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 along with his highschool sweetheart, Dorothea Hurley. The rock star (born Jon Bongiovi) met Dorothea as college students at Sayreville Warfare Memorial Excessive Faculty in Parlin, N.J., in 1980. He mentioned 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 marriage ceremony chapel in 1989 whereas he was touring.
Jon, 61, and Dorothea, 60, who mentioned 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 provide our children a standard life,” Dorothea advised Individuals in 2016. “I by no means pointed on the TV and mentioned, ‘There’s Daddy!'” And they’re a tight-knit bunch. When COVID hit, all of them retreated to their Crimson Financial institution, N.J., house to isolate collectively. “Our focus has at all times been household first,” she mentioned.
Let’s meet the youngsters…
Stephanie Bongiovi, 29
The couple’s first little one — and solely daughter — Stephanie Rose was born in New Jersey on Might 31, 1993.
“I keep in mind coming house with Stephanie, our first, and considering, I’ve a daughter?” the rock star mentioned 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 and so they convey flowers and balloons, and so they drop your bag off and the mommies lay down within the mattress with the child, and then you definitely’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 track “I Obtained the Lady” about Stephanie. When she was about 7, she first joined him onstage as he carried out the observe 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 advised the gang, “All of it goes by so quick. They begin out as little bitty infants and their future’s wanting shiny. And I wrote this track for that little child, who’s not such somewhat child anymore.”
The daddy-daughter dance got here 5 years after Stephanie made headlines after she had an obvious heroin overdose as a school scholar in upstate New York in 2012. She was initially charged with drug possession, however the fees had been later dropped below New York’s Good Samaritan Legislation.
On the time, Jon known as what occurred “human” in addition to a “tragedy … that I needed to face too” and vowed the household would “get by it.” He later mentioned he had “no thought” about her drug troubles, telling the Related Press that yr, “I’m shocked as a lot as the subsequent mum or dad with this case… Steph is a superb child. Nice GPA. Cool college; every little thing about it’s idyllic. She was doing nice, then a sudden and steep decline.” In 2016, he known as the overdose his “worst second as a father” and mentioned “I really feel it was a horrible tragic lesson of life however I thank God day by day as a result of she is complete… I do know personally folks whose little kids, the place it was lots, lot worse. That might have been Stephanie.” A yr after that he described it as a “horrible pace bump that we bought over,” and emphasised that it might have occurred to any mum or dad: “There was no have to be any nearer to our children. We couldn’t get any nearer.”
Stephanie, who retains non-public 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 together 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 along with his dad is the rocker’s second little one, 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 advised Yahoo Leisure in 2019 that the concept got here from Jesse and his school roommate Ali Thomas. Jesse approached Jon and so they partnered with French winemaker Gérard Bertrand. The wine — later named Wine Spectator’s finest rosé of the yr — is known as after the Bongiovi household house within the Hamptons, the place they usually drink rosé.
“I’m completely impressed with Jesse,” he advised us. “He’s been an excellent boss. He leads by instance. He and Ali work very exhausting, so it’s been a pleasure.” Jesse added, “I believe my dad has at all times had very excessive expectations and, definitely, we attempt to meet these each single day.”
Jesse advised Sportskeeda the identical yr, “Individuals assume that as a result of my dad is a star that I don’t work exhausting. It is one thing I’ve needed to show fallacious my total life, and I’m high quality with that. It has motivated me to need to do much more in each side of my life.”
Previous to moving 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 advised 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 yr, Jesse introduced his engagement to girlfriend Jesse Mild, who he has been relationship since 2018. He popped the query in East Hampton, and so they celebrated with their households.
Jake Bongiovi, 20
Eight years after Jesse was born, Jon and Dorothea welcomed their second son, Jacob Hurley, on Might 7, 2002. He was born in in Palm Seaside, 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 mentioned 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. Nevertheless, it is unclear his scholar standing along with his Instagram bio itemizing him as an “actor/producer/throughout cool man.”
That is proper — he is gone Hollywood. It was not too long ago introduced that Jake landed a job within the movie comedy Rockbottom a couple of Eighties hair metallic band named CougarSnake. He may also seem in Sweethearts, a vacation comedy starring Kiernan Shipka.
Jake, who has been known as his dad’s lookalike, is maybe finest recognized for his high-profile romance although. In June 2021, he began relationship Stranger Issues star Millie Bobby Brown. She has mentioned 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 displaying 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 a long-lasting love.
Romeo Bongiovi, 19
The infant of the household, Romeo Jon, was born in New Jersey on March 29, 2004.
Jon joked in regards to the distinction between being a nervous wreck when Stephanie was born and welcoming his fourth little one, 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 high quality.'” Joking apart, he added, “If I might 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 non-public of the Bongiovi boys with no recognized social media accounts. Nevertheless, he has made many public appearances along with his dad, together with concert events, premieres and advantages.
Jon and Dorothea mentioned in 2020, after months of getting all 4 of their youngsters again collectively to isolate throughout COVID, that they had been “positively wanting ahead” to turning into empty-nesters as soon as Romeo graduated highschool. “Simply not being caught to a schedule and with the ability to journey [will be nice],” she mentioned. “However we prefer to see our children. It is not like we’ll 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 yr 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 displaying lovely clips of household moments along with his youngsters.
