16 People You Didn’t Know Were Adopted

Nicole Richie was adopted when she was 3. Her parents, Lionel Richie and his then-wife Brenda Harvey, knew Nicole's biological parents, who were incapable of providing for her financially. She went to live with and be cared for by the Richies, and when Nicole was 9, she was legally adopted.

Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, who rose to fame as a cast member of MTVs "Jersey Shore," was born in Santiago, Chile, and adopted by her New York parents when she was 6 months old.

Snooki has been open about being adopted and told her friend Khloé Kardashian that she'd be interested in meeting her birth parents and siblings, of whom there are around 10.

Musician Trace Cyrus was adopted by country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, who is the biological father of singer and performer Miley Cyrus and their other siblings. Their mom, Tish, gave birth to Trace in Kentucky, before meeting and marrying Billy Ray. After Trace was adopted, they changed his name from Neil Timothy Helson.

Bill Clinton's father died in a car accident before the future president was born, famously, in Hope, Arkansas. His mother, in an effort to find a way to support her son, left him with her parents while she went to New Orleans to study nursing. She returned years later, married to Roger Clinton Sr., who adopted Bill and gave him his name. Until then, he had been William Jefferson Blythe III.

Nelson Mandela, the late former president of South Africa, was born into the Thembu tribe and adopted by a "high-ranking Thembu regent" after his father died, when the young Mandela was 9.

Deborah Harry was just a few months old when her parents adopted her. When she was 4, they explained to the future Blondie frontwoman that she wasn't biologically related to them.

She's been open about her struggles with the fact that she was adopted, and some say that her album Mother had something to do with her adoption, though she denies it.

Lilith Fair headliner and founder Sarah McLachlan was one of three children adopted by Jack and Dorice McLachlan.

Sarah's birth mother, Judy, with whom she developed a friendly relationship as an adult, was 19 when Sarah was born. McLachlan, who had a close relationship with her parents, met her birth mother when she was 19 and away at art school.

Darryl McDaniels credits adoptee Sarah McLachlan's song with saving his life. In his twenties, he was depressed and suicidal when he heard her sing Angel, about the heroin overdose of Smashing Pumpkins keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin. Though he didn't know it at the time, McDaniels had been born to an unwed mother who had given him up, at which point he was placed in foster care with the McDaniels family. Eventually, they adopted him.

After hearing Angel, he took a deeper look at his life and career, and started writing his autobiography. While researching his early years, his mother, Bannah, told him the shocking secret: He'd been put up for adoption at 3 months old. Things fell into place for McDaniels, including why he looked different from the rest of the family.

McDaniels has since been an advocate of laws that restore adopted adults' access to their original birth certificates.

Faith Hill is one of the most successful country artists of all time. She's also an adoptee. Her parents raised her and their two biological sons in Star, Mississippi.

Hill grew up knowing that she had been adopted but was told that she was the product of her birth mother's affair with a married man, she told Billboard magazine. That turned out to not be true.

When Hill was 20, between performances and albums, she searched for her origins. She was just getting to know her birth mother, who had been a professional painter, when she died in 2007.

Faith Hill's husband, country singer and songwriter Tim McGraw, grew up thinking his stepfather, Horace Smith, was actually his biological father. But while working on a class project when he was 11, he found his birth certificate. Horace was not listed.

He confronted his mother about the discovery, and she told him that his biological father was professional baseball player Tug McGraw. Soon thereafter, the two met, but Tug denied his paternity. When Tim was about 18, Tug McGraw saw their similarities and acknowledged his paternity. The two were close until the elder's death in 2004.

Actor Frances McDormand was born in Chicago. She was adopted when she was 1 1/2 years old by a Canadian couple. Her father was a pastor at Disciples of Christ, and McDormand believes her biological mother may have been one of the parishioners at the church.

Her two siblings were also adopted.

Jack Nicholson grew up thinking that the woman who gave birth to him was his sister. When he was 37 years old, the Chinatown star found out that, in fact, his sister was his mother.

Neither his grandmother, whom he was raised to think of as his mother, nor his mother/sister, ever admitted the truth to Jack.

Comedian and actor Keegan-Michael Key was adopted as a baby by Michigan social workers and raised in Detroit. Both his biological and adoptive fathers are African American; his biological and adoptive mothers are also both white.

He grew up knowing that he was adopted and biracial. When he was older, he met his biological mother. Then, he found out he had two brothers, both of whom had died. One was the comic book writer and producer of Justice League 10, Dwayne McDuffie.

Foremother of '90s riot grrrls, Liz Phair was born in Connecticut and raised in Illinois. Her brother was also adopted, and she's been open about how adoption leaves its mark.

"I don't think you can be adopted without being a little bit screwed up, just knowing what I know from having Nick," she has said, referencing her son. She says she and her baby were so tightly bonded, even just a few months into his life, that separation for any mother-child pair couldn't possibly be without some consequence.

As for her mother and father, she said they always told Liz and her brother, "'We wanted you more than anything in the world.' They were perfect about it."

Steve Jobs' biological parents met when they were just 23-year-old students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His father was a Syrian Muslim and his mother a white Midwesterner. A mixed marriage between the two had been forbidden by her parents.

An Armenian-American couple adopted Steve on the West Coast, where Steve's biological mother had given birth to him. Later, she and his biological father defied her parents and got married. They had another child, the well-known author Mona Simpson.

Jobs never met his biological father, but he became very close to Simpson, whom he discovered was his sister when he was 27 years old.

Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson, was abandoned by her mentally ill mother, a widow. She spent most of her young life in foster homes and orphanages. When she was 16, she was allowed to make a choice: Move to yet another foster home or get married. She chose marriage. It was her first of three marriages and lasted only three years.