The Tragic Backlash Against Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi’s Second Adoption

The subject of adoption began trending on social media this past week with news that British actress Millie Bobby Brown and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, son of musician Jon Bon Jovi, welcomed their second child home.

It was just last summer when the couple adopted their first child, a daughter. 

Writing in an Instagram post last August, Brown shared, “This summer we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption. We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy.”

She then added:

“And then there were 3.”

It seems adding a fourth member to the family has been too much for some of the unhinged and poisonous pontificators in social media. On Thursday, someone under the name “Yaseen Khan Gul” spewed:

“Okay so actually since when did adopting a child become so normal? I think she really doesn’t want to have her own kids doing that she is also okay but having your own child is like a real dream and maybe in future she will get it.”

Having a biological child is a dream come true, but this poster may be unaware that upwards of 100,000 children are adopted every single year in the United States.

Sadly, that poster wasn’t the only one making similar cracks and claims.

This isn’t even the first time that Millie Bobby Brown has been skewered by the public regarding her and Jake Bongiovi’s decision to adopt.

Following her announcement last year, Brown was criticized for marrying so young, adopting too young, and even adopting at all. Initially, she shared she thought the critics were men – but later found out many of them were women.

“I was like, ‘This is vicious. You are vicious,’” she reflected. “And I don’t have time for angry women that just need to feel like they need to bring you down, especially when it comes to motherhood. I’ve never experienced anything like this.”

Brown shared that her husband was also the target of online parent-shaming taunts and defended him in an interview.

“Nobody knows my husband,” Brown said. “My husband is the most polite, sweet, will-do-anything-for-me. But he also knows I’m capable.”

Not that she needed to defend the couple’s decision to adopt, the popular actress has been open about what has motivated them to grow their family as they have done.

“I had a lot of adopted friends growing up,” she said. “I was someone who, I don’t know, always wanted to be a mum; that was always a goal, but for me, adoption was kind of the first thing I always wanted to do. I don’t necessarily think I have some amazing, elaborate answer, but when it’s in your heart, it’s just in your heart. I just thought that’s going to be a part of my journey.”

Brown has suggested she would welcome biological children at some point, but is nevertheless thrilled to be an adoptive parent.

“I studied social work for two years and I loved it,” she explained. “[I] was learning primarily about adoption, which was where I really piqued an interest, and learning from the social worker’s perspective, which I find very interesting. Kudos to all social workers and what they do; I think it’s so amazing and unbelievable. Changing the trajectory of children’s lives forever is a beautiful thing, so my hat’s off to you.”

Social workers are deeply involved in more than 50,000 children adopted from the foster care system each year in the United States. At any given time in America, there are approximately 70,000 children waiting for a forever home. All of these children have endured extensive challenges and are in desperate need of a loving mother and father.

It might be easy to chalk up the vicious response to Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi’s adoptive family as outliers and a product of online grifters and cranks, but it points to a cultural sickness that can’t be ignored. There is a toxic element that works tirelessly to undermine the family and children – especially those who may not fit a certain image or ideal.

As Christians, we know that we’re called “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). 

Millie Bobby Brown’s celebrity might be of little interest to many Christians, but we can and should celebrate her and husband’s decision to adopt. We should also pray that despite the online vitriol, the story might encourage other married couples to do likewise.