# Famous 'illegitimate' children list

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 23, 2002, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195 "2002-08-23T07:45:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195/21 "2002-08-25T23:21:11Z")

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P.D.Q. Bach.

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**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195/22 "2002-08-26T12:46:27Z")

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Serial killer Ted Bundy. Another person who thought his mother was his sister. There’s some speculation that his mother’s father was also his father, but his mother denies it.

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**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195/23 "2002-08-26T13:04:51Z")

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Interesting, the websites are divided on whether or not Vernon Winfrey ever married Vernita Lee. Nonetheless, **Oprah** would make this list in her own right, as she gave birth to a daughter in her early teens (I can’t recall whether the baby was stillborn or died soon after birth) - the circumstances regarding the baby’s conception were the subject of one of her programmes a few years ago.

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**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195/24 "2002-08-26T13:30:24Z")

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Minor point of clarification - Maria Montessori was born to married parents. It was her son, Mario, who was illegitimate - the result of an affair with a married colleague. Maria M never married.

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**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195/25 "2002-08-26T14:42:12Z")

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I don’t think that Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Roselini were married when Isabella Roselini was born, but I could be mistaken.

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**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195/26 "2002-08-26T15:51:52Z")

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What? No one’s mentioned **Marilyn Monroe** yet?

Also, actress **Mariska Hargitay** , daughter of Jayne Mansfield and, supposedly, Mickey Hargitay. She’s admitted her biological father is Italian singer and producer Nelson Sardelli, but she doesn’t like to publicize it, as she is so close to Mickey—one reason I’ll not be able to do a book on Jaynie, dammit.

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**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-illegitimate-children-list/125195/27 "2002-08-26T18:38:44Z")

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Robert Burns had an illegitimate daughter. He fought to get custody of her, and she was raised by his mother. He wrote a poem [called A Poet’s Welcome to his Love-Begotten Daughter](http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxdgdc/poetry/poets) on her birth:

Welcome, my bonie, sweet, wee dochter!  
Tho’ ye come here a wee unsought for,  
And tho’ your comin I hae fought for  
Baith kirk and queir;  
Yet, by my faith, ye’re no unwrought for —  
That I shall swear!

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