Celebs Who Discovered Biological Parents: Mariska Hargitay, More

Mariska Hargitay, Jack Nicholson, Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler are among the many most notable stars who found main revelations about their dad and mom later in life.

Within the case of Regulation & Order: Particular Victims Unit star Hargitay, she discovered as an grownup that her late mom, Jayne Mansfield, had a secret fling that resulted in her delivery. In one other astounding story, Jackie Chan was deserted by his dad and mom as a younger boy after they fled persecution from the Chinese language authorities.

A few of these celebrities and their organic dad and mom have been capable of finding catharsis after they lastly reunited, although there are notable cases the place households have been torn aside solely. Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy conceded on The Drew Barrymore Present {that a} startling discovery about her organic dad broken her relationship with the person who raised her.

“That was a relationship I type of let dissolve [and] disintegrate,” McCurdy mentioned in 2022. “There wasn’t actually a lot there to start with.”

Preserve scrolling for a glance again on the compelling tales of stars with surprising parental revelations:

Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay and father Mickey Hargitay in 2004 Evan Agostini/Getty Photographs

Within the 2025 documentary My Mother Jayne, Mariska revealed for the primary time that the person who’d raised her — bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay — wasn’t her organic dad.

Her mom, Hollywood icon Mansfield, cut up from husband Mickey — with whom she had two different youngsters — and engaged in a quick affair with Italian singer Nelson Sardelli. The fling was short-lived, and Mansfield quickly returned to Mickey as soon as she discovered she was pregnant. They raised the kid collectively till Mansfield was tragically killed in a automobile accident that additionally severely injured 3-year-old Mariska in 1967.

Mariska came upon Sardelli was her organic father in her 20s, although Mickey denied all of it in his one and solely dialog in regards to the subject with the Regulation & Order star. Nonetheless, Mariska solid a relationship with Sardelli and his household that continues to this present day.

“I do know that everybody made your best option for me,” she instructed Self-importance Truthful. “I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter — that’s not a lie.”

Orlando Bloom

The Pirates of the Caribbean star grew up believing that his mom Sonia Bloom’s husband, the novelist Harry Bloom, was his organic dad. Harry died at age 68 in 1981 when Orlando was simply 4 years previous.

At age 13, Orlando’s mom instructed him that his organic father was truly household good friend Colin Stone. Colin had taken an lively function in serving to Sonia elevate Orlando even earlier than the longer term Lord of the Rings star discovered the reality.

“We might at all times spend weekends with [Colin],” Orlando instructed The Times in 2020. “He was attempting to be there for me in his personal means, however he was busy. After I first came upon, I used to be like, ‘Nice, when can I transfer in with you?’ However that didn’t occur. He was married. And that was fairly arduous for me.”

His mom, Sonia, insisted to Hello! Magazine in 2003 that her son grew up with “a really completely satisfied background” regardless of the household secret.

“Orlando is just not unhappy,” she insisted. “It was marvelous when he discovered that Colin was his father. He was introduced up surrounded by a loving household.”

Liv Tyler

The Lord of the Rings actress grew up with mom Bebe Buell and her on-off rocker boyfriend Todd Rundgren. Whereas Todd signed Liv’s delivery certificates as her father, Buell saved hidden that Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler was truly Liv’s organic dad.

Steven wrote in his memoir, Does the Noise in My Head Hassle You?: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir, that he first discovered about Liv’s existence in 1980. Liv observed her personal bodily similarities to Steven as she grew up and at last put the items collectively when she noticed her half-sister Mia Tyler at one in every of Rundgren’s live shows.

“I form of figured it out [that Steven is my father] as a result of he appears to be like precisely like me and I’ve sister, named Mia, who’s a 12 months youthful than me,” Liv recalled on The Jonathan Ross Present. “I noticed her, standing on the aspect of the stage at a live performance, and actually, it was like a twin. She seemed precisely like me. I checked out my mother and she or he had tears in her eyes. I form of put all of it collectively.”

Liv went on to star in Aerosmith’s “Loopy” and “I Don’t Need to Miss a Factor” music movies. Nevertheless, she admitted on the “Sibling Revelry” podcast in April 2025 that her relationship with Rundgren suffered as soon as she reconnected with Steven.

“I feel it’s in all probability nonetheless very arduous and painful,” Liv mirrored. “I don’t communicate to him sufficient, I really like him and I’ve brothers from him and I had an entire household with them. However I used to be a child, so it was actually arduous as a result of he was mad at my mother, after which immediately Steven was there and we did a paternity check and it was constructive and so we moved to New York. I feel I used to be 11 or 12.”

Rundgren mentioned the awkward state of affairs with WXPN in April 2019, admitting that Steven’s involvement impacted his personal relationship with Liv for a few years.

“Happily, there’s a completely satisfied ending there,” he mentioned. “Simply speaking about the way in which the whole lot happened, what occurred throughout the relationship. It was at all times the one topic in my life that I used to be most delicate about; my relationship with Bebe, and such. For years, I used to be very upset about the truth that [Liv] primarily forgot that I used to be her father. Issues turned out to be a number of enjoyable for her. I received fully sidelined for some time, and I received bent out of form about it.”

Jack Nicholson

The Batman actor discovered in a really surprising means that the lady who raised him was not his organic mom. A Time reporter broke the information to Nicholson in 1974 that the lady he’d at all times thought was his mom, Ethel Might, was truly his grandmother, and his “sister,” June Nicholson, was truly his organic mother. As a result of June received pregnant at age 17, her dad and mom agreed to carry up Jack as their very own baby.

Jack was knowledgeable by the journal’s researchers that his organic father was alive and residing in New Jersey. This revelation was significantly troublesome for Jack as a result of he couldn’t talk about it along with his mom or grandmother — they died in 1963 and 1970, respectively.

“Each grandmother and mom have been deceased earlier than this explicit group of info got here to my consideration,” Jack instructed Rolling Stone in 1986. “I used to be very impressed by their potential to maintain the key, if nothing else. It’s completed nice issues for me.”

He went on, “I imply, I don’t should query the abortion subject in my thoughts. It’s an open-and-shut case the place I’m involved. As an illegitimate baby born in 1937, throughout the Melancholy, to a damaged lower-middle-class household, you’re a candidate for — you’re an automated abortion with most individuals right this moment. So it’s very straightforward for me. I don’t should get into the controversy of when does the factor come alive. And I’m more than happy to be out of it, ’trigger it’s not a simple subject.”

Daisy Lowe

Daisy found as an adolescent that her mom, clothier Pearl Lowe, hid the reality about her father being Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale. Till she was 15, the mannequin believed her mother Pearl’s ex-lover Bronner Handwerger was her dad and that Rossdale was her godfather.

The revelation had big repercussions on the lives of everybody concerned. Pearl wrote in her memoir All That Glitters that Rossdale — who was married to Gwen Stefani on the time — was livid when a DNA check confirmed he was certainly Daisy’s dad.

“Daisy beamed after I instructed her the end result. … Later that day I emailed Gavin,” Pearl wrote. “There was no response. When Daisy finally succeeded in chatting with him, Gavin appeared extra involved with venting his anger about my conduct than participating along with his daughter. All this was very arduous on Daisy. She spent most days in tears however it’s a testimony to her maturity and power of character that after she overcame her preliminary harm she received on together with her life.”

Father and daughter finally mended fences, with Daisy telling The Guardian in 2015 that it was a protracted and troublesome course of to forge a relationship with the rocker.

“I used to be so completely satisfied the day I came upon Gavin was my dad,” she mentioned. “I’d at all times seemed as much as him. However it was nonetheless a s***present attempting to recover from it. There’s no handbook. As a 15-year-old you need to pull your self collectively anyway.”

Daisy confirmed on “That Gaby Roslin Podcast” in 2022 that she’d turn into near Gavin and Gwen’s three youngsters — Kingston, born in 2006, Zuma, born in 2008, and Apollo, born in 2014. (Rossdale and Stefani cut up in 2015.)

“I really like all of them so dearly,” she mentioned. “I FaceTime with my brothers over in L.A. no less than as soon as per week. Kingston is identical age as [my sister] Betty truly. Zuma and Apollo are a bit youthful, a bit much less into FaceTime understandably. Each time I’m going to L.A. I at all times have the most effective time with these boys. They’re such sensible children.”

Gavin made a uncommon public remark about his relationship with Daisy after she received engaged to actual property agent Jordan Saul in 2022. (Daisy and Jordan welcomed daughter Ivy Love in April 2023.)

“Daisy has simply received engaged. I performed some music to her fiancé, my future son-in-law, after they have been with me in L.A. and he wrote to me that he cherished the brand new tracks,” he revealed to Metro in 2022. “He’s a budding novice fighter, so I feel he simply likes the power. I don’t know what else he likes however he’s a very good individual so I’m tremendous enthusiastic about him.”

Jennette McCurdy

Jennette wrote the highly effective memoir I’m Glad My Mother Died about her troubled childhood and abuse she endured from her mom, Debra McCurdy, who died in 2013.

Following Debra’s loss of life, her husband, Mark McCurdy, started courting one in every of Debra’s closest associates, a lady known as Karen in I’m Glad My Mother Died. With Karen’s encouragement, Mark instructed Jennette that he wasn’t her organic father.

“I bear in mind feeling like I received the wind knocked out of me. My mouth was actually dry,” she recalled on The Drew Barrymore Present in 2022. “I feel I hugged him and his then-girlfriend type of, like, joined the hug, and she or he was well-meaning, however I used to be like, OK, that is only a hug between us two.’”

The Nickelodeon actress mentioned she was in the end dissatisfied in the way in which Mark revealed the surprising information.

“[He said,] ‘It’s not your fault you have been born.’ Then he repeated it, he doubled down after which tripled down,” she mentioned. “I assumed, ‘That is the weirdest factor to say to someone after you’ve simply instructed them you’re not their organic father.’”

Jennette recalled feeling equally shocked to study her organic dad was a neighborhood jazz musician, whom she referred to within the guide as Andrew. The iCarly actress went with costar Miranda Cosgrove and different associates to introduce herself to Andrew at one in every of his live shows.

Andrew confirmed to Jennette that he’d identified he was her father all alongside however by no means reached out as a result of he wasn’t certain whether or not Debra ever instructed Mark the reality.

Throughout her look on The Drew Barrymore Present, Jennette mentioned that the revelation made sense in hindsight as a result of she “at all times felt” Mark was “fairly disengaged and disconnected” all through her childhood.

“That was a relationship I type of let dissolve [and] disintegrate,” she mentioned. “There wasn’t actually a lot there to start with.”

Tim McGraw

Tim opened up on Q With Tom Power about assembly his father, legendary New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies baseball participant Tug McGraw, at age 18.

Tug had a quick fling with Tim’s mom, Betty Ann D’Agostino, after they lived in the identical Florida condo constructing. As soon as D’Agostino turned pregnant, her household despatched her away to Louisiana and later led Tim to consider D’Agostino’s first husband, Horace Smith, was his father. Tim lastly discovered the reality at age 11 when he discovered his delivery certificates.

Tug denied being Tim’s father for seven years however finally agreed to satisfy him. In his 2023 interview, Tim recalled being introduced with a authorized letter by Tug after they met.

“We sat there in silence for about 5 minutes simply one another,” Tim remembered. “And I lastly mentioned, ‘Look, I’m completely satisfied to signal this [legal agreement] and I’ll get out of your hair. It’s not in regards to the cash. I’ll work three jobs if I’ve to. It’s not an enormous deal. I simply need to know, do you suppose you’re my father?’ And he mentioned [to me], ‘Yeah, I feel so. I do know so.’”

In keeping with Tim, Tug then supplied to tear up the authorized settlement so they may forge a relationship.

“He mentioned, ‘I would like you to be a part of my household,’” Tim mentioned, earlier than revealing with fun: “I didn’t hear from him for a 12 months.”

Tug died at age 59 in January 2004 after being identified with a cancerous mind tumor. Tim honored his father by spreading his ashes on the pitcher’s mound on the Phillies’ house stadium Residents Financial institution Park throughout the 2008 World Collection.

Jackie Chan

The 2003 documentary Traces of the Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Misplaced Household delves into the motion star’s extraordinary background because the son of a Shanghai gambler (his mom, Lee-lee Chan) and a clandestine political operative (his father, Charles Chan). Underneath political stress, Jackie’s dad and mom fled China in 1949 and later left 6-year-old Jackie behind to attend faculty in Hong Kong after they moved to Australia in 1962.

“The truth that his mom was an opium smuggler, a gambler and a ‘Large Sister’ within the underworld was an enormous shock to Jackie and in addition to us,” Traces of a Dragon director Mabel Cheung instructed The Guardian in 2003. “All people in Hong Kong knew that his mom was like a standard housewife, very sort, very mild.”

Jackie reconnected along with his dad and mom a couple of years later. Within the Nineteen Nineties, Jackie discovered his actual title was truly Fang Shilong, as his father had modified their household’s surname from Fang to Chan to keep away from scrutiny from the Chinese language authorities. He was instructed his dad and mom every had two different youngsters from earlier marriages, whom Jackie had by no means identified of.

The whole household was finally reunited in Australia within the late Nineteen Nineties.

Sean Astin

The Stranger Issues actor’s mom, Hollywood icon Patty Duke, was concerned in three romances across the similar interval in 1970 with then-17-year-old Desi Arnaz Jr., Addams Household star John Astin (who was married to Suzanne Hahn on the time) and rock music promoter Michael Inform.

Duke rapidly married Inform when she received pregnant, however their union solely lasted 13 days. She raised her son Sean to consider John was his father since they finally received collectively following John’s 1972 divorce.

Duke confessed to Sean when he was 14 that Arnaz was truly his organic father — although Sean finally discovered this was not true. Sean underwent a DNA check to verify that Inform was his organic father all alongside, regardless of Duke’s insistence that she’d by no means consummated her 13-day marriage.

Sean instructed People in 2001 that he was in a position to develop “a great relationship” with Inform, although he would at all times consider John as a father.

“I don’t fault anyone, I don’t fault myself or with Desi, who’s like my godfather, I’ve such a strong love bond with this man, he’s a beautiful human being,” Sean mentioned.

Duke remained skeptical about the potential of Inform being her son’s father, telling Folks in 2001 that she merely “didn’t purchase the [DNA] check.”

“I can assist [Sean’s] fact so long as my fact, if not supported, is revered. I’ve instructed him I do know what I do know to be true,” she insisted. “When God appears to be like me within the eye and says, ‘Anna Marie [her real name], you’ve gotten been mistaken all these years,’ then I’ll contemplate [Tell’s paternity].”

Duke died at age 69 in 2016 from sepsis attributable to a ruptured gut.

Wynonna Judd

Within the 2025 docuseries The Judd Household: Fact Be Advised, Wynonna opened up about her famously difficult relationship with late mom Naomi Judd. The nation music icon grew up believing her mom’s first husband, Michael Ciminella, was her organic father however discovered in her 30s that she was conceived throughout Naomi’s transient fling with one other man, Charles Jordan.

“There was all this stress and all people kinda freaked out, and [Jordan] went off to hitch the Military,” Wynonna defined. “Look, I perceive it, however I used to be actually offended together with her about it. I used to be so devastated that I assumed there was part of me that’s lacking. The glass is half empty. Studying about my delivery father, I really feel extra like him than I do my mom in sure areas. And I feel Mother was petrified of that half of me as a result of she couldn’t management it. She couldn’t carry it in and practice it. That’s why Mother was very arduous on me.”

Wynonna by no means received an opportunity to satisfy her organic dad as a result of Jordan died in 2000. Naomi died by suicide at age 76 in April 2022.

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