7 Celebrities Who Spent Time In Foster Care Growing Up

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… 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. 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 ba