When we first wrote about Millie Bobby Brown, she was 19, single, and the most famous girl in Hawkins, Indiana. Three and a half years later she is 22, married, a mother of two, and Eleven has walked into the Upside Down for the last time. The phrase “Netflix darling” still fits. It just now has to share the page with “Mrs. Bongiovi”, which, to be fair, is the better story.
Marbella, Bournemouth and a run of one-episode parts
Brown was born on February 19, 2004, in Marbella, Spain, to British parents, and grew up partly in Bournemouth. The early résumé reads like a casting director’s sampler: young Alice in ABC’s Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (2013), the lead child role of Madison in BBC America’s Intruders (2014), and single episodes of NCIS, Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy.
Then came Stranger Things in 2016, the shaved head, the Eggos and the nosebleeds. What strikes me, looking back, is how little dialogue the part had in season one. She built a character mostly out of stares, and an entire generation learned to read them.
Goodbye, Eleven
The show ended on December 31, 2025, with a two-hour finale, “The Rightside Up”, that Netflix also put in hundreds of cinemas, a first for one of its series. Eleven chose to stay behind in the Upside Down as it was destroyed, and the ending left room to wonder whether she survived. The Duffer brothers have told Brown the answer. She has not told us, and I suspect she enjoys that.
On January 9, 2026, she posted a video of herself watching the scene for the first time, captioned “Watching THAT scene for the first time.” Through tears she says, “Thank you for all these years,” and then, more in character for a Brit who has done ten years of night shoots, “F–k. This damn show!” Here is my read: that clip told you more about what the role cost and gave her than any press junket did.
Jake Bongiovi, the wedding and the kids
The old version of this page said she was “single and focusing on her career”. That aged quickly. In 2018 she briefly dated singer Jacob Sartorius. Her relationship with Jake Bongiovi, son of Jon Bon Jovi, began in 2021, and they announced their engagement on Instagram in April 2023. People reported in May 2024 that they had married in a private ceremony; a second, larger wedding followed in Tuscany that September. She took his last name. (The earlier rumor linking her to co-star Charlie Heaton was never anything more than a rumor, and we have removed it.)
On August 21, 2025, the couple announced on Instagram: “This summer, we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption.” They added that they were “beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy,” and signed it “Love, Millie and Jake Bongiovi.” No name, no photo of her face. Noah Schnapp, her Stranger Things brother, is the godfather.
In September 2026 a second announcement followed: a joint post of their hands on a baby’s hands, captioned “Hi little guy!” They have now adopted a son. Brown had told the SmartLess podcast in March 2025, “I don’t see having your own child, you know, as really any different as in adopting.” I find it quietly admirable that two people this famous have kept both children out of the frame. Celebrity parenthood usually comes with a magazine cover; theirs comes with a closed door.
Millie Bobby Brown On the count of 11 raise your hand if you're stoked for Enola Holmes 2
Enola, dragons and the films after Hawkins
A small correction to our 2023 self: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) were Warner Bros. pictures, not Netflix ones. Her Netflix film run is Enola Holmes (2020) and Enola Holmes 2 (2022), Damsel (2024), which she also executive-produced, and The Electric State (2025).
Enola Holmes 3, directed by Philip Barantini from a Jack Thorne script, premiered in New York on June 25, 2026, and arrived on Netflix on July 1. The case moves to Malta, Henry Cavill is back as Sherlock, and the trailer opens with a proposal from Louis Partridge’s Tewkesbury. Brown walked the premiere carpet with her actual husband, which is one way to make the marketing team very happy. My take: the wedding plot is the franchise’s smartest move, because the films have always been about a young woman refusing to be managed, and marriage is the obvious test.
Books, beauty and the business side
Off screen she launched the beauty brand Florence by Mills in August 2019, now sold at Boots, Walmart and Shoppers Drug Mart. She runs a production company, PCMA, with her sister Paige. In September 2023 HarperCollins UK published her debut novel, Nineteen Steps, based on her family’s history. And in 2018, at 14, she became UNICEF’s youngest-ever Goodwill Ambassador. The list is long enough to be tiring to read. I can only assume it is more tiring to live.
So, still the Netflix darling?
Yes, but the title undersells her. The girl who carried Stranger Things on silent stares has closed that door herself, finished a franchise she produces, and built a family on her own terms and in private. In 2023 we said her star would only shine brighter. I would put it differently now: she has learned when to switch the lights off, and in Hollywood that is the rarer skill.
Sources
- Millie Bobby Brown on Instagram: “hi little guy!”, September 2026
- Millie Bobby Brown on Instagram (adoption announcements, August 2025 and September 2026; finale reaction video, January 9, 2026)
- Netflix: Enola Holmes 3, official trailer
- UNICEF: Millie Bobby Brown named UNICEF’s youngest-ever Goodwill Ambassador
- First We Feast: Millie Bobby Brown on Hot Ones
- NBC Los Angeles: Millie Bobby Brown’s first reaction to the Stranger Things finale
- NBC News: Millie Bobby Brown adopts child with husband Jake Bongiovi
- Newser: Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi adopt second child
- Popverse: Stranger Things finale in theaters on December 31
- Variety: Enola Holmes 3 release date
- Deadline: Enola Holmes 3 red carpet
