Celebrity world's most touching adoption stories

Growing up with a sister who was adopted from Korea, Katherine Heigl said she always knew she would gone down that route too.

She and husband Josh Kelley, adopted their daughter Naleigh in 2009.

"I wanted my own family to resemble the one I grew up in," explained the former Greys Anatomy star.

Their little girl's name is a tribute to Katherine's mother Nancy and sister Margaret Leigh.

Three years later the family grew again when Adalaide came to them eight days after she was born in Louisiana.

She is named after Katherine's great-grandmother.

The actress' overjoyed husband said: "I'm a dad again! Can you believe it?

"I'm so happy! I know there will be a lot of sleepless nights coming up for me and Katherine, but I don't care. I'm tickled pink!"

In Denise Richards' arms is Eloise Joni, the little girl she adopted as a single mother after a two-year process.

Joni is after her late mother.

Connor Cruise is one of two children adopted by Tom Cruise and former wife Nicole Kidman after they lost a baby early on in their marriage.

Heidi Klum was pregnant with Leni when she started dating musician Seal.

He formally adopted the little girl in 2009 when she was six and remains close to her to this day, despite the couple's divorce.

The German supermodel is unequivocal on the topic. "Seal is Leni's father," she says.

Could anyone be a better advertisement for adopting than Sheryl Crow?

The singer looks delighted with her boys, Wyatt and Levi, born in 2007 and 2010 respectively.

The process took longer the second time around, with a number of adoptions falling through. Still she refused to be down about it.

"Generally, when you let go of your vision of how something is supposed to be, the universe hands you exactly what you need," she says.

Sharon Stone has three sons Roan Joseph, Laird Vonne, Quinn Kelly, the first of whom she adopted with ex-husband Phil Bronstein.

With her other two children, the silver screen goddess decided to go it alone.

Adoption was always a possiblity for her after she suffered a string of miscarriages.

Of her role as a mother, she says: "People get very hung up on whether they gave birth. 

"I've come to understand that it's not who 'has' you, but who loves you that shapes you as a person."

It's fair to say 2010 was a significant year for Sandra Bullock - she won an Oscar, ended her marriage and became the mother of a newborn baby boy in the space of a few months.

She had spent four years being considered as an adoptive parent with her husband at the time Jesse James.

The actress felt very strongly that it was important to give a home to an American child and New Orleans sprung to mind in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

When her marriage fell apart very publicly right after the Academy awards, she became a single mother.

Sandra said at the time: "Maybe I needed this to happen so I could be the very best mother to Louis."

Now she says: "I spend every day with him. At the end of the day you are exhausted but it's been the very best day ever."

Charlize Theron was also single when she adopted Jackson in March 2012.

"I've always known I wanted a family," she said, before joking, "I don't think my mom could wait any more!"

The Oscar-winner, who was 36 at the time, also revealed that her mother found a letter Charlize had written to her as a little girl.

"It said, 'Would you please take me to an orphanage, so that I can go and adopt a baby?," recalled the South African beauty, adding: "I always knew I would adopt. Always."

Billie is Dawn French and Lenny Henry's daughter.

It was Lenny's idea to adopt after "a few things went wrong", as the comedienne terms it, when discussing fertility issues.

Calista Flockhart was present at the birth of her son Liam in 2001.

She said she was "completely enchanted and awestruck" by her newborn, adding: "I am overjoyed that I have been blessed with a beautiful, healthy son."

A year later the Ally McBeal star began dating Harrison Ford.
 

Angelina Jolie is perhaps the most famous adoptive mother in the world and has become a dab hand at managing her large band of kids.

In 2002 she adopted her first child Maddox - not pictured here - as a seven-month-old right after filming Lara Croft in his native Cambodia.

Her partner Brad Pitt is full of praise for her maternal abilities, describing her as "militant" when it comes to planning.

"She's right on top of it. Thank God, because I'm always forgetting something."

Angelina explained that her son Pax, the only one adopted as an older child, would save part of his food to have another time.

It took a while for his new parents to make him realise there would be more later - unlike in the orphanage where he spent the first three years of his life.

Madonnna similarly helped lift two children out of poverty in Malawi, David (left) and Mercy (second from right).

Before Angelina and Maddona, Mia Farrow was the Hollywood poster child for adoption.

She has 13 living children, only four of whom are hers biologically. Sadly two others died, one in 2000 and another in 2008.

Her son Roan says he's very "proud" of his family.

"I grew up across the table from Moses, who has cerebral palsy, and next to my sister Quincy, born of a drug-addicted inner-city mother, and Minh, who is blind.

"I could never have understood what it means to grow up blind or with cerebral palsy (otherwise)."

Frances McDormand will tell you smiling that her parents, a nurse and a pastor "even took in stray cats".

That's quite apart from adopting Frances and her two siblings and fostering nine more children.

So it was an easy decision for the actress and her husband director Joel Cohen to take on Pedro when he was six months old in 1995.

There are plenty more famous faces who have also been adopted.

Ray Liotta was given a home by Mary and Alfred Liotta in 1955 when he was six months old.

Jamie Foxx, seen here with his daughter Corinna, credits his grandparents for helping him become the man he is today.

They adopted him after his mother, who was also adopted by them, gave him up aged seven months.

"I was never short on the love of a mother and father, though it came from an earlier generation of family."

Jack Nicholson's adoption was more unofficial.

Born to New Jersey showgirl June Nicholson when she was still a teenager, he grew up believing his mother was his sister.

That was until TIME magazine called him to verify information in an article.

Lionel Richie and Brenda Harvey took Nicole Richie into their home when she was three.

Her biological parents - one of whom was a musician who toured with Lionel - couldn't look after her financially.

Nicole was legally adopted at nine.

It's hard to imagine Steve Jobs being insecure about anything.

But he would talk of being taunted as a child by a little girl in his neighbourhood, who told him his 'real' parents had abandoned him.

He ran crying to his parents who replied: "No, you don't understand. We specifically picked you out.

Of that moment, the computer mogul said: "From then on, I realised that I was not just abandoned. I was chosen. I was special."

Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi is seen here cuddling her father Andy.

The reality TV star says she has never been curious about her biological parents.

"I was adopted at six months from Chile. They gave me up for a reason and I honestly love my (adoptive) parents. I have no desire to actually find out about (my biological parents).

Nicky Campbell did in later life meet his birth parents and several siblings.

While this undoubtedly gave him a feeling of closure, he can't speak highly enough of the family that raised him.

He says: "The day I was adopted was like winning the lottery.

"My parents were a treasure trove of love and warmth and I had such a fantastic childhood with them."