Babies Before Bars: Celebs Who Had Kids Before 21

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24. Solange Knowles

According to Solange Knowles, she wanted to settle down and have children when she was young. She found out that she was pregnant when she was 17 and, that same year, she married Daniel Smith, her high school sweetheart and the father of her child. The following year they welcomed their only son Daniel Julez. The young couple didn’t end up being able to make it work and were divorced less than three years later. In November of 2014, Knowles married music video director Alan Ferguson, but has not had another child since being a teen mom.

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23. Naomi Judd

Country legend Naomi Judd had her first child, Wynonna, when she was just 18-years-old. Four years later, she welcomed her second child, Ashley. Naomi raised her daughters as a single mother and worked several odd jobs to support her family. She was a nurse, a secretary, a waitress and a clerk before she joined forces with her eldest daughter Wynnona to become one of the most successful mother-daughter duos in country music. Meanwhile Ashley Judd went on to become a force in Hollywood.

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22. Roseanne Barr

Prior to becoming a star, Roseanne Barr’s childhood and personal life was rife with drama and while she has been an open book about her life, there was something she hid for quite some time: her teenage pregnancy. In the late ’80s, Barr revealed that she became a teenage mother at 18 years old when she welcomed her daughter Brandi, but she ended up putting her up for adoption. “I went away to Denver and moved into a Salvation Army home for unwed mothers. My family wasn’t too supportive. I gave my baby up to the Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Denver. They said they had a couple that had waited seven years for a Jewish baby.” Eventually Barr was reunited with Brandi and she even went on to work on the set of Roseanne for some time.

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21. Keisha Castle-Hughes

To many actress Keisha Castle-Hughes is best known as fierce warrior Obera Sand from Game of Thrones, and in real life she is just as determined and tough. In October 2006, when she was only 16 years old it was revealed that she and her boyfriend Bradley Hull were expecting their first child. The pair welcomed daughter Felicity-Amore Hull in April 2007, one month after Castle-Hughes turned 17. The actress revealed that she didn’t think twice about having a baby as a teenager, saying, “Once I found out I was pregnant there was no decision really. I was shocked but it was just like, ‘Okay, we are having a baby. That’s great.’” After seven years together Castle-Hughes and Hill split in 2010.

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20. Whoopi Goldberg

Iconic actress, comedian, host and author Whoopi Goldberg was ushered into motherhood when at 18 she and her first husband Alvin Martin welcomed their daughter Alexandrea Martin. Although Goldberg was married two more times, she never had another child, but because she had Alexandrea at such a young age, she became a grandmother at only 34. Now, through her daughter, Goldberg has three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

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19. Emily Maynard

Emily Maynard became a reality TV star after appearing on season 15 of The Bachelor where she was chosen by Bachelor Brad Womack. After their relationship ended, Maynard was tapped as the lead of The Bachelorette’s eighth season, but it was her backstory that had fans the most interested. At only 18 years old, Maynard was engaged to American race car driver Ricky Hendrick IV, and after his tragic death in a plane crash in 2004 she found out she was expecting their child. At only 18, Maynard became a mother and lost her daughter’s father.

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18. Aretha Franklin

The Queen of Soul was a very young mother when she welcomed her first son Clarence on January 28, 1955 at only 12 years old with a boy named Edward Jordan. Two years later at 14, Franklin gave birth to her her second son with Jordan, named Edward after his father. Since she was in the midst of pursuing her music career, her grandmother and her sister Erma took turns raising the two boys for her. Franklin did not like discussing her young pregnancies in interviews and actually kept the identity of her first two son’s father a secret until her handwritten will was discovered in 2019, one year after her death, revealing their father was Edward Jordan. A month before she turned 21, Franklin welcomed her third child, son Ted White Jr. with her then-husband Theodore “Ted” White. In 1970, at 28, Franklin welcomed her fourth son Kecalf Cunningham with her road manager Ken Cunningham.

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17. Bristol Palin

Bristol Palin has been dubbed America’s “most famous Teen Mom” before the craze of the hit MTV series. Palin’s pregnancy made headlines in 2008 when it was revealed she was pregnant at only 17 while her mother Sarah Palin was running for Vice President. The controversy was worsened by the fact that Palin and her family openly advocated against sex before marriage and Bristol had appeared on Good Morning America to urge teens to abstain from sex and was named a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ambassador. Two months before she turned 18, Bristol Palin welcomed son Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston-Palin with her then-fiance Levi Johnston. Nearly a decade later, Palin actually joined the cast of MTV’s Teen Mom OG because of her prior status as America’s most famous Teen Mom, but quit the series after one season. At 25, Palin welcomed her second child Sailor Grace with then-husband Dakota Meyer, and the pair had another daughter Atlee Bay in May, 2017 before separating a year later in 2018.

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16. Jourdan Dunn

Supermodel Jourdan Dunn was just 15 when she was scouted by Storm Model Management, and had already worked her way up in the modelling world when she became pregnant at 18. Dunn announced the news in an issue of Teen Vogue which she appeared in and the magazine soon faced backlash for “glorifying teenage pregnancy.” Dunn modeled until she was six months pregnant and then welcomed son Riley at only 19. Nine months after his birth, Dunn returned to modeling and hasn’t looked back.

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15. Anna Nicole Smith

Anna Nicole Smith was another celebrity who was a teen mom. The late Playboy model began her career as a high school drop out working in a local fried chicken restaurant. It was there that she met her first husband, Billy Smith. They married when she was 17 and he was 16 and welcomed their first and only son, Daniel, a year after they married. A year later, the marriage fell apart and the two former lovebirds separated. Unfortunately, on September 10, 2006, three days after Anna Nicole welcomed her second child, daughter Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, her son Daniel Smith passed away in her hospital room of an overdose while visiting his mother and his new half-sister.

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14. Fantasia Barrino

This American Idol winner had her daughter Zion Quarri with her high school sweetheart when she was just 16. However, she proved that having a child at a young age doesn’t have to interfere with one’s life goals. Three years after the birth of her daughter, she rose to fame when she won season three of the reality TV series American Idol in 2004. Now she has a successful career in music and she has even won a Grammy. On December 13, 2011 she welcomed her second child, son Dallas Xavier Barrino, and in July 2018 married businessman Kendall Taylor.

Photo by Broadimage/REX

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13. Suzanne Somers

Suzanne Somers career took off when she was only 23 years old thanks to her role as a prize model on Anniversary Game, and she defied the odds because only four years earlier she had become a teen mom. At 19 years old, Somers married Bruce Somers and later that year they welcomed a son, Bruce Jr. Only three years later, their marriage came to an end and Somers would soon find herself on Anniversary Game where she met and fell in love with host Alan Hamel. The pair married in 1977 and although Somers became pregnant, she admitted she had an abortion because she was not ready to have a second child, and that same year she landed her iconic role in Three’s Company as Chrissy Snow.

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12. Niki Taylor

Niki Taylor was married with twin boys – Jack and Hunter – at the age of 19. According to her, she always envisioned herself as a young mom but, in hindsight, she feels as though she rushed into things. “I was young, and I thought I was in love. So when the babies came, it was not something I signed up for,” the former supermodel told People. “We were just two totally different people and after two totally different things. I was pregnant at 18, had [Jake and Hunter] at 19 and divorced by 21…it was a lot on my plate for my young 20s!”

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11. Sofia Vergara

Actress Sofia Vergara married her high school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez, when she was 18 and gave birth to their only child, son Manolo, when she was 19. Now she has appeared in commercials with her son, and while she has not had any other children, on November 21, 2015 she married for the second time to actor Joe Manganiello.

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10. Kylie Jenner

At only 20 years old Kylie Jenner was a multi-millionaire, one of the most followed people on social media, and in charge of her very own and very successful lip kit brand — and pregnant! Rumors of Kylie’s pregnancy swirled for much of 2017 and while paparazzi photos seemed to confirm that she was expecting, Kylie never addressed the rumors head on. Instead, she opted to keep her pregnancy with boyfriend Travis Scott a secret and eventually revealed she had given birth to daughter Stormi Webster in February 2018, five months before she turned 21. “I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark through all the assumptions,” she wrote. “I understand you’re used to me bringing you along on all my journeys. My pregnancy was one I chose not to do in front of the world. I knew for myself I needed to prepare for this role of a lifetime in the most positive, stress free and healthy way I knew how,” she shared after her daughter’s birth. “There was no gotcha moment, no big paid reveal I had planned,” she continued. “I knew my baby would feel every stress and every emotion so I chose to do it this way for my little life and our happiness. Pregnancy has been the most beautiful, empowering, and life changing experience I’ve had in my entire life and I’m actually going to miss it. I appreciate my friends and especially my family for helping me make this special moment as private as we could. My beautiful and healthy baby girl arrived February 1st and I just couldn’t wait to share this blessing. I’ve never felt love and happiness like this I could burst! Thank you for understanding.”

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Bonus: Stars Who Had Babies Before 25

9. Candace Cameron Bure

Full House and Fuller House star Candace Cameron Bure had just turned 20 when she married NHL player Valeri Bure. The actress was only 21 when she learned she was pregnant with her first child, and the pair welcomed daughter Natasha in August 1998, only a few months after Candace Cameron turned 22. When she was 23, the couple welcomed their second child, son Lev Valerievich Bure, and at 25 welcomed another son Maksim Valerievich Bure.

EPA/NINA PROMMER

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8. Britney Spears

After becoming the biggest pop star in the world at only 18 when she released her debut studio album …Baby One More Time, it seems Britney Spears’ entire life was accelerated. A few months before she turned 23, Spears married dancer Kevin Federline and in September the following year the singer welcomed her first son, Sean, at only 23 years old. In the fall of 2006, three months before her 25th birthday, Spears became a mother for the second time when she welcomed her second child with Federline, a son named Jayden. Federline and Spears split two months after welcoming Jayden.

Press Association

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7. Kate Hudson

At only 21 years old, actress Kate Hudson married Black Crowes musician Chris Robinson and after getting married fairly young, the pair welcomed their son, Ryder Robinson, just over three years later in January 2004, four months before Hudson turned 25. Hudson said that at first she didn’t feel like a “young mom” but noticed it as Ryder became older. “As I started getting older, as [Ryder] started getting older and I was 28, 29, I was like, ‘Wow. I’m a young mom.’ It started hitting me,” she told PEOPLE. Hudson and Robinson split in 2006 and in 2011 the actress welcomed another son, Bingham, with Muse musician Matt Bellamy. After splitting with Bellamy in 2014, Hudson welcomed her third child, daughter Rani, with boyfriend Danny Fujikawa in April, 2018.

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6. Brandy

Singer, songwriter, and actress Brandy Norwood, better known as just Brandy, was only 23 when she welcomed her first child. On June 16, 2002, only four months after her 23rd birthday, she welcomed daughter Sy’rai Iman Smith with her then boyfriend, producer Robert “Big Bert” Smith. Although she allowed MTV to film the birth of her daughter for the show, Brandy: Special Delivery, she has since decided to keep her daughter out of the spotlight. She did tell PEOPLE however, “I would love for people to see how I’m doing it, because I think I could be a good example of a young, single mom.”

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5. Victoria Beckham

At only 24 years old Victoria Beckham had reached the top of stardom as a member of the Spice Girls and had begun dating the most famous soccer player in the world David Beckham, and to top it off she became a mother for the first time when she and Beckham welcomed their first son Brooklyn in March 1999. Four months later, the pair were wed, and have gone on to welcome two more sons Romeo and Cruz, and daughter Harper.

Source: Press Association

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4. Ashlee Simpson

At 23 years old, Ashlee Simpson married Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz and only two weeks later the couple revealed they were expecting. A month after Ashlee turned 24, the pair welcomed son Bronx Mowgli Wentz. Three years later, Wentz and Simpson split, and in 2014 Simpson married actor Evan Ross and the following year the couple welcomed a daughter.

Photo by Lionel Hahn/ABACAPRESS.COM

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3. Hilary Duff

After spending her entire teen years as a star, Hilary Duff felt like she grew up very quickly in the spotlight, and at only 20 years old she began dating NHL player Mike Comrie. At 22 years old Duff and Comrie were married and at 23 she became pregnant with her first child. In March 2012, at 24 years old, Duff became a mom to son Luca. After splitting with Comrie in 2015, Duff welcomed her second child, a daughter in October 2018 with fiance Matthew Koma.

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2. Adele

Despite being one of the most talented singers in the industry right now, Adele leads a very private personal life and many didn’t even know she was married, let alone a mother! On October 19, 2012 Adele and Simon Konecki welcomed son Angelo and Adele was just 24 years old. After Adele and Konecki secretly married in 2017, the pair announced their split in April 2019 but are dedicated to raising their son together. Adele previously stated she wanted three sons before she was 30, but at 31 she only has Angelo.

Photo by Broadimage/REX/Shutterstock

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1. Reese Witherspoon

At her 21st birthday party actress Reese Witherspoon met actor Ryan Phillippe and just over one year later the pair became engaged! After marrying in June of 1999, the couple welcomed their first child, daughter Ava, in September when Witherspoon was only 23 years old. They welcomed their second child, a son named Deacon, in 2003. In October 2006 Witherspoon and Phillippe announced their separation. Witherspoon went on to marry talent agent Jim Toth and the pair welcomed son Tennessee in 2012.

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Telisa Carter

Telisa enjoys learning and writing about all things entertainment in the world of Hollywood. When she isn't catching up on her favorite TV shows, she likes to read, and obsess over all things football.