Actress Millie Bobby Brown recently defended her husband, Jake Bongiovi, amid public criticism, speaking out on the podcast Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce.
Brown addressed the backlash Jake received after photos of her carrying a car seat and two backpacks went viral. She pushed back against the notion that her husband was failing in his duties.
“Hi, I’m Millie Bobby Brown and I’m not gonna lie, when did women become incapable of holding their own bags, car seats and stuff?” she said. “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.'”
Brown went on to highlight what she sees as a contradiction in how society talks about female empowerment.
“We’re all about empowering girls and, ‘You got it’ and ‘You don’t need a man,'” she continued. “But then when I’m like, ‘OK, I can carry my own things,’ people are like, ‘Where’s your husband?’ I can also do it on my own. Nobody knows my husband. My husband is the most polite, sweet, will-do-anything-for-me. But he also knows I’m capable.”
The comments came after photos of Brown carrying luggage and a car seat sparked widespread criticism of Jake Bongiovi, son of rock icon Jon Bon Jovi, in August 2025. To understand the full picture, it helps to look at the couple’s history and the recent family milestone that gave those photos their context.
As Cosmopolitan reported, Brown and Bongiovi first connected online in 2021. Brown later revealed that their relationship began in the DMs. The pair went public shortly after, and their relationship quickly became one of the most closely followed in Hollywood.
Their relationship moved quickly from there. The Knot noted that the couple got engaged in April 2023 and married in a private ceremony in May 2024. The wedding was held over the weekend of May 18, marking a milestone that came just a year before the viral photos that sparked the latest controversy.
The car seat seen in those photos also carries significant meaning. Business Insider reported that Brown and Bongiovi welcomed a daughter through adoption in the summer of 2025. They announced the news a few months later, placing the viral airport moment squarely in the early months of their new life as parents.
With that context in mind, Brown’s defense of her husband takes on added weight. The couple was navigating a busy public outing as new parents, and Brown’s decision to carry her own bags was, by her own account, simply a matter of being prepared — not a sign of any shortcoming on Bongiovi’s part.
