The ‘Stranger Things’ actress and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, adopted their baby girl last summer
Credit: Millie Bobby Brown/Instagram; Millie Bobby Brown/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Millie Bobby Brown, 22, and Jake Bongiovi, 24, adopted their daughter, who has not been publicly named, in the summer of 2025
- The actress spoke to Jay Shetty about the moment they received the “magical” adoption call, describing it as “surreal”
- Brown said she did not record the call, but said she and Bongiovi will “never forget those words, where we were, what we were doing, the feeling”
Millie Bobby Brown is reflecting on her motherhood journey.
The actress, 22, appeared on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, where she opened up about the adoption process and how it felt to receive the “magical phone call” that her daughter was coming home.
The Stranger Things star and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, 24, welcomed their baby girl via adoption in the summer of 2025.
Brown said she will “never forget” the conversation where she and Bongiovi were told they were going to become parents.
Credit: Millie Bobby Brown/Instagram
“Getting the call, I mean, I will never forget it,” she told Shetty. “It was the most surreal feeling and yet we both knew in that moment, like that was … that we had found each other. Like, oh my goodness, this is our girl, 100%, no doubt.”
The podcast host then asked if she had recorded the conversation, to which Brown replied: “No, and I think there’s something so special about it because my whole life’s recorded. My husband and I will never forget those words, where we were, what we were doing, the feeling. And I think in so many ways, that is why that shouldn’t be recorded. It’s like almost like you had to be there.”
She described the adoption process as “long” and “thorough” but necessary.
“The process is long and rightfully so; it’s a great process and, you know, in fact, it’s very thorough,” she told Shetty. “I would say that’s probably the longest part, is just getting through all of that.”
Brown also revealed the sweet conversation she had with another mom who was adopting a child.
“We were talking to someone, another adoptive mother, and it’s like, there are two ways to have a baby, one through your stomach and one through your heart, and my girl was through my heart,” she said.
“And, you know, it was just the most magical phone call and no questions asked, I knew we had found our baby and she found us,” Brown added.
In August 2025, a source told PEOPLE that Brown had always wanted to be a young mom — something Bongiovi was on board with.
“Jake was always on the same page. They’re in it together,” the insider said. “She’s so young, but so focused. And she has the biggest heart. There’s no doubt that she’s a great mom. Pretty much everything she sets her mind to, she crushes.”
Credit: Millie Bobby Brown/Instagram
She reiterated that sentiment on the Smartless podcast in March 2025.
“My mom actually had her first child at 21, and my dad was 19. It’s been my thing since before I met Jake,” she said. “Since I was a baby, I told my mom, like, baby dolls. I wanted to be a mom just like the way my mom was to me.”
The actress recently caught up with PEOPLE exclusively, where she explained that she and her daughter love to get creative together.
Credit: Millie Bobby Brown/ Instagram
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“Dressing up is a big one for me,” Brown told PEOPLE at the Let It Bloom launch event for the new Blooms by Play-Doh adult-focused product line.
“I loved dressing up as a child. I don’t know if that was me screaming to everyone saying I wanted to be an actor, but for me, I loved dressing up as different princesses and knights and dinosaurs,” she added.
Brown said her daughter, whose name she has not shared publicly, expresses her imagination through artwork — and her pieces always have pride of place at home.
“Anywhere we go, [her artwork] is always up on display because I’m so proud of her creativity,” the Enola Holmes star said, adding that she and Bongiovi also paint and display their own work.
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