Millie Bobby Brown defends husband Jake Bongiovi after his parenting skills are criticized

Millie Bobby Brown has leapt to her husband, Jake Bongiovi’s, defence after he was criticized for his parenting skills.

The 22-year-old has addressed the backlash Jake, 24, received in August 2025 after photos of Millie carrying their daughter’s car seat and two backpacks went viral.

He was also on the receiving end of negative comments when Millie was photographed pushing their daughter’s stroller and carrying her baby’s things while out with her family.

The Stranger Things actress has now hit back at the negativity surrounding Jake during an appearance on the Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce podcast on Thursday.

“Hi, I’m Millie Bobbie Brown and I’m not gonna lie, when did women become incapable of holding their own bags, car seats and stuff?” she said in a clip from the interview shared on Instagram.

“This stems from me holding all of my suitcases and bags and my kid and people are like, ‘Your husband doesn’t hold a single thing.’ And I’m like, ‘Because I’m three miles ahead. I have been planning this all night,'” she continued.

“We’re all about empowering girls and, ‘You got it’ and ‘You don’t need a man.’ But then when I’m like, ‘OK, I can carry my own things,’ people are like, ‘Where’s your husband?'”

Millie added: “Nobody knows my husband. My husband is the most polite, sweet, will-do-anything-for-me. But he also knows I’m capable.”

Millie announced that she and Jake had welcomed their daughter, whose name they have not publicly shared, via adoption in August 2025.

“This summer, we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption,” Millie first announced in a post on Instagram on Thursday, August 21.

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“We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy,” she went on, confirming: “And then there were three.” The comments section on the post was disabled.

The actress revealed to Kylie that the plan had always been to adopt when she was asked about expanding her family.

“Hopefully one day that’s in my future,” she said. “But for me, adoption was always a part of my future. Adoption is love. Adoption is forever.”

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Speaking on the Smartless podcast last summer with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, Millie teased that motherhood was definitely on the horizon for her, despite her young age.

“I’m still really young, but my mom actually had her first child at 21, and my dad was 19, and you know, it’s been my thing since before I met Jake,” she said.

“I wanted to be a mom just like the way my mom was to me and … my grandmother is — she was a huge part of my life,” she added.

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Speaking about adoption, she explained: “I don’t see having your own child, you know, as really any different as in adopting.

“For me, like, my home is full of love for anyone and anything, and so that is what we stand by, Jake and I — our energy in the house is like, ‘The door is always open.'”