Father’s Day is the time of year to honor the men in our lives who have raised us, but for some it’s also a time to show love for the men who are father figures. From stepdads to mentors, many people will spend the day bonding with the men who didn’t have to be father-like but chose to.
In honor of that kind of celebration, here are five celebrity men who took in others’ kids as their own.
August Alsina
After losing his sister to cancer in December 2018, singer August Alsina became the sole parent to his three nieces.
“They call me Damy — it’s dad and mommy mixed together. And just the weight of that title alone — because I don’t have kids of my own,” Alsina told The Shade Room in February. “It makes me want to be what I know I need to be for them because I grew up with my father dead and having a strained relationship with my mother. To go through life without having a person you can run to, without having a certain type of foundation, so I’m saying all of that to say I am how I am. And I am how I am until I get to more of what I’m supposed to be.”
Steve Harvey
After Steve Harvey wed wife Marjorie Harvey in 2007, he gave a whole new meeting to the phrase “blended family.” Fusing his four children from previous marriages with those Marjorie had from her past relationships, he adopted her kids as his own. Lori, Morgan and Jason each have the talk show host’s last name.
Dwyane Wade
In 2014, now-retired NBA star Dwyane Wade gained custody of his nephew Dahveon Morris, who was said to have had a rough life. Wade has since retained guardianship of the 17-year-old, but his mother has retained parental rights. However, there is no father listed on his birth certificate.
Morris is raised alongside Wade’s other children, 16-year-old Zaire Blessing Dwyane, 11-year-old Zion Wade, 5-year-old Xavier Zechariah and 7-month-old Kaavia James Union Wade, the sole daughter Wade shares with actress Gabrielle Union.
Diddy
As part of Diddy’s decades-long on-and-off relationship with his late ex-girlfriend Kim Porter, he took on raising her son with singer Al B. Sure! as his own. Quincy has been estranged from his famous dad and found a father in Diddy, who adopted him when he was 3.
“The biggest lesson my father has taught me is to really not focus on that ‘No,’” Quincy told People magazine in 2017 of the rapper, whom he described as “a friend, a teacher and a therapist.” “That ‘No’ actually is your gas to your car that’s supposed to fuel you into fighting through.”
Quincy has since mended his relationship with his biological father but still counts Diddy as his dad.
Nelly
Nelly assumed the role of raising his niece and nephew following the death of his sister in 2005. The St. Louis rapper’s half-sister, Jacqueline “Jackie” Donahue, died at the age of 31 after a battle with leukemia. He raised Shawn Thomas Jr. and Sidney Thomas alongside his two children as a single father.
“There are single fathers,” Nelly said of the message he wants to send about raising his children on his reality show “Nellyville.” “Not baby daddies, like, single fathers. I think it’s very important.”
