Some Hollywood roles require an Oscar. Others, particularly parenthood, demand skills involving an enormous number of birthdays, holiday gifts, child support payments and the occasional act of random nepotism.
The birth of Marc Anthony’s eighth child pushed him deeper into an exclusive club of celebrities who simply never stopped reproducing, expanding or multiplying. Its members include Eddie Murphy, Mel Gibson, Nick Cannon, Alec Baldwin, Robert De Niro and several other men who appear to have approached parenthood like a Hollywood franchise: If the first installment worked, there is always room for another sequel.
Some had all their children with one great love. Others scattered them across several relationships like sesame seeds over a Jerusalem bagel. The outcome is much the same: family trees that look less like genealogy charts and more like posters for an Avengers movie.
So who are Hollywood’s record-holding parents, and how many descendants did each manage to bring into the world? To spare you the headache, we have prepared a list.
Before getting started, however, one detail becomes obvious almost immediately: The overwhelming majority of these record holders are men.
Apparently, the simplest route to becoming a father of eight, 10 or 12 is simply not being the person who has to get pregnant. As with so many of Hollywood’s best roles, the person doing most of the work is left in the footnotes, while the man receives the title of national champion breeder.
It is about as surprising as discovering that someone who does not have to spend nine months pregnant, give birth and recover can afford to keep breaking records. Once again, as in so many other fields, women perform the biological labor while men make the record books.
Nick Cannon: 12 children
At this stage of his life, Nick Cannon no longer measures time in albums or television seasons, but in births.
The television host and actor has 12 children with six women. Considering the pace of recent years, every time he is photographed with a new partner, the internet goes on alert for two blue lines, and not the WhatsApp kind.
It all began conventionally enough with the twins he shares with Mariah Carey. From there, the story accumulated more and more spinoffs. It has now become a complete cinematic universe, one that occasionally requires a flow chart to determine who is related to whom.
Bre Tiesi, the reality star from Netflix’s addictive Selling Sunset and the mother of one of Cannon’s children, who received the understated name Legendary, revealed on the show that there is unfortunately no Telegram group called “The Mothers of Nick Cannon.”
Such a group could, in theory, organize school carpools or exchange lasagna recipes. Instead, each woman manages her relationship with Cannon separately. In other words, even those inside this family probably need a chart to work out who belongs to whom and which child must not be served peanuts because of an allergy.
Eddie Murphy: 10 children
When people think of Eddie Murphy, they usually think of one of the greatest comedians of his generation.
He conquered Saturday Night Live at 19, turned Beverly Hills Cop into a film empire, gave life to Donkey in Shrek, earned an Oscar nomination and recently became the subject of an emotional Netflix documentary.
What people remember less often is that, alongside all of that, Murphy quietly built a family large enough to field a full baseball team.
The actor has 10 children from five relationships. His eldest, Eric, was born in 1989, while the youngest, Max, arrived nearly three decades later in 2018. Not many people can say they were raising an infant while their oldest child was already in his 30s.
Murphy does not share his children, or much of his own life, on social media. He rarely discusses his private life and generally tries to redirect attention whenever the press asks about his extensive family.
“My children are my greatest achievement,” he has said in interviews, adding that fatherhood is the accomplishment of which he is most proud.
All right, brother.
Ten children would ordinarily be a recipe for endless headlines, ex-partner feuds and inheritance disputes in the past, present and future. In Murphy’s case, the surprising number of children has remained just another unusual fact in the biography of a man most of the world still identifies first with comedy.
Robert De Niro: 7 children
The actor, icon, king, legend, myth and, in the opinion of this writer, greatest star in the world may not approach Nick Cannon or Eddie Murphy in total numbers. Robert De Niro does, however, hold another record that is difficult to beat: nearly 50 years of fatherhood.
In 2023, during a promotional interview for About My Father, the interviewer casually mentioned his six children. De Niro stopped her, smiled and corrected the record.
“Seven, actually.”
Until then, almost no one knew he had become a father again at 79. Several days later, his new daughter, Gia, was introduced to the public.
Baby Gia did not transform De Niro into a family man. She merely reminded everyone that he had been one for almost five decades. His eldest son, Raphael, was born in 1976. While most men his age were adjusting to retirement, De Niro was once again getting up at night, presumably, for bottles, diapers and lullabies.
There are 47 years between his oldest and youngest children, an age gap more commonly found between a grandfather and granddaughter than between a brother and sister.
When people think of De Niro, they think of Martin Scorsese, Travis Bickle, James Conway, Jake LaMotta, Sam “Ace” Rothstein and an endless collection of men nobody would want to cross.
Mention his children, however, and a completely different side of one of cinema’s greatest actors appears. De Niro is famously economical with words and often looks as though he speaks only after being forced. Yet he discusses fatherhood with surprising tenderness.
He has said he is much calmer now than he was as a young father and that age has changed the way he views life.
Not only The Godfather. Also a father.
DMX: 15 children
If one song is associated with DMX more than any other, it is “Party Up (Up in Here),” the hit that made him one of the biggest rappers of the late 1990s and early 2000s and can still ignite a party within three seconds.
Behind the charismatic figure and unmistakably rough voice, however, was an extraordinarily turbulent personal life involving addiction, repeated legal trouble and an enormous family.
DMX, born Earl Simmons, had 15 children with nine women, making him one of the most prolific fathers in entertainment.
The full scale of his fertility became widely apparent only after his sudden death in 2021 at the age of 50. The rapper died following a heart attack caused by an overdose, without leaving an organized will. The sprawling family he left behind consequently became central to the legal struggle over his estate.
In many ways, that was characteristic of DMX. His life always operated at maximum intensity, onstage, offstage and at home.
And always, always, always without a shirt.
In his case, the number of children is more than another statistic. It is an enormous part of a life story as turbulent and unpredictable as the man himself.
Mel Gibson: 9 children
Nine children from three relationships is an achievement almost as impressive as falling from the summit of Hollywood into the gutter after making antisemitic remarks.
Mel Gibson has never been a man who does anything on a small scale.
Mel Gibson and his son Milo Gibson
(Photo: Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Lionsgate)
Seven of his children were born during nearly three decades of marriage to Robyn Moore. Then came his daughter Lucia from his turbulent relationship with Oksana Grigorieva. Finally, at 61, he became a father again when his partner Rosalind Ross gave birth to their son Lars.
The age gap between his eldest daughter and youngest son exceeds 30 years, enough time for one child to finish raising a family while another is only starting school.
And in case you were wondering whether Gibson was already a grandfather while simultaneously changing diapers, the answer is yes.
It may be the most Passion of the Christ situation imaginable.
Clint Eastwood: 8 children
Clint Eastwood may be the greatest symbol ever created of the solitary cowboy roaming the Wild West.
His face is practically the dictionary definition of the tough man who prefers a gun to a conversation and riding into the sunset to family life. Offscreen, however, the picture was considerably more complicated.
The tireless actor and director, who celebrated his 96th birthday this year, is the father of eight children: Laurie, Kimber, Kyle, Alison, Scott, Kathryn, Francesca and Morgan, from six relationships.
His family story stretches across more than 40 years. His eldest daughter, Laurie, was born in 1954 and placed for adoption. Father and daughter established contact only decades later. His youngest child, Morgan, was born in 1996.
Some of Eastwood’s children followed him into the industry, most notably Scott Eastwood, wildly handsome in his own right and still trying his luck in Hollywood. Others preferred to remain far from public attention.
Eastwood has acknowledged that his career frequently came at the expense of fatherhood. But if there is one role he has continued playing for more than seven decades, it is probably that of a father.
Alec Baldwin: 8 children
In recent years, Alec Baldwin has appeared in headlines more often because of his private life than his career, particularly during the highly publicized legal proceedings following cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ death on the set of Rust.
Hutchins was killed by a bullet fired from a gun Baldwin was holding. He said he believed the firearm was a prop rather than a functioning weapon.
Alec Baldwin with his children
(Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
The case consumed Hollywood for years and temporarily halted Baldwin’s career as the industry attempted to determine whether, and when, it would be possible to cast him again.
At home, at least, boredom was never a concern.
Baldwin, 68, has eight children: Ireland, his daughter from his marriage to Kim Basinger, and seven children with his current wife, Hilaria, named Carmen, Rafael, Leonardo, Romeo, Eduardo, María Lucía and Ilaria.
His eldest daughter has already become a mother, while her younger siblings are still fighting over toys. Baldwin therefore holds the titles of father to toddlers and grandfather simultaneously.
The large family also participated in Baldwin’s latest image-rehabilitation venture by appearing in the reality series The Baldwins.
Steven Spielberg: 7 children
Steven Spielberg taught us to fear sharks, believe in aliens, become emotional about dinosaurs and, of course, transformed Liam Neeson into Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List.
Outside the cinema, the legendary director has another impressive list: seven children.
Steven Spielberg
(Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
What many people do not know is that Spielberg, now 79, is the father of a blended family. He had Max during his first marriage to Amy Irving. With his wife Kate Capshaw, he raised Jessica, her daughter from a previous marriage; Theo and Mikaela, who were adopted; and their three biological children, Sasha, Sawyer and Destry.
Despite his extraordinary career, Spielberg has repeatedly said family came first. He even declined to direct the first Harry Potter movie because he did not want to spend months away from his children.
Kris Jenner and Caitlyn Jenner: 10 children combined
The Kardashian-Jenner family features a twist found nowhere else on the list: Caitlyn Jenner, formerly the family’s father, is now one of its mothers, alongside Kris Jenner.
Kris may now be known primarily as the “momager” who transformed the Kardashians into a multibillion-dollar empire, but her family achievement is no less impressive.
She is the mother of six and grandmother of 14. Now 70, she has four children from her marriage to the late attorney Robert Kardashian, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Rob, and two daughters from her marriage to Caitlyn, Kendall and Kylie.
The Kardashians
(Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images)
Caitlyn, the former Olympic champion, entered the marriage with four children from two previous relationships: Burt, Casey, Brandon and Brody.
For more than two decades, the pair managed a family of 10 children under one roof, long before Keeping Up with the Kardashians became a global brand.
However one chooses to count them, the Kardashian-Jenner family tree remains one of the most expansive and famous in Hollywood.
Mia Farrow: 14 children
Mia Farrow may be remembered for countless film classics and her grim, later revealed to be deeply disturbing, relationship with Woody Allen. But the family she built is arguably even more remarkable than her filmography.
The actress, now 81, is the mother of 14 children, four biological and 10 adopted, who came to her from countries including South Korea, Vietnam and India.
For years, that enormous family stood at the center of one of Hollywood’s most disturbing scandals. Farrow accused Allen of sexually assaulting their adopted daughter Dylan when she was a child, allegations Dylan herself has publicly affirmed and repeated.
Mia Farrow and her son Ronan Farrow
(Photo: AP)
Allen has denied the accusations for decades, but the case continued to follow him and cast a heavy shadow over his legacy. Perhaps that is partly because he is married to Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s adopted daughter, a relationship that triggered enormous public outrage and became one of the most controversial stories in Hollywood history.
Among Farrow’s children is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow, one of the most influential voices of the #MeToo movement after his reporting helped expose Harvey Weinstein. He has supported his mother and spoken forcefully against Allen.
Officially, Ronan Farrow is the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen and was born in 1987, when the two were a couple. Over the years, however, rumors have circulated that his biological father is actually Farrow’s former husband, singer and actor Frank Sinatra.
The rumors intensified after Farrow herself told Vanity Fair that Sinatra was “possibly” Ronan’s father.
A glance at Ronan’s face makes it relatively easy to guess whom he resembles.
It is not Allen.
Brangelina: 6 children
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may have separated long ago, but the enormous family they created continues generating headlines.
The former couple have six children: three biological children, Shiloh, 20, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 18, and three adopted children, Maddox, 25, Pax, 22, and Zahara, 21.
For years, they were regarded as Hollywood’s most polished and glamorous family. Since their highly publicized 2016 divorce, however, the story has taken a far less flattering turn.
Several of the children have publicly distanced themselves from Pitt. Pax moved to remove Pitt from documents naming him as his adoptive father. Zahara and Vivienne have officially dropped “Pitt” from their surnames, while Jolie has repeatedly mocked or criticized her former husband’s parenting abilities.
After Pax described his father as a “terrible person,” Pitt’s relationship with most of his children has remained strained.
Following years of legal battles, mutual accusations and disputes over custody and the Château Miraval winery, the Brangelina family drama appears nowhere near its conclusion.
The person perhaps laughing last is Pitt’s legendary former wife, Jennifer Aniston, alongside her handsome boyfriend.