Millie Bobby Brown is reflecting on the most difficult aspect of adoption.
Sharing her motherhood experience on the Thursday, June 11, episode of Kylie Kelce’s “Not Gonna Lie” podcast, the Stranger Things actress, 22, admitted some parts of the process can be tougher than others.
“Every journey is different. Waiting for the call is the hardest part,” Brown said.
Sharing her advice for others going through a similar journey, Brown added, “I just would always encourage you to understand that every journey is different. Don’t compare yourself to others, don’t compare yourself to statistics, don’t compare yourself to other families, but your baby is out there, and you’ll find each other.”
Brown and her husband Jake Bongiovi, who tied the knot in May 2024, announced the arrival of their baby girl via adoption last year.
“This summer, we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption,” Brown and Bongiovi wrote in a joint Instagram statement in August 2025. “We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy. And then there were 3. Love, Millie and Jake Bongiovi.”
Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
In the podcast, Brown also clapped back at the harsh criticism she’s received since becoming a first-time parent.
“I was like, ‘This is vicious, you are vicious,’ and I don’t have time for angry women that just need to bring you down, especially when it comes to motherhood,” Brown said on the podcast. “I’ve never experienced anything like this. It’s like, I can always deal with the, ‘Oh, my God, you showed your nipples? What a bitch!’ I’m like, ‘Whatever.’ I don’t care about that, but when you’re like, ‘You didn’t put a hat on your baby?’ I’m like, ‘Try putting a hat on my baby. I dare you [to] put a beanie on her.’”
Brown continued, “Stay in your own lane, put a hat on your baby and put a sock in your mouth. Sorry, the English is coming out of me, but it’s so true. Like, shut up.”
Millie Bobby Brown and husband Jake Bongiovi’s infant daughter just made her interview debut — sort of. Brown, 21, and her Stranger Things castmates teamed up for BuzzFeed’s “The Kitten Interview” to play with rescue cats while discussing season 5 of the Netflix series. “That’s my child,” Brown quipped at the start of the Monday, […]
The Enola Holmes 3 star has long been open about her desire to start a family at a young age.
“My mom actually had her first child at 21, and my dad was 19,” she said on an episode of the “Smartless” podcast in March 2025. “And you know, it’s been my thing since before I met Jake. Since I was a baby, I told my mom, like, baby dolls. I wanted to be a mom just like the way my mom was to me.”
Brown added that Bongiovi was well aware of “how important it is” for her to not wait too long to have a child.
“I want to focus on really establishing myself as an actor and as a producer, but I also find it’s so important to start a family for me personally,” she said at the time. “It’s a huge thing. Jake was like, we cannot do that until we get married. So that was his thing.”
