their little family complete, according to Parenting.com.

8 Madonna

Madonna, 60, is the “Queen of Pop” and a mother to six wonderful children — Lourdes, Rocco, David, Mercy, Estere, and Stella. Her two oldest children, Lourdes and Rocco, happen to be biological while the other four were all adopted from Malawi.

David was adopted in 2008, and at the time he had pneumonia and malaria, according to Today.com, and when Madonna brought him home with her to London, the media was claiming that she had taken David illegally. Madonna admitted that she cried herself to sleep because of this.

Mercy was adopted in 2009, but the Pop Queen had to jump through blazing hoops in order to finally adopt her daughter since Malawian officials had told her that she was incapable of raising a child since she was recently divorced from her ex-husband, Guy Ritchie. Madonna fought them with tooth and nail and eventually won so that she could bring Mercy home with her, according to Today.com.

In 2017, her two youngest daughters, twins Estere and Stella, were adopted. Again, Madonna had to jump through hoops since the Malawian officials told her that they didn’t want to appear as if they were giving her special treatment, according to Today.com.

7 Edie Falco

Edie Falco, 55, played the feisty nurse, Jackie, in the TV series Nurse Jackie. She has two beautiful children; a girl, Macy, and a boy, Anderson. According to Oprah.com, “She never wanted kids – until a birthday and a bout of cancer made her rethinking her priorities.”

In July 2003, Edie turned 40 years old, but by September of that same year she got the hard diagnoses of having cancer in her chest, according to Oprah.com, but by spring of 2004, she got the wonderful news that she was cancer free after eight months of treatment. Edie called an adoption agency, and within a year, in 2005, she met her new baby boy, Anderson. Then in 2008, she adopted her daughter, Macy.

6 Kirstie Alley

Kirstie Alley, 68, is an actress and mom to two beautiful children. She has one son named William True Stevenson and a daughter named Lillie Price Stevenson. According to Mom.me, Kirstie has battled with fertility issues as well as having dealt with a tragic miscarriage and that is when Kirstie and her now ex-husband decided to take the route of adoption.

According to Parents.com, when Kirstie lost her pregnancy in 1990, she said, “I wasn’t far enough along to feel the baby kick, so the loss I felt was more mental than physical. In those few weeks you mock up an entire life – who is the baby going to look like, where it’s going to go to college, that is the loss we suffered." So, in 1992 Kristie and her ex adopted their baby boy, William. Then, in 1994, the couple adopted a little girl, Lillie.

5 Tom Cruise And Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman, 51, and Tom Cruise, 56, kept information about their adoptions very private for a very long time until she [Nicole] opened up in an interview in 2018, according to Usatoday.com. Also, Nicole and Tom decided to take the route of adoption after she went through a loss of pregnancy. On this subject, Nicole said, “We lost the baby early on, so that was really very traumatizing.” The former couple adopted two children; one son, Connor Cruise, and one daughter, Isabella Cruise. Nicole and Tom officially finalized their divorce on August 8, 2001.

4 Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson, a 60-year-old actress, and her husband, actor Greg Weis, who she married in 2003, have two wonderful children together. One biological daughter, Gaia Romilly Weis, and one adopted son, Tindyebwa “Tindy” Agaba Weis. According to Theaustralian.com.au, Tindyebwa had a good childhood up until the age of nine when his father passed away from a virus. Things just seemed to spiral downward and went out of control from there.

He was able to escape his hometown, Rwanda, and leave to London when he was 16 years old. But it wasn’t until sometime later, when he met the actress at a Refugee Council Event, that his life finally started to turn around. According to Thefamouspeople.com, Tindyebwa reluctantly accepted an invitation from Emma to join her and her loved ones for a Christmas dinner. Then he would stay at her house on weekends and he even started calling her mom, then his stays would become a regular occurrence until it became a full-time home for him.

Emma and Greg eventually decided to officially adopt Tindyebwa after IVF treatments left the couple feeling upset, according to Express.co.uk.

3 Meg Ryan

Meg Ryan, a 57-year-old actress, has two children. She has a son, Jack Quaid, who she had with her ex-husband, Dennis Quaid. Then, she has a daughter, Daisy True Ryan, whom she adopted from China in 2006. According to People.com, Meg expressed that adoption in China is much different than the states since they use a type of “lottery system” and that her daughter, Daisy, was “randomly [placed with] her.”

In a rapid response to her previous comment, Meg said, “But that said, I am convinced, completely convinced that there was nothing random about it. She is the daughter I should have.” Meg continued with, “I never felt like I was on a rescue mission or anything like that. I just really wanted a baby; I was on a mission to connect with somebody, and Daisy and I got to meet each other this way at this time.”

2 Viola Davis

Viola Davis, 53, is a well-known actress. She married her husband, Julius Tennon, back in 2003. Together, the couple has one daughter together. The duo adopted their daughter in 2011 when she was still a baby, according to Eonline.com. Also, according to the same site, Viola had said, “There are so many ways to mother rather than to carry a child in your body. So many children need parents, and so many of us want to mother. Know that you will experience motherhood to the full extent.” The actress has said the following, according to Bustle.com, regarding her daughter, “Born in [my] heart, not [my] belly.” Viola has also said the same thing directly to her daughter.

1 Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron is a 43-year-old actress and solo mom of two beautiful children. Charlize technically has one daughter named August, 3 years old, whom she adopted in 2015, and one son, Jackson, 7, whom she adopted in 2012.

However, according to Dailymail.co.uk, when Charlize’s son clearly stated that he was not a boy at the age of three, the actress realized that she would, in fact, be raising two gorgeous daughters from there on out. Charlize said, “Some of the lowest points in my life were dealing with the first time I filed [for adoption]; it really took an emotional toll. There were many situations that didn’t work out, and you’d get attached and have all your hopes up and then just get crushed.” according to Today.com.

References: Stars.topix.com, Shared.com, Thisisinsider.com, Businessinsider.com, moms.com, Archive.pov.org, eonline.com, Dailytelegraph.com.au, Heavy.com, People.com, Zimbio.com, Scholastic.com, TheSun.co.uk, USAtoday.com, Washingtonpost.com, iol.co.za, Huffpost.com, Closerweekly.com, Etonline.com, Bravotv.com, Nbclosangeles.com, Hollywoodreporter.com, Parenting.com, Thesun.co.uk, Allure.com, Today.com, Usmagazine.com, Oprah.com, Eonline.com, Mom.me, Parents.com, Google.com, Theaustralian.com.au, Thefamouspeople.com, Express.co.uk, Bustle.com, Dailymail.co.uk