Entertainer Adrienne Bailon-Houghton is busy. While she has a busy career as a performer and talk show host, the job that keeps her busiest is motherhood. Bailon-Houghton became a mom in 2022, welcoming son Ever James with her husband Israel Houghton. Now she has an energetic toddler, and she’s trying to survive just like the rest of us working moms.
Motherhood wasn’t an easy road for the 41-year-old. After several years and thousands of dollars in fertility treatments, the couple ultimately used a surrogate to help make their family. Bailon-Houghton fought hard to become a mom, and it’s clear that even when it’s hard, she is relishing every moment. Mom.com spoke with the busy mom about the challenges of raising a 2-year-old boy, being a working mom, and her recent partnership with NIDO.
She doesn’t think the toddler years are that bad.
“I am surviving,” Bailon-Houghton tells Mom.com. Despite claiming that she needs a “support group,” she says she’s “doing really well.” From the way she talks, it seems like she was understandably expecting the toddler years to be even harder than they actually are.
“I know so many people call it the terrible twos — I am loving this age,” she admitted. Yes, she really said that. The mom says that Ever is “so funny” and “so fun.” His constant imitation games might make other moms scream, but not her. “It just cracks me up,” she admits.
But that doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and rainbows at her house. She does still have a toddler, and a “strong-willed” one at that. Apparently he gets it from his mama. “I really appreciate that he’ll never be a follower and that he’s a natural born leader,” she says. “Listen, if he don’t listen to me, he ain’t gonna listen to nobody else.”
Adrienne’s road to motherhood took six years.
Like many women, Bailon-Houghton didn’t think she’d have fertility issues. Getting pregnant was supposed to be hard for her, especially as a Latina. “I used to joke that someone would look at me and I’d get pregnant,” she quipped. But in reality, it wasn’t going to be that easy. It was going to be a long and costly road of fertility treatments and heartbreak.
“I did keep it quiet for a really long time,” she admits. “There’s such a stereotype of Latinas obviously being very fertile. Growing up, being a curvy woman [people would say], ‘Oh, you’ve got hips. You’re gonna get pregnant right away.’ “
She believes that her infertility “was more difficult for me to come to terms with.” Her mother and sister, two women who are very important to her, were supportive throughout her journey, but she said that even they reached a point where they weren’t sure why she was having so much trouble getting pregnant. And as supportive as they were, that lack of understanding was difficult for everyone.
Eventually, she used her platform: being a co-host on talk show The Real as well as social media, to speak out about infertility. That’s when she realized that she was far from alone. Many women are still afraid to be honest about their journey to motherhood if it includes infertility.
She kept her son’s conception and birth a secret from the public.
Ultimately, Bailon-Houghton and her husband used a surrogate to carry Ever. His birth was announced in an Instagram post on August 16, 2022. Keeping the secret was an intentional choice; the couple wanted to have something that was for them. The mom told Mom.com that it felt “sacred” not telling the public that she was expecting a baby.
“It was the best thing I ever could have done,” she admitted. “The only people that knew were people who genuinely cared, who were so excited for me and praying for me. We got to be giddy amongst each other.”
She kept those in the know updated through a group chat, including things like sonogram pictures. Prior to Ever’s birth, the family rented a home in Lake Tahoe to create a serene experience once they had their baby boy.
Adrienne has a close relationship with her family, which inspired her latest brand partnership.
Bailon-Houghton told Mom.com that she has an incredibly close relationship with her mother. And even though she’s been a mom herself for nearly three years, her mom is definitely someone she looks up to. “I learned so much from my mom. She’s been for me. And now I find myself doing so many similar things,” she said.
One of those things is giving Ever Kinder 1+ Toddler milk by NIDO. She announced a partnership with the brand in May 2025.
“I grew up drinking NIDO as a little girl. I still remember my mom mixing it into my avenita and panqueques, and — it was always in our kitchen. Now I get to share that same tradition with my son Ever, starting our mornings with something we both love,” she wrote. “It means the world to create new memories for Ever with the same favorites from my childhood.”
She is enjoying her life as a mom, even when it’s busy.
As a working mom, she is always looking for “hacks” to make things easier, especially because the family travels a lot. Bailon-Houghton expressed that she tries hard not to rely too much on screens, but admits that Ever has learned a lot from watching videos and playing games.
Still, there are times when she can’t believe she’s finally a mom. “I can’t believe that’s my human. I made a human,” she laughed. Of course, raising a toddler isn’t for the faint of heart, but the mom is taking it all in stride.
“Every day is a wonder,” she says. “I’m learning life through his eyes and as he gets older, I’m in awe of his mind. I’m in awe of his intelligence and the things that he remembers. He’ll imitate me and I’ll turn around and I’m like, how did you even know that?”
