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Joely Fisher


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Race relations may be doing better than any of us think. We bet you’d be surprised to find out just how many of your favorite white celebrities are raising black babies. A few stars have made their adoptions part of their publicity. But some have been raising multicultural families on the down-low for years.

Joely-Fisher

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Joely Fisher

The former Desperate Housewives and ‘Til Death seemed to be on a mission to find a black baby. First she went to Africa looking to adopt but told People that she found that people there needed more help sustaining their lives in their own country, not help from Americans taking their children away. So she went back to the United States and adopted an African-American daughter in 2008 named Olivia Luna.

Mariska Hargitay

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Mariska Hargitay

When Mariska Hargitay set out to expand her family, she told people that she wanted to do it with black children:

“We talked a lot about mixed-race adoptions, and we are very excited that we are now a multi-racial family. We were considering both international and domestic adoption and we’re thrilled that this is the way our prayers were answered.”

In 2011, shortly before that interview, Mariska adopted two black children: Amaya Josephine and Andrew Nicolas Hargitay.

Tom Cruise

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Tom Cruise

Back in the day, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman adopted an African-American boy named Connor Cruise (they also adopted his older sister, Isabella Cruise). Connor is 17 years old now and an aspiring DJ. If you’re into Celebrity drama, Connor is definitely one to watch. Here’s what a friend of the family told In Touch Weekly about Connor:
“Connor has always had a difficult relationship with his parents, and it has definitely affected him. He has broken down crying about it…When he was young, Tom was always off doing his thing, working like a madman. He traveled all the time, and was totally focused on his career. When he came home, he didn’t always have much left to give.

“Tom is a very difficult man to get to know on a deep level. It’s almost like he treats Connor like a business associate rather than a son.”

“He’s starting to rebel against his father and the other components in their life, maybe even Scientology. He wants to be independent, but Tom doesn’t want to give up control over his son.”

Charlize Theron

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Charlize Theron

Charlize made it clear to the world that she was clueless about black folks’ struggle in the US when she tried to backdoor Viola Davis’ comment about struggling as a black actress with “You have to stop saying that, because you’re hot as sh-t.” So it was a surprise to learn that Charlize actually has a black child named Jackson. The South African native adopted him around the time of her statement.

Hugh-Jackman

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Hugh Jackman

When Wolverine isn’t cutting up the X-Men’s enemies, he’s adopting babies. When he discovered that his wife Deborra-Lee Furness was infertile, he looked for other ways to expand his family. Both his son Oscar Maximillian and Oscar’s sister Ava Eliot are half black. And adopting “mixed race” children was a conscious decision on Hugh and Ava’s part. When they found out that kids of mixed racial parentage are adopted the least, they wanted to be sure that they were the ones to help fill that gap.

Madonna

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Madonna

Madonna adopted Mercy James and David Banda from Malawi. That’s not news to most who follow Madonna’s career. What is surprising is the way she got the kids. Apparently, Mercy James’ biological family say that Madonna tricked them into thinking that they weren’t giving their daughter up permanently. Hopefully that’s not true.

Angelina Jolie

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Angelina Jolie

It’s not news to anyone that Angelina and Brad adopted Zahara and Pax and Maddox. But she started this whole trend back in 2005 and no list would be complete without Angelina’s mixed brood. If you’re Jonesing for a family update, you can check all the kids out in Angelina’s new movie Maleficent.