Motherhood does not always begin in a hospital maternity ward. For 22-year-old actor Millie Bobby Brown, building a family started with a childhood resolution and two life-altering adoptions. Brown and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, welcomed their second child, a baby boy, through adoption in September 2026. That arrival followed the August 2025 adoption of their first daughter. While the couple intentionally shields the identities and faces of both children, Brown has stepped forward to discuss the practical realities and deep personal motives behind their decision.
She never treated adoption as a fallback plan. It was her deliberate first choice. Speaking on Kylie Kelce's podcast Not Gonna Lie, Brown shattered standard social expectations surrounding pregnancy and biological birth. Most children cradle dolls and pretend to be pregnant. Brown never did. When she was five or six years old, her parents told her that all her baby dolls were adopted. That narrative stuck. "Always wanted to adopt. It was always part of, like, my childhood dreams," Brown said. She noted that carrying a human being for nine months is hard physical work, though she has not closed the door on biological pregnancy either.
Before pivoting her studies toward veterinary medicine, Brown spent two years studying social work at university. That academic background grounded her expectations. She examined the adoption system through multiple lenses, learning the practical pressures placed on caseworkers and the complex emotional terrain navigated by birth mothers. When she and Bongiovi entered the formal placement process after their 2024 marriage, they braced for the emotional toll. The silence of the waiting period proved to be the most grueling phase of all. Then the phone rang. Brown described receiving that confirmation call as one of the most powerful moments of her life.
Historically, society often mischaracterizes adoption as an eleventh-hour alternative for couples facing fertility struggles. Brown’s openness rewrites that script. By choosing adoption at 22 as a preferred path to motherhood, she demonstrates that building a family without pregnancy can be an intentional, affirmative journey. Her operating principle remains firm: "Adoption is love. Adoption is forever."
Counsel from the American Academy of Pediatrics supports that transparent stance. The medical body advises parents to weave adoption stories into daily conversations from infancy rather than guarding the reality like a buried secret. Early, matter-of-fact honesty anchors a child's self-esteem and cements trust with adoptive parents. The academy also stresses using careful, dignifying language when discussing origins—explaining that birth parents made a thoughtful "adoption plan" instead of claiming a child was "given away."
Now raising two children under two, Brown and Bongiovi continue to balance their careers with early parenthood out of the public glare, keeping their focus locked on home life and family stability.