Jon Bon Jovi’s Family Guide: Wife Dorothea, 4 Kids and More

A family that rocks together, rolls together. Jon Bon Jovi might be one of the world’s biggest rock stars, but perhaps his biggest role is being a father to his and wife Dorothea Hurley’s four kids.

The musician (real name John Bongiovi) married his high school sweetheart in 1989, a decision he told Men’s Health in 2010 was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Coming off a No. 1 album and single, as well as three sold-out shows at the Forum in Los Angeles, Bon Jovi proposed they tie the knot in Las Vegas. “’Come on. What’s better than this, right now, this moment?’” he recalled asking Hurley at the time.

Four years later, the couple welcomed their first child together, daughter Stephanie, in May 1993. Bon Jovi’s eldest joined him on stage in March 2017 for a performance of “I’ve Got the Girl,” a song that he wrote for her. “Everybody’s got a little girl in their life,” the “Livin’ on a Prayer” singer said in the middle of the Las Vegas performance. “Their daughter, their girlfriend, their wife, their mamma. But it all goes by so fast. And they start out as little bitty babies and their future's looking bright. And I wrote this song for that little baby, who’s now not such a little baby anymore.”

Bon Jovi and Hurley welcomed their son Jesse in 1995, with whom the “It’s My Life” singer launched the wine label Hampton Water in 2018. The pair’s family grew to a total of six members with the births of their two youngest sons, Jacob and Romeo, in 2002 and 2004, respectively.

Becoming a dad changed the rocker’s outlook on his career. “It’s getting harder and harder as we tour and you get more guilty with every tour because you feel, like, [bad],” he said on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2009.

But his role as a father is one he wouldn’t change. Out of all the achievements he could relive throughout his life — including his Grammy win or his 2018 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — he told The Big Issue in November 2020 that he would most like to relive the birth of his children. “That was such a miracle,” he recalled at the time. “The birth of a human that you’ve helped create — that’s probably the biggest, most unbelievable thing that I could ever want. To touch the hand of God, that’s as close as you ever come to that.”

Bon Jovi also opened up about his nerves of becoming a parent, especially becoming a girl dad, as he grew up in New Jersey with two brothers, Anthony and Matthew. “I remember coming home with Stephanie, our first, and thinking I have a daughter? I never even had a sister,” he continued. “That was daunting. We were in uncharted territory to say the least. Everyone comes to the hospital to visit and they bring flowers and balloons, and they drop your bag off and the mommies lay down in the bed with the baby, and then you’re like, oh my God. Now what?”

The “You Give Love a Bad Name” singer and Hurley’s family has continued to grow in recent years. Jesse popped the question to girlfriend Jesse Light in August 2022.

Jacob began dating Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown in 2021, and the two seemingly announced their engagement via Instagram in April 2023. Sharing a pic of herself with Jacob and what appears to be an engagement ring on her finger, the Enola Holmes star captioned the photo with lyrics from Taylor Swift’s song “Lover,” writing, “I’ve loved you three summers now, honey, I want ‘em all.”

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