The acclaimed singer-songwriter has sold over 35 million albums worldwide, won nine Grammys, and dated the likes of Eric Clapton and Owen Wilson. However, following the singer’s split from cyclist Lance Armstrong in 2006 after three years together, and her subsequent breast-cancer diagnosis, Crow realized a change would do her good. She decided to adopt a baby boy. From the moment Wyatt Crow—named after her father—arrived on April 30, 2007, he immediately lit up her life. “Adoption has been the greatest thing ever,” Crow told O Magazine. “In part, the choice was based on losing everything: my relationship, my certainty about my health. But when I let go of what I thought my life was supposed to look like, Wyatt found his way in. My little boy is my life a thousand times over.” And, on June 4 this year, Crow announced on her website that Wyatt has a new brother, Levi James Crow, born April 30, 2010.
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It’s been a year of tremendous ups and downs for Sandra Bullock. The actress appeared in two massive hits— The Proposal and The Blind Side, and, on March 7 was awarded the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in the latter. Just days after the ceremony, news surfaced that her husband, motorcycle enthusiast Jesse James, had engaged in numerous affairs. James issued a public apology to Bullock on March 18, and, by April 23, Bullock had filed for divorce. Then on April 28 came the announcement that Bullock had adopted a 3½-month-old baby boy, Louis Bardo Bullock, born in New Orleans. “He's just perfect, I can't even describe him any other way,” Bullock gushed to People. Though Bullock and James had started the adoption process four years ago and brought “Louie” home in January, they had somehow managed to keep the adoption a secret. During her Oscar acceptance speech, she said: “I would like to thank what this movie was about for me, which are the moms that take care of the babies, and the children, no matter where they come from.”
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A former model, cookbook author and the Emmy-nominated host of Bravo’s reality-TV series Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi was married to author Salman Rushdie. The couple filed for divorce on July 2, 2007, but less than two years later, Lakshmi announced she was pregnant. The news was a pleasant surprise, given Lakshmi’s long struggle with endometriosis —a condition that causes irregular growth in the uterus and possible infertility. On February 20, 2010, Lakshmi welcomed a baby girl, Krishna, into the world. “I was very surprised because I was told that I wouldn’t be able to conceive naturally,” Lakshmi told iVillage. “Every single thing in life is better with her around.” For some time, Lakshmi kept the identity of the father secret, but a month after the birth it was revealed to be 40-year-old millionaire venture capitalist Adam Dell. For the time being, Lakshmi expects to raise little Krishna by herself. “The only role he will have in her life going forward is as the biological father of her child,” a source told People. “Her relationship with Dell was nothing more than an on-again, off-again fling.”
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As the titular notoriously single lawyer on the Fox television series Ally McBeal, Calista Flockhart’s character had repeated hallucinations of a dancing baby that served as a metaphor for her ticking biological clock. In reality, the svelte actress adopted a baby boy, Liam, in January 2001. During the 2002 Golden Globes, however, Flockhart met actor Harrison Ford, and the two married this year in Sante Fe, New Mexico. “On the weekends, I do whatever Calista and Liam want to do,” Ford told Parade magazine.
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Elizabeth Hurley’s highly publicized 13-year relationship with actor Hugh Grant ended in 2000, but shortly after, the English model-cum-actress announced a new person in her life: On November 8, 2001, Hurley confirmed the rumors of her pregnancy. Though she did not seek a relationship with him, Hurley did announce that American billionaire Steve Bing was the father. After giving birth to a son, Damian Charles Hurley, on April 4, 2002, things got messy. Bing took Hurley to court, claiming he wasn’t the father and they were not an “exclusive relationship” at the time she conceived. A DNA test in June of that year, however, revealed that Bing was the father. In 2002, Hurley started dating Indian textile heir Arun Nayar. The two were married in March 2007. Now, the actress, who has enjoyed success as a bikini designer, lives with her husband and Damian on a 400-acre organic farm in Barnsley, Gloucestershire, England. “My son and my family are first, my absolute priority,” Hurley told Hola magazine.
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Though she’s starred in films with titles like The Godfather, Baby Boom, Father of the Bride, and The First Wives Club, and dated cinema legends Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, and Al Pacino, Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton has never tied the knot. Keaton admits that the desire to find a life partner did prolong her motherhood decision. “I wanted to be in a good relationship. Those good relationships that are strong and substantive never happened for me, and that prolonged my indecisiveness,” Keaton told Ladies’ Home Journal. “Motherhood was not an urge I couldn’t resist, it was more like a thought I’d been thinking for a very long time. So I plunged in,” she said. And plunge in she did. Keaton, in her fifties, adopted two children—a daughter Dexter, in 1996, and then son Duke in 2001. “I like to take them to school in my bare feet," Keaton said. And don’t expect the screen icon to relinquish her single-mom role any time soon. “It’s probably out of the picture,” Keaton told WENN, of men. “I remember when I was young I honestly believed in some ridiculous way that you would find someone who would be the person you lived with until you died. I don't think that because I'm not married it's made my life any less. That old maid myth is garbage.”
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Once dubbed “America’s Sweetheart” after starring in a string of highly successful romantic comedies, including When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail, actress Meg Ryan is now a proud single mom. She married actor Dennis Quaid on Valentine’s Day 1991, and the couple had a son, Jack Henry, on April 24, 1992. They split in 2000 amid rumors of Ryan’s affair with her Proof of Life co-star Russell Crowe, though Ryan later revealed to InStyle that Quaid had been unfaithful to her “for a long time.” In January 2006, Ryan announced she had made an addition to her family, a 14-month-old girl from China who she named Daisy True. “I am convinced, completely convinced, that there was nothing random about [the adoption],” Ryan told Redbook. “She is the daughter I should have.” Though Ryan has been allegedly linked to several actors over the years—including Tim Robbins, of late—she’s content with her role as single mom. “I like the idea of marriage... but I don't know if it's in the cards for me,” she told People.
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The Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress may play a marijuana-peddling single mother in the hit Showtime TV series Weeds, but her life is a little less complicated than that. After nearly eight years together, actor Billy Crudup allegedly dumped Parker in December 2003—when she was seven months pregnant—for actress Claire Danes. On January 7, 2004, she gave birth to her and Crudup’s son, William Atticus Parker—named after Crudup. Since then, she’s transitioned smoothly to being a single mom. “It's nice to be focused on someone other than yourself," Parker told People. “I kind of killed myself looking after Will in the beginning because I didn't want to leave him; I wanted to be the one there with him whenever I wasn't working.” Then, in September 2007, Parker adopted a baby girl, Caroline “Ash” Aberash Parker, from Ethiopia. “I finally just decided, ‘OK, I’m going to do this, and it’s going to be really hard because I’m single, and I’m going to do it anyway,” Parker told WebMD. “It’s not like I only wanted to enlarge my family. I really wanted to give a child a home.” And her love life has also taken a turn for the better: Parker has been dating rocker Charlie Mars since June 2009.
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Edie Falco, who’s most famous for playing Carmela on The Sopranos, also plays the role of happy single mom to two adopted children. The breast-cancer survivor adopted a young boy, Anderson, in December 2004, followed by daughter Macy in February 2008. “I’m just not one of those people who thought having biological children was that important,” Falco told Parade. “To me, it was more about wanting to raise a child.” The multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress does admit that juggling her hit Showtime series Nurse Jackie and raising two young children is no simple task. “The energy level thing is definitely an issue,” Falco confessed to AOL’s ParentDish, adding, “We have tons of babysitters and friends and family over” to help raise her children.
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Famed American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz has garnered acclaim for a number of family-related portraits, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1981 Rolling Stone cover, Demi Moore’s nude-and-pregnant 1991 Vanity Fair cover, and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ unveiling of their daughter, Suri, also on the cover of VF. Leibovitz started a family of her own in October 2001, when she gave birth at an amazing 52 years of age, thanks to artificial insemination, to daughter Sarah Cameron Leibovitz. The father is publicly unknown. Shortly after Leibovitz lost her lover of 16 years, noted writer and essayist Susan Sontag, in 2004, she added to her brood. In May 2005, a surrogate mother gave birth to Leibovitz’s twin girls, Susan and Samuelle. On whether motherhood has changed her approach to photography: “I think one of the most beautiful things is, children are happy just watching the luggage come out at the airport,” Leibovitz told Time. “That does kind of rub off, but I don't know how it affects the photography. We'll have to see.”
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