“You get attached and then, boom, ‘Oh let’s move over here.'”
Every year, thousands of children end up in the foster care system in the United States. Whether their home life is unsafe, they’ve lost a parent, or they’re not being cared for as they should be, the government steps in to find a better situation for these kids in need. They are often placed with foster families, who step up to care for these children until they can reunite with their biological families or find a forever home with an adoptive family.
Although the intention of foster care is to give children a better life, it’s not always a positive experience. Being separated from family and moving from home to home is incredibly tough on young children, who often feel like they have no stability in their lives. Although it’s a challenging experience, there are many celebrities who have been through it — and want to use their platforms to help others going through the same thing. These stars say that they preserved despite their circumstances and hope others know that they can do the same.
Find out what these stars had to share about foster care…
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1. Barry Keoghan
When Barry Keoghan was a child, his mother struggled with addiction and by the time he was 12, she had died of a heroin overdose. With no father in his life, Barry and his brother spent time in foster care, living in 13 different homes over the course of seven years. Thankfully, he had mostly positive experiences.
“Every family was good to us. As a kid, you don’t know what’s happening. You get attached and then, boom. ‘Oh let’s move over here,’” he said on The Late Late Show. “I don’t have a hometown, that’s what I’m saying…It’s only when you get older you can look back and get a bit of perspective on it.”
Eventually, his grandmother, aunt and cousin all moved in together and were able to welcome Barry and his brother Eric into their home. He lived the rest of his adolescence with them — and now hopes to buy them a house one day.
2. Simone Biles
Simone Biles was just three-years-old when she and her siblings were placed in foster care amid their mother’s struggle with drug and alcohol abuse. Over the next three years, Simone and her brother and sisters stayed together in one home, which was a mostly positive experience for them.
“I actually was a foster kid, so I know some of those hardships that those kids go through. When my siblings and I entered foster care, it was because our biological mom was struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. I was three years old,” she told CNN.
She continued, “I just remember, like, us as kids being so hungry and then I just remember this cat that would get fed and not like, quite us. And so we were taken and, thankfully, we actually got to stay in one foster home and we were all together.”
During that time, her grandparents were frequent visitors, which she recalls being “some of the best times ever.” When Simone was six, she and her sister Adria were officially adopted by their grandparents while their siblings Tevin and Ashley were adopted by another family member.
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3. Tiffany Haddish
Tiffany Haddish was about to turn nine-years-old when her mother was in a tragic car accident. It left her with traumatic brain damage and forced her to relearn basic tasks like eating, speaking and reading. Tiffany stepped up to take care of her younger siblings, essentially running the household, all while dealing with physical abuse from her mother who had become violent due to her brain injury. Eventually, they were all placed in foster care.
“I was really mad when we ended up in foster care,” Tiffany said on the SHE MD podcast. “There was a part of me that was very happy, because I’m like, ‘Oh, okay, good. I’m away from her now. I don’t have to deal with this anymore.’ Then, I was very upset because my sister and my brothers, they’re separated from me, and they have become my children.”
Her grandmother eventually took custody of Tiffany but it wasn’t a good situation and she chose to become emancipated at 18. Her grandmother kicked her out and she was left to fend for herself. Tiffany is now working to help improve the lives of other foster youth, offering mentorship and creating safe spaces for them to grow.
4. Victoria Rowell
At only two-weeks old, Victoria Rowell was put into the foster care system with her older siblings because their mother was unable to care for them. Victoria, who was born in Maine, was soon placed with a local woman who cared for her during the first few years of her life. The woman wanted to adopt Victoria — but was not allowed at the time because she was white and Victoria was Black.
“Bertha Taylor was of European heritage and she was the first person that went to the hospital and said I’m taking this child, and then her two friends, her neighbors, rallied around her, Laura Sawyer and Retha Dunn. And the three of them were like the three musketeers. They battled the system — ‘We don’t care about laws.’ They said, ‘This is ridiculous, we’re supposed to be coming together.’ … They were thwarted by the system,” Victoria told NPR.
She was ultimately taken in by a Black family and grew up on a farm in Boston — although she was never formally adopted and remained a Ward of the State. She is now an activist and advocates for other children in foster care.
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5. Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy’s parents divorced when he was young and his father later passed away. When Eddie was still a child, his mother fell gravely ill and was unable to care for her children. The comedian and his brother were placed in foster care and were taken in by an incredibly strict woman. Looking back, Eddie says she was probably the reason he became a comedian.
“One day she gave us pigs’ tails for dinner and then, when I told my grandmother that we were being fed snakes, the woman grabbed Charles and whipped him. Those were baaaad days. Staying with her was probably the reason I became a comedian,” Eddie told Time.
Eventually his mother recovered and he was able to move back in with her.
6. Seal
As an infant, Seal was placed in foster care and taken in by a family in a suburb of London. For the next four years, he was raised by the family until his biological mother was given approval to take over his care. He later moved in with his biological father. Over the years, Seal lost contact with his foster family but always held a special place in his heart for them. 40 years later, Seal’s then-wife Heidi Klum found his foster family and Oprah Winfrey helped organize a reunion with one of his foster sisters.
“Wherever we went, he was always there,” one of his siblings shared on the show. “It was just like being a brother to us and that was it. He was another addition to our family, and we just never treated him any different to anybody else.”
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7. Rosie Perez
Growing up, Rosie Perez was one of her mother’s 10 children and had been given to her aunt when she was just one-week-old. Her aunt happily raised her while her mother spent time in jail but when Rosie was almost four, her mother returned and took her away. She put her in the care of a Catholic home in upstate New York with her half brothers and sisters.
Rosie says there she felt no sense of love, writing in her book, Handbook for an Unpredictable Life, “No one tucked us in. No one kissed us goodnight. No one told us they loved us and they’d see us in the morning.” Rosie’s biological mother did what she could to keep her aunt away from the little girl but almost every weekend she would find a way to visit.
When Rosie was 12, her aunt was finally able to regain custody of her. She now advocates and encourages other children who are Wards of the State.
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