The Truth About Jacob Sartorius' Adoption

Ahhh, Jacob Sartorius. The social media sensation — who's worth quite a pretty penny these days — rose to fame back in 2014 after posting a video about bullying on Vine, which ended up going viral. He also made a name for himself by sharing videos on musical.ly, which later transformed into TikTok. At one point, he was slated to be the "next Justin Bieber," thanks to his social media appeal, boyish looks, and hardcore fanbase. In 2016, he dropped his first single, "Sweatshirt," which peaked at #90 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

Perhaps you know Sartorius from dating Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. The two were in a relationship from January to July 2018, calling it quits after seven months together.

However you're familiar with the teen star — who currently has 23.3 million followers on TikTok — one fact you should know about Sartorius is that he's adopted, a piece of information that adopted children (135,000 kids each year in the United States alone) can relate to. Get to know the real story behind the TikTok star's adoption.

In August 2016, Jacob Sartorius took to YouTube to give fans a personal look at his life, sharing that he was adopted as a baby. In the video, which has since garnered 4.7 million views on the platform, Sartorius spoke openly about his background and the circumstances that led to his adoption.

"My parents weren't able to take care of me, so they made a plan for me to be adopted," he explained. "Luckily for me, I was blessed to be able to be adopted by two of the most loving parents in the world, my mom and my dad. I've had the best childhood any kid could ask for. It's had its ups and downs, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade my life for anything."

He continued,"I feel like I could share anything with you guys, so that's why I made this video, but to be honest nothing's changed. I'm still me and being adopted is something that I've never tried to hide or keep a secret." 

In April 2020, he tweeted, "So much of my past still lives with me today." Though there's no way to tell if this post is specifically about his adoption or not, it's clear that his past is never far from his mind.

Though Jacob Sartorius has never commented on the supposed biological relationship between him and social media star Kaylor Keeling, Keeling has said that Sartorius is his biological brother, claiming to have met Sartorius' adopted parents when he was given up for adoption. Randomly enough, Keeling is a TikTok star as well — he has more than 200,000 followers on the app. Keeling often posts videos of himself lip-syncing to songs or dancing to hip-hop tracks.

At one point, Sartorius' alleged biological mother and Keeling uploaded a video trying to prove their relationship to the "Sweatshirt" singer. The strange and weirdly invasive YouTube video featured his biological mother recounting his birth in Oklahoma in 2002 and his brother showing an extensive amount of photos of Sartorius.

When asked if she was the one who named her son, his purported mother said no."[His adoptive parents] Pat and Rolf named him Rolf [Sartorius' real first name] after Rolf's dad," she said."I have pictures they sent me, and I have text messages. I have no reason to lie."

Jacob Sartorius' family, who helped him have "the best childhood,"  often star in his TikTok videos. Whether they're dancing to The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" or faux-yelling at him for the views, the Sartorius family always looks like they're having a great time on the platform.

The social media star's older sister, Caroline, is a University of Virginia graduate and a social media influencer in her own right. She has nearly 400,000 followers on Instagram and often shares photos with her famous lil brother, which are interspersed between traveling pics. Sartorius' dad, Rolf Sartorius, is the president and CEO of Social Impact, which aims to "reduce poverty, improve health and education, promote peace and democratic governance, foster economic growth, and protect the environment," according to its official website. 

Still, like every teen (or anyone living with their family during this lockdown period, tbh), he can get sick of his fam while living in such close quarters day in and day out. "Like I love my family and all but IDK how much longer I can hang with them for...," he shared on Twitter on April 16, 2020. Real talk, Sartorius. Real talk.