Jon Bon Jovi’s youngsters are all grown up — one thing we’re reminded of upon the information of his 20-year-old son Jake Bongiovi’s obvious engagement to Stranger Issues actress Millie Bobby Brown.
The “Livin’ on a Prayer” singer, who’s fronted his New Jersey-born band for 40 years, is a father of 4 youngsters together with his highschool sweetheart, Dorothea Hurley. The rock star (born Jon Bongiovi) met Dorothea as college students at Sayreville Struggle Memorial Excessive Faculty in Parlin, N.J., in 1980. He stated she let him cheat off her in historical past, and it was on from there. After relationship for many of the subsequent 9 years, they eloped at a Las Vegas wedding ceremony chapel in 1989 whereas he was touring.
Jon, 61, and Dorothea, 60, who stated the key to their long-lasting relationship is that they “actually like one another,” are mother and father to 4 youngsters: Stephanie, Jesse, Jake and Romeo Bongiovi.
They’ve tried exhausting “to offer our children a standard life,” Dorothea informed Folks in 2016. “I by no means pointed on the TV and stated, ‘There’s Daddy!'” And they’re a tight-knit bunch. When COVID hit, all of them retreated to their Pink Financial institution, N.J., house to isolate collectively. “Our focus has all the time been household first,” she stated.
Let’s meet the children…
Stephanie Bongiovi, 29
The couple’s first baby — and solely daughter — Stephanie Rose was born in New Jersey on Could 31, 1993.
“I keep in mind coming house with Stephanie, our first, and considering, I’ve a daughter?” the rock star stated in 2020. “I by no means even had a sister. That was daunting. We had been in uncharted territory to say the least. Everybody involves the hospital to go to they usually carry flowers and balloons, they usually drop your bag off and the mommies lay down within the mattress with the newborn, and you then’re like, oh my god. Now what? … There’s simply the 2 of us alone within the room going, holy sh**. We had been so grateful that she was wholesome however we had been scared s***much less.”
Jon wrote the music “I Received the Lady” about Stephanie. When she was about 7, she first joined him onstage as he carried out the monitor with lyrics about his “5-year-old princess” from the band’s 2000 Crush album, and he’d usually sing it whereas house video of her appeared behind him. In 2017, she memorably joined him on stage in Las Vegas and danced with him to it. He informed the group, “All of it goes by so quick. They begin out as little bitty infants and their future’s wanting shiny. And I wrote this music for that little child, who’s not such a little bit child anymore.”
The daddy-daughter dance got here 5 years after Stephanie made headlines after she had an obvious heroin overdose as a university scholar in upstate New York in 2012. She was initially charged with drug possession, however the costs had been later dropped underneath New York’s Good Samaritan Regulation.
On the time, Jon referred to as what occurred “human” in addition to a “tragedy … that I needed to face too” and vowed the household would “get by means of it.” He later stated he had “no thought” about her drug troubles, telling the Related Press that 12 months, “I’m shocked as a lot as the subsequent dad or mum with this case… Steph is a superb child. Nice GPA. Cool college; all the things about it’s idyllic. She was doing nice, then a sudden and steep decline.” In 2016, he referred to as the overdose his “worst second as a father” and stated “I really feel it was a horrible tragic lesson of life however I thank God every single day as a result of she is complete… I do know personally individuals whose little children, the place it was rather a lot, lot worse. That would have been Stephanie.” A 12 months after that he described it as a “horrible pace bump that we received over,” and emphasised that it may have occurred to any dad or mum: “There was no must be any nearer to our children. We couldn’t get any nearer.”
Stephanie, who retains personal within the digital world save for what seems to be her LinkedIn profile, went on to graduate from the New Faculty in NYC in 2017 and works as a digicam operator on TV reveals. She’s made a handful of pink carpet appearances along with her dad, together with when Bon Jovi was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 2018.
Jesse Bongiovi, 28
Maybe the kid seen most together with his dad is the rocker’s second baby, Jesse James, who was born in Los Angeles on Feb. 19, 1995.
Jesse and Jon are enterprise companions in Hampton Water, a rosé wine launched to a lot acclaim. The “It is My Life” singer informed Yahoo Leisure in 2019 that the thought got here from Jesse and his faculty roommate Ali Thomas. Jesse approached Jon they usually partnered with French winemaker Gérard Bertrand. The wine — later named Wine Spectator’s greatest rosé of the 12 months — is called after the Bongiovi household house within the Hamptons, the place they usually drink rosé.
“I’m totally impressed with Jesse,” he informed us. “He’s been an incredible boss. He leads by instance. He and Ali work very exhausting, so it’s been a pleasure.” Jesse added, “I feel my dad has all the time had very excessive expectations and, actually, we attempt to meet these each single day.”
Jesse informed Sportskeeda the identical 12 months, “Folks assume that as a result of my dad is a celeb that I don’t work exhausting. It is one thing I’ve needed to show fallacious my whole life, and I’m superb with that. It has motivated me to need to do much more in each facet of my life.”
Previous to entering into the wine biz, Jesse was an completed athlete. He excelled in lacrosse and soccer at his Brooklyn, N.Y., highschool, and went on to play the latter on the College of Notre Dame. He graduated in 2017.
Jesse additionally informed Nearer Weekly in 2019, “My favourite reminiscence rising up is when me and my youngest brother Romeo would play my dad and center brother Jacob in soccer. We by no means misplaced!”
Final 12 months, Jesse introduced his engagement to girlfriend Jesse Gentle, who he has been relationship since 2018. He popped the query in East Hampton, they usually celebrated with their households.
Jake Bongiovi, 20
Eight years after Jesse was born, Jon and Dorothea welcomed their second son, Jacob Hurley, on Could 7, 2002. He was born in in Palm Seashore, Fla.
Jake attended boarding college in New Jersey, making headlines for main his classmates in a nationwide walkout in 2018 to protest authorities inaction after the Parkland, Fla., college capturing. He stated his father’s activism, through the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Basis and his Soul Kitchen pay-what-you-can eating places, impressed his personal. He additionally performed football on the college.
In February 2020, Jake introduced he’d been accepted into Syracuse College. Nonetheless, it is unclear his scholar standing together with his Instagram bio itemizing him as an “actor/producer/throughout cool man.”
That is proper — he is gone Hollywood. It was lately introduced that Jake landed a task within the movie comedy Rockbottom a couple of Eighties hair steel band named CougarSnake. He may even seem in Sweethearts, a vacation comedy starring Kiernan Shipka.
Jake, who has been referred to as his dad’s lookalike, is maybe greatest identified for his high-profile romance although. In June 2021, he began relationship Stranger Issues star Millie Bobby Brown. She has stated they met on-line after which began hanging out. They made their pink carpet debut on the 2022 BAFTA Awards.
On April 11, 2023, the younger couple dropped the shock announcement on Instagram that they’re engaged. She shared lyrics from Taylor Swift’s “Lover” together with a photograph of them hugging and Brown exhibiting off her diamond ring. Whereas a lot has been made on social media of their age (he is 20 to her 19) others have identified that his mother and father coupled up as teenagers and have had an enduring love.
Romeo Bongiovi, 19
The child of the household, Romeo Jon, was born in New Jersey on March 29, 2004.
Jon joked concerning the distinction between being a nervous wreck when Stephanie was born and welcoming his fourth baby, saying, “After all, by the point you get to the fourth child, you’re dragging it into the [hospital] car parking zone by its arm, saying, ‘No matter. Strap your self in, you’ll be superb.'” Joking apart, he added, “If I may return and relive any second in my life, the very first thing that involves thoughts is the delivery of my youngsters. As a result of that was such a miracle.”
Romeo attended highschool in Manhattan. It is unclear what his post-high college plans have been.
He is additionally probably the most personal of the Bongiovi boys with no identified social media accounts. Nonetheless, he has made many public appearances together with his dad, together with live shows, premieres and advantages.
Jon and Dorothea stated in 2020, after months of getting all 4 of their youngsters again collectively to isolate throughout COVID, that they had been “undoubtedly wanting ahead” to turning into empty-nesters as soon as Romeo graduated highschool. “Simply not being caught to a schedule and having the ability to journey [will be nice],” she stated. “However we wish to see our children. It is not like we will disappear.”
In spite of everything, household is what “it is all about,” Jon wrote on social media on Father’s Day in 2021. The identical 12 months he launched “Story of Love” about his household — singing, “Fathers love daughters like moms love sons/They’ve been writing our story earlier than there was one” — with the video exhibiting stunning clips of household moments together with his youngsters.
