- Morgan Freeman, 87, is the father of four children: sons Alfonso and Saifoulaye, and daughters Deena and Morgana, born across different relationships spanning more than a decade
- The Oscar-winning actor has been married twice, first to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from 1967 to 1979, and then to costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee from 1984 to 2010, and is currently single
- The Freeman family has endured one of Hollywood’s most heartbreaking tragedies, the 2015 murder of Morgan’s step-granddaughter E’dena Hines, who was only 33 years old
Morgan Freeman has one of the most recognisable voices on the planet. He has played God. He has narrated penguins. He has delivered courtroom speeches that made grown adults cry in a cinema. But ask most people about his children, and you will get blank stares. Four kids. Fourteen grandchildren. One tragedy that shook the family to its core. And a story of fatherhood that Morgan himself admits did not come naturally, or early.
Here is everything you never knew about the family behind the legend.
The Sons He Welcomed Before Anyone Knew His Name
Long before Morgan Freeman was a household name, long before Shawshank and Se7en and The Dark Knight, he was a young man in his early twenties trying to make it as an actor. And during that time, fatherhood found him twice in quick succession.
Morgan became a father for the very first time in 1959 when he welcomed son Alfonso with a woman named Loletha Adkins. The two separated shortly after Alfonso arrived. Then, just a year later, history repeated itself. Morgan experienced fatherhood for the second time in 1960, welcoming another son, Saifoulaye. The identity of Saifoulaye’s mother has never been made public, and to this day, that chapter of Morgan’s early life remains largely closed.
Freeman has been remarkably candid about the kind of father he was during those years. “I sired a couple of kids without being married, but that doesn’t make you a father,” he admitted. “It took a while for me to become a father. I was busy trying to be an actor, and the two didn’t really go together in my youth.” That kind of honesty from a man of his stature is rare. And it makes you look at the rest of the story with very different eyes.
Alfonso Freeman, born on September 13, 1959, in Los Angeles, went on to follow his father directly into acting. He attended Cal State University Long Beach as an Art major before graduating from El Camino College with a degree in Psychology. He recalled growing up watching The Electric Company and Easy Reader without even realising the man on screen was his own father. Their relationship only truly blossomed when Alfonso turned 19, leading to a reunion that bridged years of emotional absence. He has since appeared alongside Morgan in both The Shawshank Redemption and The Bucket List. Father and son, on screen together. It does not get more full-circle than that.
As for Saifoulaye, he remains the most private of all Morgan’s children. He was the only one absent at the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where the rest of the family gathered to watch Morgan receive his Lifetime Achievement Award. He lives quietly, away from cameras, and has kept it that way his entire life.
The Daughters Who Changed Everything
Morgan has said it himself. His daughters changed him. His sons may have come first, but it was fathering daughters where he became the hands-on parent he had previously struggled to be.
When Morgan married his first wife, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, in 1967, she already had a daughter named Deena from a previous relationship. Freeman eventually adopted Deena, making her legally his own. Deena became a hair and makeup artist in Hollywood, regularly working on her father’s own films. Her credits include Bruce Almighty, Million Dollar Baby, and The Dark Knight, and she has received two Emmy Award nominations for her work as a hairstylist. She styled the man who raised her for some of the biggest films of his career. There is something quietly beautiful about that.
Morgan and Jeanette also had a daughter together, Morgana, born in 1971. It was an emotional milestone for Freeman. “When I had daughters, I changed their diapers,” he told The Telegraph. “Being hands-on makes a difference in your child’s life.” Morgana, named after her father, has been a constant presence at his side on red carpets for decades. According to her LinkedIn, she graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta with a degree in economics, later studied cosmetology, and now owns two salons in Georgia. She is not just a famous man’s daughter. She has built an entire life of her own.
The Tragedy That Forever Marked the Freeman Family
No account of Morgan Freeman’s family is complete without acknowledging the grief that arrived in August 2015. This is the part of the story that most people either forget or never knew, and it is the part that hits the hardest.
In 1982, Deena gave birth to a daughter named E’dena Hines. E’dena was raised by Morgan and his second wife, Myrna Colley-Lee, making her effectively Morgan’s step-granddaughter and a central part of his household.
On August 16, 2015, E’dena Hines was murdered in New York City. She was 33 years old. Morgan released a statement that said, “The world will never know her artistry and talent, and how much she had to offer. Her friends and family were fortunate enough to have known what she meant as a person. Her star will continue to shine bright in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers. May she rest in peace.”
A man who has narrated some of cinema’s most powerful stories was left with no words that could make this one make sense. The loss sat over the entire family, and it still does.
His Wives, His Later Years, and the Grandfather He Became
Morgan has been married twice. His first marriage to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw lasted from 1967 to 1979. He then married costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee on June 16, 1984, after the two met during an off-Broadway theatre production in 1976. That marriage lasted over two decades before they separated in December 2007, with their divorce finalised in September 2010. He has not remarried since.
Morgan Freeman was born on June 1, 1937, making him 87 years old. And at 87, it is the role of grandfather that seems to suit him best of all. He has said, “Now I am in my dotage, I am a great-grandfather. I have 14 grandchildren.”
One of those grandchildren, Morgana’s daughter Alexis Freeman, has spoken about what it means to grow up with Morgan Freeman as a grandfather. “He makes you a really humble person,” she told PEOPLE. “He makes you realise that you have to work for what you want. I really work hard for everything I do.”
Fourteen grandchildren carrying the values of a man who, by his own admission, had to learn how to be a father the hard way. Two sons he welcomed before the world knew his name. Two daughters who changed the way he showed up. A granddaughter he helped raise, and lost far too soon. And a family that has stayed together through awards, red carpets, private grief, and everything in between.
Morgan Freeman has played God on screen. But offscreen, he is just a father who took his time, made his mistakes, and eventually got it right.
