Here we make a list of famous people who were adopted.
1. Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Paul Reinhold and Clara Hagopian
Steve Jobs was born Abdul Lateef Jandali in San Francisco, California, on February 24, 1955. His biological parents were Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian Muslim, and Joanne Schieble, an American Catholic of German descent. Joanne’s father was against their union as Jandali was a Muslim. When Schieble became pregnant, she arranged for a closed adoption. Jobs was adopted by Paul Reinhold and Clara Hagopian.
2. François Truffaut
The great French director was a secret child born out-of-wedlock in Paris on February 6, 1932, to Janine de Montferrand, a 19-year-old girl and a Jewish dentist. His mother’s future husband, Roland Truffaut, accepted two-month old François as his adopted son and gave him his name. Janine’s parents who were minor nobility became aware of their daughter’s pregnancy in the final trimester and sent her to a different neighborhood to have the baby.
3. Rajesh Khanna
Rajesh Khanna
Rajesh with his biological parents
Bollywood’s first superstar was born Jatin Khanna to Lala Hiranand Khanna and Chandrani Khanna on 29 December, 1942, in Amritsar, India. He was adopted by his father’s brother Chunnilal Khanna, as he was unable to have children with his wife Leelawati Khanna. Rajesh Khanna was very touchy about his adoption his entire life.
4. Skrillex
Skrillex was born Sonny John Moore to a couple who were Scientologists on January 15, 1988. He was adopted at birth by family friends of his biological parents which the DJ did not find this out until he was 15.
5. Simone Biles
Simone Biles with her adopted parents
Shanon Biles
The most decorated gymnast in history was born to Shanon Biles and Kelvin Clemons on March 14, 1997, in Ohio. Simone was her mother’s third of four children. Her father who had addiction issues was never really in the picture. Because Shannon was unable to provide for her children, all four of them went in and out of foster care. Simone’s maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, began taking care of her in 2000 after they learnt that their grandchildren were in foster care. The couple formally adopted Simone and her younger sibling in 2003. Shannon’s aunt, Ron’s sister, Harriet, adopted the two oldest children.
6. Ted Bundy
Simone Biles with her adopted parents
Ted Bundy’s mother and adopted father
Ted Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell to Eleanor Louise Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers on November 24, 1946. For the first three years of his life, Bundy was raised by his maternal grandparents, Samuel Knecht Cowell and Eleanor Miriam Longstreet, as their own son to avoid social stigma as he was born outside of wedlock. Ted was formally adopted by Johnny Culpepper Bundy, a hospital cook who married Ted’s mother in 1951. Johnny gave Ted Bundy his last name.
7. Colin Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick was born in 1987 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to 19-year-old white American, Heidi Russo, and a black man whose identity is unknown. Russo placed Kaepernick for adoption, and at five weeks old he was placed with a white couple named Rick and Teresa Kaepernick. The Kaepernicks decided to adopt a boy after losing two other sons to heart defects. While on tour for promoting his graphic novel memoir, Colin Kaepernick: Change the Game, he accused his while adoptive parents of perpetuating racial stereotypes in their household.
8. Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was born in Huai’an, Jiangsu province, on 5 March 1898. He was adopted soon after his birth by his father’s youngest brother, Zhou Yigan, who was ill with tuberculosis. His family arranged the adoption as it feared his uncle would die without a heir. His uncle, Zhou Yigan, died soon after the adoption, and Zhou Enlai was raised by Yigan’s widow.
9. Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Blythe Jr.
Virginia Dell Cassidy
Roger Clinton Sr.
The 42nd president of the United States was born William Jefferson Blythe III to William Jefferson Blythe Jr. and Virginia Dell Cassidy on August 19, 1946. His biological father was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before his birth. Virginia married car salesman, Roger Clinton Sr., in 1950, who adopted 4-year old Bill. Roger and Virginia divorced in 1962, but remarried a few months later, after which his stepson took the surname Clinton. Bill Clinton later also said that he adopted it eventually out of respect for his stepfather. Roger Clinton was referred to as Daddy in Bill Clinton’s presidential memoir “My Life“.
10. Gary Coleman
Gary Coleman was born in Zion, Illinois, on February 8, 1968, to a homeless woman, and was adopted by a fork-lift operator, W. G. Coleman, and his nurse practitioner wife, Edmonia Sue, from a Chicago hospital when he was just a few days old. He sued his adoptive parents for $3.8 million in 1989 for misappropriating his funds and won a $1.28 million judgment in 1993.
11. Ric Flair
Ric Flair was born Fred Phillips on February 25, 1949, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Luther and Olive Phillips. Soon after his birth he was taken away from his mother to a orphanage, Tennessee Children’s Home Society, which was run by Georgia Tann, who was discovered to be involved in kidnapping children and giving them up for adoption, after her death. He was adopted by Kathleen Kinsmiller Fliehr and Richard Reid Fliehr, who named him Richard Morgan Fliehr. The Fliehrs decided to adopt as Kathleen was unable to become pregnant after giving birth to a daughter who died shortly after.
12. Marilyn Monroe
Gladys Pearl Baker with baby Norma
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, to Gladys Pearl Baker. Marilyn never knew the identity of her father. Gladys who was unable to take care of baby Marilyn had to place her with foster parents, Albert and Ida Bolender, when Marilyn was just two weeks old. She finally got her back in 1933 after several attempts. But Gladys was committed to mental asylum after she had a nervous breakdown in 1934. She spent the rest of her life in and out of hospitals. Monroe became a ward of the state, as a result of which she was ferried from one foster home to next. She finally got out of this cycle of revolving foster homes by getting married at 16 to 21-year old police officer, James Dougherty.
13. Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry was born Angela Trimble on July 1, 1945, in Miami. She was adopted by Catherine and Richard Harry, who were gift shop proprietors in New Jersey, when she was only three months old. They renamed her Deborah Ann Harry. Debbie learnt of her adoption when she was four. When Debbie finally located her mother, who was a concert pianist in the late 1980s, she decided not to establish a relationship with Debbie.
14. Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos with her maternal grandparents
Aileen Wuornos was born Aileen Carol Pittman to Leo Pittman and Diane Wuornos on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan. Her mother gave birth to Aileen at the age of 16. Aileen never met her father Leo, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old girl. Her mother abandoned Aileen and her elder brother in 1960, leaving them to their maternal grandparents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos. Her grandparents adopted Aileen and her brother on March 18, 1960.
15. Soon-Yi Allen
Soon-Yi Allen with Mia Farrow
Soon-Yi Previn was found abandoned in Seoul on February 12, 1976, and placed in an orphanage after the authorities failed to locate her parents. The Seoul Family Court established a Family Census Register on her behalf with an official birth date of October 8, 1970. In 1978, actress Mia Farrow and her then husband, André Previn, adopted Soon-Yi and took her to the United States.
16. Malcolm X
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Earl Little and Louise Helen Little. Malcolm’s father died when he was six. His death was ruled streetcar accident by the officials. Malcolm’s mother had a nervous breakdown in 1938 and was committed to Kalamazoo State Hospital. Malcolm and his siblings were separated and sent to foster homes. His mother’s release was secured by Malcolm and his siblings 24 years later.
17. Shania Twain
Shania Twain was born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, on August 28, 1965, to Sharon and Clarence Edwards. Her parents divorced when she was two. Shania’s mother married Jerry Twain, an Ojibwa from the nearby Mattagami First Nation. Jerry adopted Shania and her sister and legally changed their surname to Twain.
18. Priscilla Presley
Priscilla Presley was born Priscilla Ann Wagner in New York on May 24, 1945, to US Navy pilot James Frederick Wagner and Anna Lillian Iversen. Her father died in a plane crash when she was six months old. Her mother remarried another army officer Paul Beaulieu in 1948. Her stepfather adopted Priscilla and she took the Beaulieu surname.
19. Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx was born Eric Marlon Bishop to part-time stockbroker Darrell Bishop and Louise Annette Talley Dixon, on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, Texas. He was adopted by his mother’s adoptive parents, Estelle Marie, a domestic worker and nursery operator, and Mark Talley, a yard worker, shortly after his birth. His birth parents were not part of his upbringing and had little contact with him.
20. Larry Ellison
The founder of tech giant Oracle was born Lawrence Joseph Ellison on August 17, 1944, in New York City to Florence Spellman, an unwed Jewish woman, and a Italian-American United States Army Air Corps pilot. After Ellison contracted pneumonia at the age of nine months, his mother gave him to her aunt and uncle for adoption. Ellison did not meet his biological mother again until he was 48.
