Who says you can’t just know?
Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi‘s young love may have baffled those who assume show business types are waiting longer and longer to settle down these days. But the 21-year-old Stranger Things star said she and her 23-year-old model-actor husband were excited to start a family of their own—and that’s exactly what they’ve done.
On Aug. 21, the couple revealed that they adopted a baby girl this summer.
“We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy,” Milly wrote on Instagram. “And then there were 3.”
Millie said on a March episode of Smartless that, while she wanted to “focus on really establishing myself as an actor and as a producer,” it was also “so important” to her to start a family, and Jake understood just how much it meant to her.
They were each one of four, she continued, “So, it is definitely in our future.”
Jake is the third of Jon Bon Jovi and wife Dorothea Hurley‘s grown kids, and the marriage-oriented family celebrated 30-year-old son Jesse Bongiovi‘s wedding to Jesse Light in May 2024, the pair tying the knot at the same Las Vegas chapel where the groom’s parents said “I do” in April 1989.
Millie and Jake’s nuptials, meanwhile, were on the more international side.
The couple exchanged vows in a private ceremony in May 2024, then threw an elegant bash in Tuscany in September that involved four outfit changes for the bride. Millie walked down the aisle in custom couture by Galia Lahav, swapped it for vintage Valentino (circa 1993) for more photos, then slipped into an Oscar de la Renta gown for cake-cutting and a Vivienne Westwood minidress for dancing.
“the year of mrs bongiovi,” she captioned a Dec. 31 video montage to close out 2024 on Instagram.
Which, after all, is where it all began.
“We were friends for a bit” after first connecting on Instagram in 2021, Millie shared in a November 2022 Wired interview. “And then, what can I say?”
DMing led to FaceTiming, which led to finally meeting in person, with Jake extending the ancient chivalrous gesture of picking the Enola Holmes actress up from the airport.
“bff <3,” Jake captioned a June 3, 2021, photo of the pair, quite possibly having just left an arrival terminal.
“As soon as we spoke I knew he was going to be a huge part of my life,” Millie recalled to The Times of London in August 2023. “I ran to my mum and said, ‘I really, really like him!’ After we met we knew we never wanted to leave each other’s side.”
“You can’t pinpoint why,” added the Damsel star. “It’s just the feeling of knowing that that’s the person you want to spend the rest of your time with. I think so much of life is overthinking. The one thing that made clear sense to me was him.”
Not that she showed up wearing her heart on her sleeve.
“You were playing it cool, like, ‘whatever,'” Jake reminisced about their first meeting as he did Millie’s makeup in a September 2023 video for her beauty line Florence by Mills, the pair dissolving into giggles as he attempted various feats of application. He recalled being “taken aback” meeting her in person after getting to know a “floating head” on a screen.
“We started talking about politics and how we wanna raise our kids and, like, we start talking about really, really bigger things that I’d never spoke, obviously never spoken about,” she explained to Alex Cooper on a March episode of Call Her Daddy. “I’m already very young, so I’ve never spoken about that with like boys anyway. But to be able to even think about those things, I was like ‘S–t. Okay, maybe I do wanna be with you forever.'”
Millie flashed her dazzling engagement ring for the first time in April 2023, captioning her post with Taylor Swift‘s “Lover” lyrics: “I’ve loved you three summers now, honey, I want ’em all.”
Meanwhile, they were busy combining their respective worlds, meeting each other’s friends and families, not concerned that it was too much, too soon—or, too early.
“My parents adore him,” Millie told The Times. “[We] both come from parents that have stayed together for a really long time. My parents were young when they got together, so I always had amazing role models for relationships.”
As her father-in-law Jon, who married his high school sweetheart, put it to Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, “If you find the right partner and you grow together, I think that would be my advice, really. Growing together is wise…I think that all of my kids have found the people that they think they can grow together with and we like ’em all.”
At the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year gala in early February, Jon reiterated that the couple were still on the right track.
“They’re madly in love and we love them both for that,” he told E! News’ Keltie Knight. “It’s an exciting adventure.”
And it’s not as if the couple got carried away by vibes.
“If we’re not fully invested, then what’s the point?” Millie told Vanity Fair in an interview published Feb. 12. “We have to be, and we always have been.”
Getting married “is such an important decision,” Millie added, “and we wanted to make sure we were making the right one. I knew I was. It always felt right with him.”
See Millie and Jake’s love song of a romance in photos:
June 2021: First Instagram Pic
The pair sparked romance rumors around the time that Jake posted this photo, with the caption, “bff <3”
November 2021: Never Say Goodbye
The couple officially confirmed their romance with this PDA pic.
November 2021: Bon Jovi 2.0
“We’re starting a band,” Jake wrote on Instagram, “send name ideas.”
December 2021: Merry Christmas
The Stranger Things star and the actor celebrated their first Chirstmas together in 2021.
December 2021: Happy Holidays
Sweet selfie.
February 2022: Celebrating Millie’s 18th Birthday
Twinning.
March 2022: Red Carpet Official
Millie and Jake make their first joint appearance at a celebrity event—the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards in London.
May 2022: Stranger Things Premiere
Millie and Jake were twinning at the premiere of Stranger Things season four in New York City.
January 2023: New Year’s
Millie shared photos of the couple in celebration of the New Year, writing, “endlessly in love with the year I’ve had.”
January 2023: New Year’s
One snapshot showed a photo booth strip of the loved-up couple.
January 2023: New Year’s
As Millie put it, “grateful for my friends, family, donkey (bernard), my doggies, my puppies teeth, and my partner for life.”
February 2023: Golden Birthday
Jake marked Millie’s 19th birthday on Feb. 19, 2023 with a sweet tribute, writing, “Another year around the sun together happy 19th to the girl of my dreams.”
February 2023: Golden Birthday
The sweet post included photos of the couple.
February 2023: Golden Birthday
The pair’s silly side is depicted in one image of Jake and Millie clowning around in the pool
February 2023: Golden Birthday
Jake and Millie snuggle up in a romantic selfie.
April 2023: Engaged
Millie announced the couple’s engagement on Instagram, quoting Taylor Swift’s song “Lover.” The two would go on to celebrate with family and friends at an engagement party weeks later.
July 2023: Six Flags Visit
Millie and Jake enjoyed a day out with her sister Ava Brown, 11, and friends at the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park.
September 2023: Summer Nights
Jake shared this pic in the final days of summer 2023.
November 2023: Glamour Women of the Year
The two appear at the event, where Millie was honored as one of two Global Women of the Year.
February 2024: Happy Birthday Millie
Jake shared a tribute to his partner for her 20th birthday, writing, “Happy birthday my beautiful fiancéI love you so much. Big year ahead.”
March 2024: Anniversary
Millie shared this tribute to Jake on their third dating anniversary.
May 2024: Married
After three years of dating, the duo tied the knot in a private ceremony, multiple outlets reported.
