Big Famous Families
The average American family has two kids, but celebrities aren’t average in any way. While celebs typically have an abundance of talent, money, and awards—some also have an abundance of children. While most of us have heard about Mia Farrow’s 14 children, Madonna’s brood of six, and Elon Musk’s ever-increasing progeny, supersized celebrity families are more common than you might think.
Mia Farrow
The star of Rosemary’s Baby has 14 children. She became a mom in 1970 when she gave birth to twins Matthew and Sascha with then-husband André Previn. She had two more biological children and adopted 10 between 1973 and 1995—four with Previn, five with long-time partner Woody Allen, and three as a single mom. She is now a grandmother many times over.
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Nick Cannon
Multi-talented Nick Cannon first became a father in 2011 and has since welcomed 11 more biological children with six partners. While Cannon admits that most of his kids weren’t planned, he strives to be intentional and present in all his children’s lives.
Charlie Chaplin
Silent film star Charlie Chaplin was married four times. His first three marriages produced only three children. When he was 53, Chaplin married Oona O’Neill, who Chaplin described as the love of his life. O’Neill was only 18. Despite the age difference, the couple enjoyed a long and happy marriage, welcoming five daughters and three sons, bringing the number of Chaplin’s progeny to 11.
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Marlon Brando
Known for his tumultuous personal life as much as for his iconic acting roles, Marlon Brando fathered at least eight children and adopted three others. He was 70 years old when his last child was born to his long-time housekeeper, Maria Cristina Ruiz.
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Bob Marley
When reggae legend Bob Marley passed away at age 36 in 1981, he was the father of 11. Marley was married only once, to Rita Marley. Together, they had three kids and Marley adopted Rita’s two children from a previous marriage. Marley’s other six children were born of dalliances with six women during his marriage, which Rita insists was not problematic for her.
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Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy is quoted as saying he loves fatherhood—which is a good thing since the Beverly Hills Cop actor has 10 progeny. Born in 1961, Murphy became a father for the first time in 1989 when his son Eric was born. Christian, Bria, Myles, Shayne, Zola, Bella, Angel, Izzy, and Max followed.
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria was only 18 when she acceded to the British throne in 1837. She was fortunate to make a love match and married Prince Albert in 1840. They had nine children together, with their firstborn arriving just over nine months after their wedding day.
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Mel Gibson
Action hero Mel Gibson has nine children. The oldest seven were born during his 28-year marriage to Robyn Moore. After divorcing Moore, Gibson had one child with Russian songwriter and pianist Oksana Grigorieva during a brief relationship. After parting ways with Grigorieva, Gibson began dating Rosalind Ross and the couple, who are still together, had one child. With a 34-year gap in their ages, Ross is younger than several of Gibson’s children.
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Clint Eastwood
The legendary actor, born in 1930, refuses to confirm how many children he has fathered in his numerous relationships. Married and divorced twice, Eastwood has also had several casual dalliances and long-term partnerships. He has eight known children: Laurie, Kimber, Kyle, Alison, Scott, Kathryn, Francesca, and Morgan.
Alec Baldwin
Acclaimed actor Alec Baldwin is a dad to eight children—with the oldest, Ireland, being 28 years older than the youngest, Ilaria. There’s a possibility Baldwin’s brood will continue to grow. His current wife, Hilaria—who has birthed seven of Baldwin’s children—has not ruled out having more kids.
Rod Stewart
British pop star Rod Stewart’s first child—Sarah Streeter—was born when Stewart was just a teenager. Unable to support the baby, Stewart and his girlfriend placed Streeter up for adoption. Decades later, Streeter and Stewart reconnected and Streeter found herself with a biological father and seven half-siblings.
Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger, frontman of the Rolling Stones, fathered eight children over 46 years, beginning with Karis Hunt Jagger in 1970. His youngest—Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger—was born in 2016. Jagger doesn’t let age hold him back from enjoying time with his kids. He’s said: “It's fun to have children, at any age”.
Marie Osmond
Marie Osmond, the famous sister of the eight Osmond brothers, has eight children of her own. Osmond shares one biological son with her husband Stephen Craig, who she married in 1982 and remarried in 2011. Between her marriages to Craig, Osmond was married to Brian Blosil and together they welcomed seven children—some biological and some adopted—to their family.
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Robert Conrad
Best known for his role in the 1960s television series The Wild Wild West, Robert Conrad had eight children. He had five kids with his first wife, Joan. After their divorce, Conrad met LaVelda Ione Fann, a contestant on the Miss National Teenager Pageant, which Conrad emceed. They married shortly afterwards when she was 17 and he was 46. They remained married for 33 years and had three children together.
Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner, the star of Yellowstone, has seven children. He shares three with his ex-wife Cindy Silva; one with Bridget Rooney, with whom he had a brief relationship; and three with Christine Baumgartner, from whom he is separated. Costner recently welcomed his second youngest—Hayes Logan Costner—to the set of Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1, where the younger Costner has a small part.
Taylor Hanson
Taylor Hanson may have formed a band with two of his brothers, but the three Hansons are actually part of a brood of seven siblings. Coincidentally, Hanson has seven children of his own. Hanson and his wife Natalie welcomed their children over a span of 18 years.
Jude Law
English actor Jude Law is the father of seven, but his two youngest remain completely out of the spotlight. Following relationships where Law welcomed children with ex-wives Sadie Frost, Samantha Burke, and Catherine Harding, the actor married Phillipa Coan in 2019. Law and Coan reportedly have two children but the couple hasn’t revealed the name or sex of either child.
Robert De Niro
Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro adopted his oldest child—Drena De Niro—after marrying her mother, Diahnne Abbott, in 1976. His youngest—Gia Virginia Chen-De Niro—was born in 2023, when the actor was 79 years old.
Bobby Brown
Singer and rapper Bobby Brown, famous since his early teen years with New Edition, fathered seven children. His oldest son, Landon, was born when Brown was only 17. Sadly, two of Brown’s children died in adulthood—Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away at age 21 while Bobby Brown Jr. died at age 28.
Randy Miramontez, Shutterstock
Marc Anthony
Singer-songwriter Marc Anthony, known for his Latin salsa music, has seven children. Although most famously the dad of twins Emme and Maximilian with ex-wife Jennifer Lopez, Anthony also shares one daughter and one son with ex-girlfriend Debbie Rosado; two sons with ex-wife Dayanara Torres; and one very young son, Marco—born in 2023—with his current wife, Nadia Ferreira.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Hip hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has seven kids. Never married, Diddy fathered the children over a span of 31 years with four women. His youngest was born in late 2022.
Quincy Jones
Music industry icon Quincy Jones has amassed 28 Grammy Awards and seven kids. He was only 20 when he had his first daughter with then-wife Jeri Caldwell in 1953. Jones’ other six children were born of relationships with four women—including daughter Rachel, who was born during a brief affair Jones had while married to Caldwell.
Shaquille O'Neal
NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal has six biological kids but he’s a father figure to many more. O’Neal has said that, because some of the women he dated had children from previous relationships, he’s raising about 15 kids and calls them all his own.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie adopted her first child as a single mom and her second while dating Brad Pitt. After Jolie and Pitt formalised their relationship, Pitt adopted Jolie’s two children and together the couple added four more kids to their family. Separated since 2016, the two continue to struggle with custody issues over their six children.
Steven Spielberg
Famed director Steven Spielberg said that his work on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial—and his relationships with the children who starred in that film—opened him up to the idea of fatherhood. After the film, Spielberg went on to become a father of seven with his first wife Amy Irving and current wife Kate Capshaw. The director’s brood includes one stepchild, one adopted child, and five biological children.
Kris Jenner
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Kris Jenner has the most famous brood in Hollywood. The star of Keeping Up with the Kardashians had four children with her first husband, Robert Kardashian (Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob) and two with Caitlyn Jenner (Kendall and Kylie).
James Van Der Beek
Best known for his breakout role in Dawson’s Creek, James Van Der Beek is the father of six, parenting the children alongside his wife Kimberly. The couple left Los Angeles for Texas in 2020 with their four daughters and two sons.
Madonna
The Material Girl welcomed her first child, Lourdes, with partner Carlos Leon in 1996. After splitting from Leon, Madonna began a decade-long relationship with Guy Ritchie. The couple added two children to their family—Rocco was born in 2000 and the couple adopted David from Malawi in the mid-2000s. After becoming a single mom in 2008, Madonna adopted three more children from Malawi—bringing the number of her brood to six.
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill was pregnant with her first child when she wrote and recorded The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, her debut solo album. Rohan Marley, Lauryn’s on-again-off-again partner from the mid-1990s to the 2010s, is the dad to Lauryn’s first five children. After Hill and Marley permanently split, Hill welcomed her sixth child.
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Sting
The former frontman of the Police, Sting shares two children with ex-wife Frances Tomelty and four with current wife Trudie Styler. Sting has said that although all six of his children were “accidents”, they were the “happiest accidents of [his] life”.
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Kirk Cameron
Famous for his role as Mike Seaver on Growing Pains, Kirk Cameron is a dad to six kids. Along with his wife, actress Chelsea Noble, Cameron adopted four children between 1996 and 2000 before welcoming two biological children into their family in 2001 and 2003.
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Billy Ray Cyrus
While Billy Ray Cyrus is famously the dad of Miley Cyrus, the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer has six children. Cyrus shares 5 kids with his ex-wife Tish, including two of Tish’s biological children who Cyrus adopted after marrying Tish. He also shares a child with Kristen Luckey, who he dated before meeting Tish.
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Kevin Federline
Britney Spears’ former backup dancer and husband Kevin Federline is a dad of six. Federline had two children with ex-partner Shar Jackson, two with Spears, and two with his current wife, Victoria Prince. Federline and Prince currently live in Hawaii with their two children as well as the two that Federline shares with Spears.
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Gordon Ramsay
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has quipped that being a dad to five kids is like, "running a restaurant where no one goes home”. Four of the children Ramsay parents with his wife Tana are legally adults while the fifth one—Oscar—was born in 2019.
Rosie O’Donnell
Multi-talented Rosie O’Donnell, perhaps best known as a television personality, is a mom to five adopted children. She adopted her first child as a single mom and four during her marriages to Kelli Carpenter and later, Michelle Rounds. O’Donnell is now a grandmother of four.
Tori Spelling
Famous for her role on Beverly Hills 90210, actress Tori Spelling shares five children with Dean McDermott. Although Spelling and McDermott filed for divorce in 2024, the couple intends to share custody of their children, who were born between 2007 and 2017.
Ewan McGregor
Scottish actor Ewan McGregor is a proud dad of five. During his 22-year marriage to actress Eve Mavrakis, the couple welcomed two biological daughters (Clara and Esther) and two adopted daughters (Jamyan and Anouk). After McGregor and Mavrakis divorced, McGregor began a relationship with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The couple recently welcomed a son, Laurie.
Charlie Sheen
Now a single dad to five, Charlie Sheen has been in the limelight for a slew of personal issues, including custody and child support battles. The actor first became a dad at the age of 19. His younger children followed about two decades later, when he welcomed two daughters with ex-wife Denise Richards in 2004 and 2005, and twin boys with ex-wife Brooke Mueller in 2009.
David and Georgia Tennant
Scottish actor David Tennant, best known for his work on Doctor Who, married English actress Georgia Tennant in 2011. At the time of their marriage, Georgia was a single mom to Ty, born when Georgia was just 17. Tennant adopted Ty and went on to have four more children with Georgia.
Elon Musk
Tech kingpin Elon Musk currently has 12 children. Their mothers are Canadian author Justine Wilson, the singer Grimes, and Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. Among the 12 kids are two sets of twins and one set of triplets. Given Musk’s thoughts on parenthood, his brood may well continue to grow.
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