In the past few months, Sandra Bullock’s life has been a series of twists and turns, but the public is finally seeing her smile thanks to her newly adopted son, Louis. The actress’ tear-jerker football drama, The Blind Side, broke box-office records and earned her an Oscar for her moving performance. But the emotions soon became real for Bullock shortly after her victory at the Academy Awards in March, when reports surfaced that her husband of five years, Jesse James, had an affair. Bullock remained in seclusion for the next month until she gave People magazine a shocking world exclusive. Though the public was not so surprised by her announcement that she would divorce James, the bundle of joy the 45-year-old actress was holding on People’s cover dropped jaws. Bullock adopted 3 1/2-month-old Louis Bardo from New Orleans in January during an incredibly chaotic time, forcing her to keep the news private. “He’s just perfect, I can’t even describe him any other way,” she told People. Though she and James began the adoption process four years ago after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louis’ birthplace, the soon-to-be divorced actress now says she is finalizing the adoption as a single parent.
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Harrison Ford may be around now to father Calista Flockhart's adopted son Liam, but back in 2001 the actress was still single and said that a relationship was "not a priority." Flockhart quietly made the decision to adopt while still starring on Ally McBeal, and stood by in the hospital room as Liam was delivered. She did have a little extra help in prepping for her son, who's now 9 years old: Actor Josh Evans, who served as the model for the infamous Dancing Baby on Ally McBeal, helped Flockhart baby-proof her home, explaining, "I've had a lot of accidents because of my size, things that might happen to a baby or toddler."
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After acting as a second mom to Lance Armstrong's three children while the pair dated, Sheryl Crow started a family of her own on her own, adopting a two-week-old boy who she named Wyatt Steven in 2007. Having recently won a battle against breast cancer, the 45-year-old singer denied having undergone fertility treatments and began the adoption process while still undergoing radiation treatments saying, "Even if I'd had my own kids, I would have adopted." For the time being Crow is content to remain a single parent: "I'm very happy where I am and don't feel any pressure to get married," she told OK! Magazine. "Wyatt is going to be the gatekeeper! There won't be anybody coming between Wyatt and Mom."
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Unlike some, Sharon Stone fell into the world of single adoptive parents by accident—she and husband Phil Bronstein adopted son Roan, now 8 years old, in 2000, four years before they filed for divorce. Apparently motherhood suited the Basic Instinct actress, who adopted sons Laird Vonne in 2005 and Quinn in 2006 after the couple split. Unfortunately, things have been less than smooth since the arrivals—Bronstein and Stone have had a messy (and public) custody battle over Roan, with a judge eventually ruling that Bronstein's home was a "more supportive" environment for the 10-year-old during the school year. During divorce proceedings, Bronstein also alleged that when their son stayed with Stone, his care was "delegated to a series of full-time nannies."
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The Annie Hall star has always been one to make her own rules, and decided in her 50s that she was ready for children, even as a single parent. In 1996, at the age of 50, Keaton adopted her daughter, and son, Dexter, in 2001. "I was not ready before," the actress of her decision to raise children late in life. "One of my former lovers said to me: 'You are a very late developer.' I think the same applied to motherhood[…] I always spent too much time worrying whether a man loves me but I've found raising a child the most demanding and humanizing of all loves."
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Ricky Martin welcomed twins Valentino and Matteo via a surrogate in 2008. Martin, who has described himself as a hands-on parent ("I'm the one who changes the diapers, the one that feeds them, the one that bathes them, the one that puts them to sleep," said the singer), also credited the twins for inspiring his decision to come out of the closet in March. "This is just what I need, especially now that I am the father of two beautiful boys that are so full of light and who with their outlook teach me new things every day," Martin said in a statement. "To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids were born with."
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Fourteen years after the birth of Jack Henry, her son with then-husband Dennis Quaid, a single Meg Ryan decided to adopt a second child. In 2006, Ryan flew to China, where she adopted a baby girl whom she initially called Charlotte, but later re-named Daisy explaining, "I thought she was a Charlotte, but she's just not." Of her decision to adopt, Ryan said, "I never felt like I was on a rescue mission or anything like that. I just really wanted a baby."
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Famous for her tumultuous personal life, silent-film star Gloria Swanson adopted a son in 1923 in the midst of a divorce from her second husband, Herbert Somborn. Swanson then changed the boy's name from Sonny Smith to Joseph Patrick Swanson, thought by many to be a nod to her business partner and rumored lover Joseph P. Kennedy, whom she did not actually meet until 1927. Swanson also had one daughter with Somborn named Gloria, who was born in 1920. A number of years later, Swanson discovered she was pregnant with her second daughter, Michelle, spurring her 1931 marriage to her fourth husband, Michael Farmer.
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Much like Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie found herself with an adopted child and a divorce in the space of a few months. In the waning months of her marriage with Billy Bob Thornton, the couple adopted Maddox Chivan Jolie in 2002, having met him in a Cambodian orphanage during her trip as a United Nations ambassador. But, perhaps as a sign of things to come, Jolie's was the only name on the adoption papers. By the time Maddox was a year old, the divorce was well under way. Jolie earned custody of Maddox and chose to raise him without support payments from Thornton. Since then, Jolie has adopted three more children and given birth to three of her own, all during her five-year relationship with Brad Pitt.
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Edie Falco battled alcoholism and survived breast cancer before she decided she was ready to be a mother at the age of 41. The Nurse Jackie star, who has never been married, decided to adopt. In 2004, she adopted a baby boy and called him Anderson, after her mother's maiden name. "I'm just not one of those people who thought having biological children was that important," she said at the time. "To me it was more about wanting to raise a child." In 2008, Falco added another child when she adopted a baby girl from Florida named Macy.
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Mary Louise Parker was well acquainted with the challenges of being a single parent by the time she decided to adopt—three years earlier, she had split up with Billy Crudup while pregnant with their son, William Atticus. Still single in 2007, she adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia named Caroline 'Ash' Aberash. "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 People magazine. "It's not like I only wanted to enlarge my family. I really wanted to give a child a home."
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