Heartbreaking Decisions: Stars Who Gave their Children Up for Adoption

Celebrities may live glamorous lives in front of the cameras but they are still people who have the same type of struggles many “normal” people face on a daily basis. Like the rest of us, they often deal with complicated situations in their lives. Situations such as unwanted pregnancies and the inability to support a child are just a few of the scenarios that some famous celebrities have had to deal with in their lives. Giving up a child for adoption is an option chosen by millions of people around the world every year, and they make the decision for lots of different reasons.

Some of the biggest stars in Hollywood have given up children for adoption, but you won’t believe who!

Ted Nugent

Ted Nugent gave up the son he had with his girlfriend way back in 1968 and that wasn’t the only child he gave up for adoption. He was reunited with his son in 2010 and was also reunited with a daughter named Louisa that he had previously given up during another relationship.

Kate Mulgrew

“Orange Is The New Black” star Kate Mulgrew’s career started to take off when she landed gigs on various soap opera’s in 1977. At the same time, she became pregnant. Not wanting to marry the child’s father, she decided to give the baby up for adoption. In 2001, Mulgrew and the daughter she gave up finally met for the first time.

Duane Lee Chapman AKA “Dog the Bounty Hunter”

Duane Lee Chapman, or “Dog the Bounty Hunter” as he’s more famously known, was part of a fairly unique situation when he was a teenager. His girlfriend had his baby but never even told him she was pregnant. She committed suicide shortly after giving birth, and their child was put up for adoption. Chapman and his son eventually connected years later.

Roseanne Barr

Star of the popular television sitcom “Roseanne,” Roseanne Barr was only a teenager herself when she got pregnant at 18-years-old. She wanted to keep the baby, but she knew she couldn’t afford to support the child as she lived inside a Salvation Army during her pregnancy. Seventeen years after giving birth to her daughter, she finally met her child after the tabloids discovered the existence of Brandi Brown.

Albert Einstein

Perhaps one of the most shocking appearances on the list, Albert Einstein had a child out of wedlock with his wife-to-be Mileva Maric. Reports indicate that either the child was put up for adoption out of the shame of having an illegitimate child, or she might have died of scarlet fever.

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell is a huge rock star, but at one point she was just a scared kid of 21-years-old that got pregnant out of wedlock in 1965. With no husband and no financial security to speak of, she put her daughter up for adoption. In 1997, Mitchell announced publicly that she was looking for her daughter, and she was eventually reunited with Kilauren Gibb, the daughter she’d never met.

Linda Lovelace

Linda Lovelace is an adult film star, and at the young age of 19, she accidentally got pregnant. While she was personally leaning towards keeping the child and raising it herself, her mother pressured her to give up her son for adoption. Sadly, Lovelace has never met her son to this day.

Clark Gable

Clark Gable was dating Loretta Young in 1935, and when she unexpectedly got pregnant, they placed their baby in an orphanage. Evidently, Young felt guilty and returned 19-months later to legally adopt the child. Gable, however, never admitted to being the father of their child and they never reconciled.

Hank Williams, Sr.

In a rather strange turn of events, Hank Williams Sr.’s daughter was born five days after his death from heart failure at 29-years-old. Jett, William Sr.’s daughter, was adopted by Lillian Stone, Hank’s mother, but she died when Jett was only 2-years-old. Jett went on to be adopted again by a family in Alabama.

Patti Smith

At 19-years-old, Patti Smith unintentionally got pregnant. She was young and worked in a factory in New Jersey with relatively little means, so her parents decided to send her away to a foster home so that their neighbors wouldn’t suspect anything. Upon giving birth to her child, Smith put it up for adoption and never saw it again.

Kevin Thornton

Celebrity chef Kevin Thornton and his wife Muriel were completely unaware they were having a baby until she went into labor in the 1980s. They were completely unprepared financially to raise the child. They decided to give their son up for adoption, but they immediately reconnected with him when he turned 18-years-old.

David Crosby

David Crosby of “The Byrds” and “Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,” fathered a son in 1962. He reconnected with his son in 1994 when his son was 34-years-old, and in an incredible coincidence, his son was also an amazing musician. That led to him joining Crosby’s new band, “CPR.”

Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart was only 17-years-old when he fathered his first child. Stewart has had eight children, but that first child was put up for adoption by their mother. Stewart and his daughter Sarah eventually met in 1980, but they only started to really get to know each other and form a relationship in 2007.

Andy Kaufman

Andy Kaufman personally experienced a sadly familiar turn of events for many people. He got his high school girlfriend pregnant, freaked out, and put the child up for adoption. Maria Colonna, Kaufman’s daughter, eventually found out that he was her biological father, but it was too late as Kaufman had already died in 1984.

Dirk Benedict

One of the stars in “Battlestar Galactica,” Dirk Benedict only found out that he had a son when John Talbert was 30-years-old. It turned out that Benedict’s girlfriend in 1968 got pregnant and had the child without even bothering to tell him. Benedict was understandably surprised when he finally found out about his child in 1998.

Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra

Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra aren’t so much celebrities as they are reality TV stars. On the MTV reality show “16 And Pregnant,” they put their daughter Carly up for adoption. The whole post-adoption process of grief was lived out by the couple on reality TV, and they now consider themselves to be spokespeople for the process of adoption from the biological parent’s viewpoint.

Jay Thomas

When his acting career was just beginning, Jay Thomas put his child up for adoption. He and his girlfriend at the time felt that they neither had the maturity or enough financial security to bring up a child. Despite that, Thomas eventually enjoyed a happy reunion with his son in 2007.

Mercedes Ruehl

Mercedes Ruehl’s fans know that she won an Oscar, but it’s less commonly known that she put her son up for adoption in 1976. She was 28-years-old at the time, and she claimed that she was neither emotionally developed or economically capable enough to raise a child. She was reunited with her son Christopher when he turned 21, and she actually adopted a child of her own in 1995.

Lucille Ball

Although not a completely proven fact, a woman named Cassandria Carlson claimed that “I Love Lucy” star Lucille Ball was her grandmother in 2014. She claimed that Ball had given up her daughter for adoption back in 1947 and that she was, in fact, the descendant of the now-deceased actress.

Jack Wagner

Star of “General Hospital,” Jack Wagner was completely stunned when he found out in 1988 that he had a recently born daughter. Apparently, he had a one-night stand with the girl’s mother and was never informed of the pregnancy. Although Wagner was unsure of the validity of the claim, the mother put their daughter up for adoption. 23-years later, Wagner and his daughter were reunited.