Although usually Hollywood celebrities become parents in their thirties and forties, after they are successful and popular, some stars became moms and dads at a very young age, some still children themselves. While their life journeys were filled with challenges and not at all traditional, these entertainers, athletes, actors and musicians overcame everything and beat the odds, making a huge impact on the next generation. Let us look closer at some of these stars!
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Sofia Vergara
Colombian star of the popular comedy show Modern Family Sofia Vergara gave birth to a son, Manolo Gonzalez-Ripoll Vergara, in 1992. She was only 19 years old, and the father was her high school sweetheart. They still co-parent today. At their son’s graduation from Boston’s Emerson College in 2015, they even posed together.
Bristol Palin
Bristol Palin was the focus of media attention in 2008 when she became pregnant at age 17. Her mother, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, was running for vice president of the USA. As a Republican, she preached conservative Christian and family values, like abstinence, which is why they made headlines in the media. Bristol and her boyfriend tried to parent Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston-Palin before splitting in 2010, after a lot of additional controversy and a hard custody battle.
LeBron James
NBA all-star, champion and one of the all-time great basketball players LeBron James grew up very fast. Before graduating from high school, he had already appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. During his rookie year in the NBA, his girlfriend, Savannah Brinson, was pregnant as a senior in high school. In 2010, she told Harper’s Bazaar in an interview: “I was thinking, ‘What am I going to tell my parents? What’s going to happen to his career?’ I was very scared. I was bawling. But he said, ‘It’s not going to slow me down, and it’s not going to slow you down. We’re going to keep doing what we have to do.'” A decade and a half, he has 3 titles and 4 MVPs to his name, and numerous records in the league. Savannah and LeBron also have another son, and a daughter.
Aretha Franklin
The legend of soul passed away at age 76 in 2018 after a battle with cancer. She left behind four children. She gave birth to the first two children when she was a child herself, as she was just 12 when she welcomed her first son, Clarence, into the world. His father was “a school friend” named Donald Burk, while the boy was named after Franklin’s preacher father.
Jamie Lynn Spears
Tabloids had a blast when Britney Spears‘ younger sister had a baby while just 16. She was starring on Nickelodeon’s popular show Zoey 101 when she revealed the news. The father was Casey Aldridge, her boyfriend at the time. Nickelodeon managed to quickly distance itself from her growing belly and her controversial relationship with Aldridge. She gave birth to a daughter, Maddie Briann Aldridge, in 2008. She and Casey split in 2010, after which she moved to Nashville. She later released a country album, and married Jamie Watson, a businessman, in 2014.
Lil Wayne
The legendary rapper from Atlanta, Lil Wayne, was only 16 when he got a daughter, Reginae “Nae” Carter. She was already in the spotlight at that age, thanks to an episode of My Super Sweet 16, where Nicki Minaj performed live. As a gift, Nae received two cars from her dad, a BMW and a Ferrari. “I’m daddy’s little girl, and he showers me with anything I want. I’m gonna shut Atlanta down.” she said during the MTV show.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey became pregnant at only 14 years of age, and tried to hide her growing belly. On Oprah’s Lifeclass, in an emotional video, she spoke about her difficult filled with abuse, molestation, and rape. Unfortunately, her baby died in the hospital after its birth. S kept her pregnancy a secret for decades, until one of her relatives sold her story to a tabloid for $19,000 in 1990. She told the New York Post: “Only my family and closest friends knew.”
Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Barr is famous for her unapologetic stand-up comedy and the sitcom Roseanne. As a teenager, this funny girl struggled heavily. She dropped out of high school and was living in extreme poverty, struggling to survive. At this time, she gave birth to her first daughter at age 18. Unfortunately, she had to make the difficult decision and give the infant up for adoption. They later made up and have a good relationship at the moment.
Fantasia Barrino
The winner of the American Idol went through some extremely dark times before becoming famous. At 14, she was allegedly raped at her high school. Some classmates about the attack also taunted her. “I didn’t even cry my way home. I was numb, very numb, confused. I just felt nasty. Disgusting.” she told VH1’s Behind the Music. She then “turned into a rebel” and partied hard to hide her pain, which led to an unexpected pregnancy with Brandel Shouse’s baby. “He was somebody I was crazy about, the first guy who showed me attention.” she revealed.
Natalia Vodianova
Supermodel Natalia Vodianova spoke with The Tor of growing up in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia. This is a city with a rich cultural heritage, also a “dangerous suburbs.” The Russian beauty revealed that her childhood was completely different from her life with the kids today. “My sister, Oksana, has cerebral palsy, and for my mother, looking after her was very difficult. My father left when I was little. It was a very tough upbringing.” Watching her mother’s struggles never stopped Natalia from starting her own family at a young age. “I was only 19 when I gave birth to Lucas, my first-born. His birth was an intense but very beautiful experience.”
Emily Maynard
This reality star was heartbroken and devastated when her boyfriend died in a plane crash at age 18, which became even worse when she found about their child she was carrying. She gave birth to their daughter, Ricki, on her own. She appeared on Season 15 of The Bachelor, and won, receiving a marriage offer from Brad Womack. It did not last and neither did her s engagement to Jef Holm, as Maynard believed she would never be a bride. Her luck did change however, as she said: “I really had to come to terms with the fact that maybe it was going to be just Ricki and me forever. Then I met Tyler, and I knew that was not the plan.” Now she is happy, and the pair has kids of their own.
Whoopi Goldberg
The legendary actress was 17-years-old and in rehab when she fell for, Alvin Martin, her counselor, and got pregnant. She told the Daily Mail in 2009 that “Marrying seemed like a good idea at the time.” The marriage did not last however, so she moved to California with baby Alexandria to become an actress. After around eight years of “living on the edge, existing on welfare,” she started to land some serious roles, including an Oscar-nominated lead role in Spielberg’s The Color Purple, as well as her Oscar-winning role in Ghost.
Keisha Castle-Hughes
New Zealander Keisha Castle-Hughes was picked from a group of “several hundred young girls” to star in 2002’s Whale Rider, although she had no prior acting experience. She shined as a young heir to a Maori tribe. At 13, she was nominated for best actress, the youngest actress in the category at that time. Charlize Theron won that Oscar, and Castle-Hughes returned to a normal life in New Zealand. She made headlines again when she became pregnant at 16, with her 19-year-old boyfriend. She was publically shamed as a teen mom. “I kind of felt like a dirty girl who had done something wrong. No one was happy for me. I didn’t want to become the poster girl for teenage pregnancy, but I wasn’t focused on that or what other people were thinking, I just did the best I could.” Today, after starring in Star Wars and Game of Thrones, she had this to say: “Having Felicity was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Lamar Odom
The former NBA and reality TV star Lamar Odom was a teenager when his girlfriend was pregnant. His daughter Destiny was born in 1998, one year before he was drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers as the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft. Odom and Liza Morales got a second child Lamar Jr. in 2002, and a third child named Jayden in 2005, who suddenly succumbed to infant death syndrome, a still unexplained passing away of a healthy baby, usually during sleep. He later turned to drugs for comfort, and had a turbulent relationship and a short marriage with Khloe Kardashian.
Niki Taylor
The supermodel was still a teenager when she gave birth to twin boys Hunter and Jake, at the age of 19. “I always wanted a family and wanted to have kids early, I love being a kid, and I love my kids. They are everything,” she told Hello magazine. Things did not work out with the father, a former football player Matt Martinez. Taylor however managed to move on and find love and happiness again, becoming a mom again.
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple became famous during the Depression, becoming an escape for millions of Americans struggling to get by. She was Hollywood’s biggest draw in the late ’30s as a child star. During that time, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a famous line: “As long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be alright. It is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles.” However, when the actress started to slowly grow up, her opportunities went away. She married a soldier-turned-actor John Agar at 17 years of age. They had a daughter Susan, before splitting around four years of marriage. Some time later, she gave birth to a son Charles Jr. with her second husband and “true soulmate,” a former naval officer Charles Black.
Dev
The singer had her daughter Emilia when she was 22, in December 2011, documenting her experience with an MTV special. She told PrideSource in 2013 that parenthood has not influenced her lifestyle much, saying “I love being able to travel with my daughter or bring her to the studio or sit at home and watch Bubble Guppies for 10 hours on repeat.”
Solange Knowles
Solange Knowles is known the best for attacking Jay-Z in an elevator. This is a shame, as she is a proven artist herself. Like her worldwide superstar Beyonce, Solange started to sing and record at a young age, but had to stop with everything for a time when she became pregnant at 17 with her son, Julez. “It was one of the most bittersweet moments of my life, because I was so in love with Julez, and having spent a lot of time on the road, I yearned to be in one place, to have the opportunity to really ground myself with him. And it was just Julez and me most of the time. It was hard to imagine being able to progress in my career in any way.” Her marriage to Daniel Smith, he son’s father, did not last. The three are still in good relations today though.
Charlie Sheen
The fact that Charlie Sheen has many kids should not come as a surprise. His his two daughters with Denise Richards, Sam and Lola, and his two sons with Brooke Mueller, Max and Bob, frequently end up in the news whenever there is controversy. However, what many do not realize is that Sheen has another, much older child. Cassandra Estevez was born when Charlie was 19-years-old, and coming into his own in the crazy world of Hollywood. Like her dad, she started an acting career, but was not nearly as successful in the family business.
Reese Witherspoon
The actress met her first husband, actor Ryan Phillippe, at her 21st birthday party. She told him “I think you’re my birthday present,” according to her father. They hit it off in a whirlwind romance. It is believed that she was about six months pregnant when they got married in June 1999, after filming a teen drama called Cruel Intentions together. Witherspoon was 23 when she gave birth to Ava, who could pass as her twin any day. “I think the way Ava and I are most alike is our strong opinions and our empathy,” said the Oscar-winning actress this year.
Source: nickiswift.com
