Famous Baby Daddies Of Illegitimate Children
When we imagine what our futures might look like, and how we want to create a family, usually it's with a person who shares our values and ideals. Ideally, it's nice to have a child with the person you love. These famous folks went about it a different way. These kids were born into a complicated situation.
Owen Wilson
In January 2011, Owen Wilson had a son with his then-girlfriend, Jade Duell. Wilson and Duell ended their relationship shortly after their son was born.
Two years later, Owen Wilson's fitness trainer, Caroline Lindqvist, became pregnant with Wilson's second child. Lindqvist was still married at the time. She was in the process of divorcing her plastic surgeon ex-husband. Wilson and Lindqvist were not in a relationship, but Wilson said he was excited to have another son.
Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant fathered two love children from 2011 to 2012—a daughter, Tabitha, with his ex-lover Tinglan Hong, and a son, John Mungo, with Swedish television producer Anna Eberstein.
Here's where things get complicated. Grant reunited with Hong in 2013, and they had another son, Grant's third child, Felix. Then in 2015, Hugh had another child with Anna Eberstein. In 2018, Grant and Eberstein had another child (their third, Grant's fifth), and the couple announced that they got married in May of that year.
Joe Jackson
Michael Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, fathered his daughter with his lover, Cheryl Terrell, in 1974. Joe had been married to his wife and Michael's mother, Katherine Jackson, since 1949. He had ten children with her between 1950 and 1966. After Cheryl got pregnant, Joe continued to have a 25-year long affair with her. Although Katherine filed for divorce once, she rescinded the divorce papers and the pair remained married until Joe's death.
Joe and Cheryl named their daughter Joh'Vonnie Jackson.
Eddie Murphy
In 2007, Spice Girl and America's Got Talent Judge Mel B claimed that she was pregnant with Eddie Murphy's baby. Murphy responded to Mel's claim in an interview by saying, "I don't know whose child that is until it comes out and has a blood test. You shouldn't jump to conclusions, sir."
Well, a DNA test proved that Murphy is, in fact, the father. Mel gave birth to a baby girl, Angel Iris Murphy Brown, on Eddie's 46th birthday.
Gavin Rossdale
Gavin Rossdale and Pearl Lowe dated briefly in the late '80s. Around that time, Pearl became pregnant with her daughter, Daisy Lowe. Pearl didn't tell Gavin that he was Daisy's father, and he became Daisy's godfather.
For a while, Rossdale didn't have any contact with Daisy. In 2004, a paternity test revealed that he was, in fact, her father. Now Gavin and his daughter have a good and respectful relationship.
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton married Pattie Boyd in 1979. She was the muse and the inspiration behind Clapton's hit song "Layla." Eric and Pattie never had any children together. While the couple was still married, Eric had an affair with Yvonne Kelly. Eric and Yvonne had a daughter in 1985 but kept her a secret from the media until 1991.
In 1986, Clapton had another affair with an Italian model named Lory De Santo. He and Lory had a son, Conor. Sadly, Conor died when he was 4 and a half years old after falling out of a window on the 53rd floor of a Manhattan apartment building. Eventually, Eric and Pattie got divorced, and Eric married and had children with Melia McEnery.
Michael Jordan
Several women have accused Michael Jordan of fathering their love children. In 2006, he was sued for $5 million by ex-girlfriend Karla Knafel, who claimed the NBA legend fathered her child. In 2010, he was sued again by a woman from Georgia who claimed Jordan was the father of her two-year-old daughter.
As far as that $5 million lawsuit goes, a DNA test proved that Michael Jordan was not the father of Knafel's child.
Chuck Norris
In 1962, Chuck Norris had his first child with his wife, Dianne Kay Holechek. A year later, his mistress gave birth to his second child, a daughter.
In 2004, Norris told Entertainment Tonight that he didn't meet his illegitimate daughter until she was 26. She found out that Chuck was her father when she was sixteen. She decided to send him a letter in 1990, one year after Chuck divorced his wife.
Tom Jones
Tom Jones was married to Melinda (Linda) Rose Trenchard from 1957 until her death in 2016. Their marriage was not a very faithful one, at least not on Tom's part. Tom said that he slept with around 250 groupies per year (but who's counting?) at the height of his fame.
One of those affairs resulted in the birth of Tom's son, Jonathan. Tom denied that Jonathan was his son for a long time, even though a DNA test proved he was the kid's father. In 2008, he finally admitted that Jonathan was his son, but he still doesn't have a relationship with him.
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler has definitely had a crazy life, and the daughter he had out of wedlock is probably the least crazy part of it. He almost had a child with his girlfriend Julia Holcomb, a groupie who Tyler met when she was sixteen and he was 27. They went on the road together doing drugs and getting in trouble. The planned to have a baby, Julia got pregnant, and then she had an abortion after she realized that a house fire coupled with the drugs she'd been taking would cause the baby to have severe birth defects.
Later, Tyler had a brief relationship with fashion model Bebe Buell. She became pregnant with his daughter, actress Liv Taylor. Initially, Buell claimed that Liv's father was Todd Rundgren to protect her daughter from Tyler's drug problem.
Ray Charles
Ray Charles had twelve children with ten different women over the course of his life. A lot of them have tried to get money from him over the years. Once, he attempted to pay them all $500,000 so they would just leave him alone and stop asking for money.
It was an ok plan in theory, but many of his children wouldn't agree to the terms. I guess that's what happens when you have ten children. It's hard for all ten people to agree on something.
Michael Lohan
Michael Lohan, Lindsay Lohan's father, married his ex-wife Dina in 1985. They had four children together between 1986 and 1996.
In 2008, a Montana massage therapist named Kristi Horn claimed that Michael fathered her daughter, Ashley who was born in 1995 while Michael and Dina were separated. In 2012, a DNA test proved that Michael was Ashley's father and his name was added to her birth certificate.
Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent's history with women is shady, to say the least. He's had some issues with underage girls over the years, which I'm just not going to get into in this particular article. Let's just all come to an understanding that this guy is the worst.
Nugent has been married twice, and he has six children with four women. Before his first marriage, he fathered a son and a daughter who were both given up for adoption. This didn't become public knowledge until 2010.
Matthew Knowles
Beyoncé's father, Matthew Knowles, had been married to his ex-wife, Tina for over twenty-five years when he had an affair with actress Alexsandra Wright. The affair lasted eighteen months, and in that time, Alexsandra became pregnant.
A paternity test confirmed that Knowles is the father of Wright's son. That child is Beyoncé and Solange's half brother. In 2009, Tina filed for divorce from Knowles, citing his affair with Wright as the reason.
Dan Marino
Dan Marino married his wife, Claire D. Veazey in 1985. He and Claire have six children together. In January 2013, Marino admitted to fathering a child with Donna Savattere in 2005. Before 2013, he had only shared this information with his wife.
He paid Savattere several million dollars to keep the news of his daughter, Chloe, from the public. Dan supports Chloe financially, but he doesn't have much of a relationship with his daughter.
Ludacris
In 2001, Ludacris had a daughter named Karma Bridges with an attorney from Atlanta. He's been in a relationship with Gabonese model Eudoxie Mbouguiengue since 2009. In 2013, while he and Eudoxie were "on a break," Ludacris had a daughter, Cai Bella Bridges with his longtime friend Tamika Fuller.
Ludacris and Eudoxie got engaged an married on the same day in Costa Rica in 2014. They had a baby girl in 2015.
Bow Wow
In 2011, rapper Bow Wow (formerly Lil' Bow Wow) announced that he had a secret child with Joie Chavis. In a post on his website, he wrote, "I waited so long to tell y'all the truth because I was nervous on how y'all would look at me."
Bow Wow says that he's been enjoying his life as a father, and he appreciates how much richer his daughter, Shai, has made his life.
Dwyane Wade
Basketball player Dwyane Wade revealed that he was having a child with Aja Metoyer just after he announced his engagement to Gabrielle Union. Wade says that he was on a break from Union when the baby was conceived.
Wade said, "I had a time, a part in our break, in our pain and our hurt, a blessing came out of it in my life, having a son that was born healthy, so I'm moving on."
Clark Gable
Actor Clark Gable was married five times. While married to his second wife, Maria Langham, he had an affair with his Call of the Wild co-star, Loretta Young. Nine months later, their daughter, Judy, was born.
Judy took on the last name Lewis after her mother married Tom Lewis. She started to look more and more like Clark as she got older. She had ears that stuck out like his so her mother often put her in hats and bonnets to hide her true parentage.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger shocked the world in 2010 when he revealed that he had fathered a child with his housekeeper, Mildred Baena. Baena's son, Joseph, was born just a few days after Arnold's wife, Maria Shriver, gave birth to his son Christopher.
Baena was pregnant and working in the couple's home at the same time that Maria was pregnant. Arnold has expressed remorse for his affair and for the way he initially treated his son, Joseph.