Millie Bobby Brown always held a quiet dream close to her heart: becoming a mother. She often spoke about this ambition long before her own family grew.
"I love children," Brown shared on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast in March 2025. "I grew up with a baby at home. That was my younger sister. I truly connect a lot with kids." Just five months later, Brown and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, announced their joyous news. They were officially parents.
"This summer, we welcomed our sweet girl through adoption," the Stranger Things star posted on Instagram in August 2025. "We are beyond excited to start this beautiful new chapter. We did it in peace and privacy. And then there were three!" The British actress married Bongiovi, a son of rock legend Jon Bon Jovi, in 2024. They had been together for two years before tying the knot.
Here’s a look at what Brown revealed about her journey to motherhood.
Finding Their Future Together
As soon as Brown and Bongiovi began dating, their future children became a frequent topic. Their conversations showed a deep connection. "When we started talking about politics, and how we want our children to be raised, we discussed much bigger topics," Brown explained on "Call Her Daddy." "I had never talked about these things with other guys. Just thinking about those things made me realize: ‘Wow, maybe I do want to be with you forever.’"
Brown echoed this shared mindset in a Vanity Fair profile published that same month. "We were quite close from the start," she stated. "We talked about our political ideas. We discussed the kind of family we want to build. We also planned the kind of home we want to live in. We even talked about the kind of relationship and careers we wanted. This is a very big decision. We wanted to make sure we were making the right one. I just knew it. I always felt good about him."
From Farm to Family Names
Brown revealed some interesting ideas for future baby names on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "I have 25 farm animals, and they all have names," she said. "The donkeys start with ‘B.’ The cows are Barnaby and Bessie. I’ve noticed I named them all names I really like for kids. Winnie is my dog’s name. I love that name for a girl. I can’t use it now because Winnie has ruined the name. She is a crazy dog. She’s the best dog in the world, but she’s emotionally dependent." Brown did not immediately reveal her daughter’s name after her arrival in 2025.
Millie’s nurturing instincts were clear long before her daughter arrived. She and Jake live on a farm with many animals. "Jake had to set some limits at one point," she joked on the "Smartless" podcast. "We brought goats inside. They slept in our bed. I had to care for them because they were babies. So, I slept with them and Jake. The goats were in the middle. Basically, Jake would get up for a shift, then I would get up for another."
Brown noted the baby goats needed diapers. This led to a funny misunderstanding among friends and fans. "In my community, people started thinking I was pregnant," she quipped. "I was buying baby bottles, diapers, and other baby things. Then the goats reached eight weeks. They were adults by then. They wanted to go outside, so I had to move them out."
A Lifelong Dream Comes True
"My mother had her first child at 21," Brown shared on the "Smartless" podcast in March 2025. "My father was 19. This has been my dream since before I met Jake. Since I was a baby, I told my mom, playing with dolls, that I wanted to be a mom, just like my mom was to me." She added, "Jake knows how important this is to me. Of course, I want to focus on establishing myself as an actress and producer. But I also feel it’s very important to start a family, at least for me."
Bongiovi, for his part, wanted the couple to marry before starting a family. "My thing was that I really want a family. I really want a big family. I am one of four," Brown explained. "He is one of four. So, it’s definitely in our future. For me, having a child of my own is not very different from adopting."
Brown told Glamour in 2023 that her mother and grandmother inspired her motherhood dreams. "I wanted to be the woman my mother is to me," she told the publication. "And I wanted to be the woman my grandmother was to me. So, it was never really my intention to just be a wife. But after meeting Jake, I saw, ‘Oh, I don’t have to be the stereotypical wife for him.’ He doesn’t want me to be either. He wants me to do my own things and live my life. He will just hold my hand through that process. I thought, ‘Yes, I really want this.’"