Ray Liotta

Ray Liotta and his sister were both adopted. The Goodfellas star told Larry King in September 2014 that, when he tracked down his birth mother, he “realised when I met her that she did it for very valid reasons and then realised that almost 99 per cent of kids that are put up for adoption, it’s for the betterment of the kid. The household, the situation, the age just dictate that’s the best thing to do for the child”.

“I was really grateful that I was adopted,” the 66-year-old actor told The Guardian in April 2007.

Marilyn Monroe

While several families expressed interest in adopting her, her mother wouldn’t sign the papers. She ended up moving in with her mother’s best friend, Grace, and later her great-aunt Olive. At age 16 she married her 21-year-old neighbour, James Dougherty.

Frances McDormand

Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand was adopted by Noreen and Vernon McDormand when she was just one year old (she called her birth mother “white trash”). The McDormands had already fostered nine other children, but officially only adopted three. The 64-year-old’s adoptive father, who she says gave her a “moral barometer”, was a pastor for the Disciples of Christ.

McDormand and her husband, Joel Coen (of Coen Brothers fame), adopted their own son Pedro from Paraguay in 1995 when he was six months old.

Nicole Richie

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In February 2017, the Nikki Fresh actress posted an adorable throwback photo on Instagram commemorating the day her adoption papers were officially signed.

Skrillex

According to a February 2013 Vice profile, the DJ, whose real name is Sonny John Moore, found out that his “family friend” was actually his birth mother when he was a teenager.

At first it put a strain on their relationship – Skrillex left home and ran away to Georgia to join an emo band – but the 33-year-old DJ later reconciled with his parents some time before his mother died in 2015.

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton’s birth father, William Blythe, died in a car accident three months before Clinton was born. The 75-year-old former US president went on to take his stepfather Roger Clinton’s last name in his mid-teens.

Sarah McLachlan

Sarah McLachlan, a Canadian singer and songwriter, was adopted by Jack and Dorice McLachlan along with two other children. The 58-year-old didn’t know she was adopted until she was nine.

“When I think about my mother who raised me, you know, she’s my mother,” she told Parents magazine in October 2005.

That said, she is friendly with her biological mother, an artist who gave birth to her at age 19. They were introduced by a mutual acquaintance.

McLachlan holds no grudges. She told Parents, “She would have had to go and live in rural Newfoundland, and she wouldn’t have been able to pursue any of her dreams.”

Jack Nicholson

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He has since said of the potentially life-shattering revelation: “I’d say it was a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn’t what I’d call traumatising. As a matter of fact, it made quite a few things clearer to me. If anything, I felt grateful.”

Colin Kaepernick

The 34-year-old former American football quarterback was adopted by Rick and Teresa Kaepernick when he was five weeks old. His mother, who was 19 at the time, had decided to give him up, and the Kaepernicks were looking to adopt after losing two biological sons at birth due to congenital heart defects.

He recently starred in new Netflix series Colin in Black & White, a part-drama, part-docuseries about his life.

Kristin Chenoweth

The actress and singer blogged about her adoption story in honour of National Adoption Day, November 21, in 2015. The 53-year old wrote that she “knew that my birth mother loved me so much that she wanted to give me a better life”, going on to write that, “If anything, I would thank my birth mother for loving me enough to make such a huge sacrifice.”

Jamie Foxx

Jamie Foxx, born Eric Marlon Bishop, was adopted by his maternal grandparents when he was less than a year old after his parents’ marriage fell apart. The 53-year-old actor got emotional while hosting the show Beat Shazam in September 2017 when talking to two contestants about his adoption story.

Debbie Harry

The Blondie frontwoman and 1980s rocker was given up for adoption when she was only a few months old. When she was just four, her adoptive parents, Catherine and Richard Harry, told her she was adopted.

She never met her birth parents, and she has been vocal about having fantasised about being the lost daughter of Marilyn Monroe.

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Ice-T

The actor and rapper, famously from South Central Los Angeles, was actually born in New Jersey as Tracy Marrow. His mother died of a heart attack when he was in the third grade, and when his father also died of a heart attack just four years later, he was sent to Los Angeles to live with his aunt.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid revolutionary and former president of South Africa, was just nine years old when his father died of lung disease. He was then adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo of the Thembu people as a favour, as Mandela’s father had recommended Dalindyebo to be named chief.

Steve Jobs

Jobs’ birth parents, Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian immigrant, were unmarried when he was conceived, and Schieble’s parents did not approve of their relationship. Schieble secretly travelled to San Francisco to give birth to Jobs, where he was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.

At age 27, Jobs found out that he had a biological sister, Mona Simpson – his biological parents had married and given birth to a daughter two years after giving him up for adoption. The two became close, with Jobs calling her “one of my best friends in the world” in an interview with The New York Times. However, he never felt the need to meet his biological parents, and considered the Jobses his real parents.

Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt, one of history’s great triple threats (she was a singer, dancer and actress, most famous for playing Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV show), was born on a South Carolina plantation in 1927 – allegedly the product of sexual assault.

Her mother abandoned her, and she was left in the care of relatives. Constantly being picked on for being of mixed heritage, she eventually moved to New York City to live with an aunt at age eight. She never found out who her white birth father was.