Celebs Who Got Teenagers Pregnant
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Even though MTV's hit show Teen Mom has effectively made celebrities out of everyday kids who played it fast and loose with birth control, there are plenty of already famous folk who've found themselves in the same situation. A wide array of musicians, actors, and athletes have landed young women — who could not yet vote, legally drink alcohol, or in some cases even drive a car — inside of the delivery room.
But it's not all as bad as it sounds.
Some of these were legitimate high school sweetheart situations that actually led to long-lasting, loving marriages. Of course, some of them were just dudes who couldn't wait for an arguably more appropriate age, or in some cases, the boundary of the law. Whatever the case may be, these are the celebs who had teenage baby mamas, as well as all of the possible drama that comes along with teen pregnancies.
Jerry Lee Lewis
With a nickname like "The Killer," rock pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis was bound to make some waves in his career. And while he certainly did that with wild performances, including the time he set his piano ablaze after becoming incensed at the idea of having to open for Chuck Berry, the biggest scandal of his career happened far from the ivories.
During his 1958 European tour, the British press excoriated Lewis after discovering he'd married his 13-year-old third cousin, Myra Gale Brown, the year before (Lewis was 22 at the time of their marriage). According to Rolling Stone, Lewis attempted to cover up the marriage by telling people Brown was his other cousin, J.W. Brown's daughter. He also allegedly lied about Brown's age, but when the truth came out, he became "cocksure and defiant to the point of parading Brown onstage."
The ensuing media frenzy effectively sapped Lewis' career, and he spent the next decade descending into drug and alcohol addiction while attempting to rebuild his career by playing at small, local gigs. Meanwhile, Brown was living a life of quiet desperation.
Speaking with The Gwinnett Daily Post, Brown, who has since remarried and now goes by Myra Lewis Williams, described her 13-year marriage to Lewis as "a trial by fire," "devastating," and "chaos all the time." Williams had her first child, a son named Steve Allen, when she was just 14, then a daughter, Phoebe, at 17. Asked what advice she would give to herself looking back, Williams said, "I would tell my young self that life is not always going to be like this. Get through it and it's going to be better because it was as if I was going to be there forever and it's never going to change." Yeesh.
John Agar
Right off the bat, you may be thinking, "Who?" So let's get this out of the way. John Agar was an Army vet who became a moderately successful actor after he wed Shirley Temple in 1945. Though they were only married for four years, they did have a child together when Temple was 19. To be exact, Temple was three months shy her 20th birthday when her daughter Linda was born, so this entry may come with a bit of an asterisk, since Temple was about a minute away from escaping her teens when she became a mom for the first time.
Anyway, according to The Telegraph, Temple and Agar's marriage didn't last long after the arrival of their little bundle of joy — less than two years — due to Agar's apparent disillusionment with his half-baked film career that never got out from under Temple's shadow. He would go on to become a B-movie regular, logging roles in titles like Attack of the Puppet People and Women of the Prehistoric Planet. As a result, Agar drowned his sorrows in alcohol, once admitting, "Yes, I drank too much, and I drank at the wrong time."
Agar died at the age of 81 in 2002. According to his obituary in The Washington Post, he'd been remarried since 1951 to model Loretta Algar, with whom he fathered two sons. Sadly, The Post also reported that Agar was "estranged from Temple and his daughter from that marriage" at the time of his death.
Luc Besson
Film director Luc Besson is perhaps best known for the zany '90s sci-fi romp, The Fifth Element. But he also happens to be a guy who impregnated a 16-year-old when he was in his early 30s. Now, before your ick-meter goes haywire, keep in mind that both Besson and his teenage baby mama, Maïwenn Le Besco, are from France, where the age of consent has only recently, as of this writing, been changed to 15-years-old.
Previously — at the time of Besson and Le Besco's relationship — there was no set age, so on second thought, yeah, go ahead and let that ick-meter freak out. Le Besco, who has since dropped her surname and become a successful film director in her own right — even tackling the subject of pedophilia in her critically-acclaimed film Polisse — speaks only sparingly about her children in public. She also has a son, Diego, with property developer, Jean-Yves Le Fur, according to Eye For Film.
In a 2018 interview with Under The Radar, Maïwenn revealed that she and Besson did pursue a relationship together in Los Angeles, although they ultimately separated after Besson allegedly "left her for [Milla] Jovovich during the filming of The Fifth Element," according to Anthem Magazine.
As far as we can tell, Besson has never addressed the controversy over his relationship with Maïwenn, but he seems to have maintained a good relationship with their daughter, Shanna, as he specifically thanked her for helping him with his 2014 Reddit AMA. So, that's something, right?
Ricky Hendrick
Though she wasn't a household name until her ill-fated appearances on the reality series The Bachelor and The Bachelorette in 2011 and 2012, Emily Maynard had a brief brush with the celebrity life nearly a decade earlier when she got engaged to the late NASCAR driver, Ricky Hendrick.
As detailed in her book, I Said Yes: My Story of Heartbreak, Redemption, and True Love, Maynard met Hendrick when she was in high school, and she was instantly smitten. Only it would be a few years — during her senior year actually — until they linked up romantically.
The following year, Hendrick tragically died along with nine other passengers in a plane crash.
Maynard, who was 19 years old at the time, discovered just days after the crash that she was pregnant with her late fiancé's child. Their daughter, Josephine Riddick Hendrick, who was named after her father, Joseph Riddick Hendrick IV, was born on June 29, 2005, according to Scene Daily. Naturally, she goes by "Ricki."
Maynard has since remarried a "hometown sweetheart," Tyler Johnson (the two both hail from Charlotte, North Carolina), but she still posts remembrances of her first love on Instagram (above) every year on the anniversary of his death. As of December 2017, Maynard and Johnson have three children together.
LeBron James
NBA megastar LeBron James got his high school girlfriend, now wife, Savannah Brinson pregnant during her senior year. He had already graduated and gone on to his rookie year playing professional basketball, but Brinson was still left feeling panicked about the situation, she says, according to a 2010 interview with Harper's Bazaar.
I was thinking, 'What am I going to tell my parents? What's going to happen to his career?'" Brinson told the mag, but James was reassuring. "It's not going to slow me down, and it's not going to slow you down," he told her, adding, "We're going to keep doing what we have to do."
For James, that meant stepping up and being the man that his own father, who he never knew, was not. According to an interview with Cleveland.com, James knew long before he became a father himself that he didn't want to go down that same path. "I wanted to be a part of the statistics that breaks the mode of fathers running out on their kids. ... to have a family and be there for them and be there on a day-to-day basis is important," he said.
True to his word, James stuck by Brinson, and married her in 2013. As of this writing, they now have two sons, LeBron Jr., 13, Bryce Maximus, 10, and a daughter, Zhuri, 3, not to mention a family net worth of $275 million. Not too shabby.
Lil Wayne
Rapper Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., fathered his first daughter, Reginae, with Toya Wright. Wright was just 14-years-old at the time, and while Wayne was only 16-years-old himself, he was already an established public figure as both a solo rapper, and behind-the-scenes at Cash Money Records, where he was signed at the time, and where he also worked developing up-and-coming talent.
But Wayne's fame didn't ease the burden of Wright's teen pregnancy. In an interview with Vibe, Wright said she's long suffered under the label of "Wayne's baby mama," regardless of how much she's done on her own to make a name for herself independent of superstar baby daddy.
Wayne and Wright eventually married in 2004, six years after Reginae was born, but they quickly divorced in 2006. According to excerpts from Wright's 2016 book, In My Own Words ... My Real Reality (via People), Wayne still pined for Wright long after their separation. "I want [you] to know that no matter what woman or relationship I involve myself with, I look for [you] or a piece of [you] inside that woman," Wayne allegedly texted Wright.
Wayne and Wright have not reconciled, though they remain amicable. Wayne and his daughter Reginae have always maintained a healthy relationship as well. As of this writing, Wayne also has three sons (and a possible fourth) all with different baby mamas.
Charlie Sheen
Of all the male celebrities on this list, perhaps actor and known lothario Charlie Sheen is the least surprising. His relationships with actresses Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller produced four of his more well-known children; Daughters Sam, 14, and Lola Rose, 12, to Richards, and twin sons Max and Bob, 9, to Mueller.
But way back in 1985, Sheen's then high school girlfriend, Paula Speert, gave birth to his first daughter, Cassandra Estevez (Charlie Sheen was still Carlos Estevez back then), according to E News Daily. Speert was reportedly 19-years-old when she became pregnant.
Fast-forward 28 years and Estevez herself became a mother in 2013, making Sheen — that's right — a grandfather! Speaking with TMZ about his next-level generational status, Sheen said, "It's impossibly a most wondrous day. My bucket list is a thimble!" He also told David Letterman (via The Daily Mail) that he was looking forward to caring for his new granddaughter Luna, in part, because "you can leave the kid!"
Oh Charlie, never change. (Seriously though, please do change, for the love of God, there are so many children involved.)
Rod Stewart
Like Charlie Sheen, '70s rock legend Rod Stewart had a reputation for being quite the ladies man. So, it's not surprising that he also became a dad in his late teens. According to The Daily Mail, Stewart got his girlfriend of one year, Susannah Boffey, pregnant with their daughter, Sarah Streeter, when they were both 18-years-old in 1963. Stewart, who had yet to find success in his singing career, wanted to give the child up for adoption. Boffey initially refused, and tried to raise baby Sarah on her own, but found it too difficult, and after several months, eventually agreed to the suggestion.
After many years, and several awkward encounters during the '80s when her true identity was discovered, Streeter and Stewart started piecing their relationship back together around 2010, after the death of Streeter's adoptive mother. Streeter remained estranged from her birth mother for "20 years," telling The Mail they "don't get on."
"The relationship broke down somewhat because she was a bit awkward and had a big chip on her shoulder which I can't blame her [for]. But in the last couple of years we've become somewhat close," Stewart told Piers Morgan of his once-estranged daughter in 2011 (via The Daily Mail.) "It's all water under the bridge now. It's nerve-racking, too, but just as much so for him as it is for me," Streeter told The Mail.
Stewart went on to impregnate four other women with seven other children (pictured above), of whom he now says, "It's the best, proudest feeling to look at your kids." Well, we sure hope so, Rod, you busy boy, you.