E! Online·United States·Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:40 AM

Why Millie Bobby Brown Would Rate Motherhood an 11 Out of 10

Translate

Natalie Finn

Millie Bobby Brown Details "Magical" Moment She, Jake Bongiovi Adopted Baby Girl

Millie Bobby Brown couldn't wait to have kids and, when the opportunity arose for her and husband Jake Bongiovi to become parents, she didn't have to count to 11 before making a decision.

"Jake knows how important it is to me,” the Stranger Things actress said on a March 2025 episode of SmartLess, noting that her spouse was the one who said marriage had to come before the baby carriage. “Of course I want to focus on really establishing myself as an actor and as a producer, but I also find it’s so important to start a family for me, personally.”

Then 21, Millie acknowledged she was “still really young.” But since her mom was 21 when she had her first child...

So came the news last August that Millie, now 22, and Jake, 24, had adopted a baby girl, the couple sharing that they were "beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy."

Just over a year later, things flipped upside down once again as the pair confirmed Sept. 17 that they've welcomed a baby boy.

And so they'll continue to nurture their family of now-four—not including the dozens of animals that also reside on their Georgia farm—on their own terms.

Even as she embarked on a big press tour last year, Millie deftly kept the excitement that swirled over the final season of Stranger Things (and what really happened to Eleven) separate from her own state of bliss.

"For me, it’s really important to protect her and her story until she’s old enough to potentially one day share it herself,” she told British Vogue in November of her daughter. “It’s not my place to purposefully put her in the spotlight unwillingly. If she chooses to share her personality one day with the world, like I did when I was young, that’s something we’d support. But right now, as she’s so little… As her parents, it’s our job to protect her from that."

Millie Bobby Brown/Instagram

Hence Millie only sharing fleeting glimpses of her daughter on Instagram in adorable but otherwise unidentifiable ways. Though, when she posted a pic featuring her "Ruth" necklace, fans were quick to assume she'd named her daughter after her late grandmother.

And while she hasn't confirmed that specific detail about her little baby Ruth, the Florence by Mills founder has plenty to share about how much life has changed for the better.

"Getting the call, I mean, I will never forget it," Millie detailed on a July episode of On Purpose with Jay Shetty. "It was the most surreal feeling and yet we both knew in that moment that we had found each other. Like, oh my goodness, this is our girl, 100 percent, no doubt."

The process was lengthy, she noted, "and rightfully so," which gave her time to fully prep for her most crucial role.

Calling this her "most authentic era," Millie explained to Allure, "Being a mother expedited this version of me. Nothing could get in the way of me being who I need to be for my daughter.”

She wants her child to see her practicing self-care, she explained, though, “You have to do everything 10 times quicker, and you don’t really get to do your gua sha in the morning.”

Instead, she's been trying to spent more time nurturing her relationships with both her loved ones and herself.

"I have to talk to myself kindly,” Millie explained, noting how easy it is to “talk badly about yourself and your body” out of habit. “After becoming a parent, I couldn't imagine talking about myself like that anymore, because she's going to watch me do that.”

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Glamour

And, if life continues to go according to plan, Millie's audience is only going to get larger.

Speaking to Kylie Kelce on her Not Gonna Lie podcast in June, Millie noted she hoped to "one day" give birth to a child, "But for me, adoption was always a part of my future. Adoption is love. Adoption is forever."

And, admittedly, they may be just getting started.

"I really want a big family," she said on SmartLess. "I’m one of four, he’s one of four. So, it is definitely in our future. But for me, I don’t see having your own child, you know, as really any different as in adopting...My home is full of love for anyone and anything."

Which includes animals, Millie quipping that people in their community thought she was pregnant at one point because she was buying so many bottles and diapers for their rescues.

Though her dog Winnie was starting to accept the tiny human in their midst, Millie said on The Tonight Show in December that sharing her territory with a baby had been "a hit to the ego" for the pup.

Millie Bobby Brown/Instagram

As for Jake, whom she wed twice in 2024—once to make it legal and again in Tuscany to make it exquisite—he's shown up as advertised.

Getting married "is such an important decision," Millie told Vanity Fair last year, "and we wanted to make sure we were making the right one. I knew I was. It always felt right with him."

And sure enough, he turned out to be "the most amazing dad," according to his wife.

Jake shared a tribute to his partner for her 20th birthday, writing, "Happy birthday my beautiful fiancéI love you so much. Big year ahead."

Instagram / Millie Bobby Brown

March 2024: Anniversary

Millie shared this tribute to Jake on their third dating anniversary.

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

May 2024: Married

After three years of dating, the duo tied the knot in a private ceremony, multiple outlets reported.

August 2025: Expanding Their Family

Over a year after their nuptials, Millie and Jake shared they had a new arrival.

"This summer, we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption," the couple announced in an Aug. 21 Instagram post. "We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy."

They concluded, "And then there were 3."

View the original on E! Online →

KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.