Alexey Serebryakov
In the 1990s, actor Alexei Serebryakov married choreographer Maria. From his first marriage came a daughter named Daria. Later, the couple opened their home to two more children from different orphanages: Daniil, then two years old, and Stepan, who was three. The actress tends to keep her private life private, but in 2018 she spoke with candor on the YouTube show Vdud. Serebryakov shared that he and Maria had felt they had not succeeded with children twice, which led them to pursue adoption.
“I have not found anything more important in my life than them and my wife Masha. Greater happiness than them, I don’t know. I don’t feel such happiness on the Cannes red carpet,” he remarked.
He described himself as a strict father and admitted to raising his voice at the children when they were younger. He recalled instances of scolding his sons for smoking.
Maria, in her own account, knows little about the biological roots of the children. Since 2012, the Serebryakov family has resided in Canada. The actor expressed a wish to grow the family further, but Maria holds Canadian citizenship, and adoptions were affected by the Dima Yakovlev Act enacted in 2012.
Together with colleagues Irina Apeksimova and Andrei Smolyakov, Serebryakov founded the Time to Live charity foundation to raise public awareness about the challenges faced by orphans.
It is noted that Daria studied film production at Humber College in Canada and later earned a producer’s diploma from George Brown College. In 2018, Daria welcomed a granddaughter named Agatha. Early 2023 saw Daria at the Moscow premiere of Rabies, a film in which Serebryakov played the lead role.
Daniil Serebryakov is pursuing studies at Toronto Film School in Canada, while Stepan is enrolled in architecture studies and also pursues modeling work.
Irina Alferova
The celebrated actress Irina Alferova, known for the film Do Not Part with Your Loved Ones, raised four children. Her first child is her daughter Ksenia, who later married Bulgarian diplomat Boyko Gyurov. From 1976 to 1993, Alferova was married to Alexander Abdulov, but the couple did not have joint children. On the program Hello, Andrey, host Andrey Malakhov asked about this arrangement.
“That question must be put to God and to Alexander Abdulov, who is no longer with us. Life decided differently,” the actress replied.
In 1995 Alferova married actor Sergei Martynov. Shortly after, Martynov’s first wife, who had raised two children, passed away in London due to a medical error. That brought two additional heirs into the Alferova family. In 1997, the sister of the actress Tatyana died, leaving her nephew Alexander an orphan who was taken in by the family.
Margarita Sukhankina
Former Mirage soloist Margarita Sukhankina became a mother for the first time at 48. She and composer Andrei Lityagin adopted her brother and sister, four-year-old Serezha and three-year-old Lera, in 2013, shortly after marrying Lityagin. In a WDay magazine interview, Sukhankina revealed that her husband struggled to accept a family with children and left the family a year later, though a later public account suggested a different sequence of events.
In a March 2023 appearance on Hello Andrey, Sukhankina remarked that Sergey stands taller than she does. She described a life filled with activity, visits to towns, and customs someone might not expect. The children are deeply involved in sports and stay active with physical training. Their passports were obtained when they were 13 and 14, and they do not rely on phones. She expressed amazement at the kindness she sees in them, noting there is no lingering resentment, only a shared sense of love. They are the meaning of her life, she said.
According to Sukhankina, Seryozha dreams of becoming a cook, while Lera aspires to be a veterinarian.
Sergei Zverev
In the mid-1990s, stylist and singer Sergei Zverev adopted a child from an orphanage in Irkutsk. The child, born as Dmitry, was known as Sasha in the orphanage and later became Serezha in the family. During an appearance on Andrey Malakhov Live, Zverev Sr. described the poverty and harsh conditions he witnessed at the shelter. He recounted seeing a three-year-old Sasha who could not speak and was gravely ill, and how an elderly aunt-midwife cared for him in the maternity ward. She nurtured him with tireless devotion, and Zverev decided to bring him into his life.
He introduced Sasha to the public as his son and began his care with the mother. By July 2023, Sergei Zverev Jr. lived in the suburbs and worked at a construction site. Reports indicate he and his wife Yulia had attempted to sue his stepfather for a portion of the apartment, but the matter was documented in a different way. In an appearance on Andrey Malakhov Live, Zverev admitted that he rarely communicates with his son.
“Two people saved her life – me and my mother, because she was not supposed to live. It was very hard to let him go. You have no idea how much it cost my mother, me, and our relatives, but it had to be done,” the stylist shared.
Tatyana Ovsienko
In 1999, singer Tatyana Ovsienko adopted a three-year-old named Igor from Penza, who had a congenital heart defect. Ovsienko funded an expensive operation that saved his life. The boy took on his first husband’s name, Vladimir Dubovitsky, after Ovsienko divorced him in 2007. She later told Express Gazeta that Igor is now adult and independent, though their relationship has always been close.
“Our Igoreshka is sitting in a corner, something small like this – a book on algebra turned upside down. And here she sits naturally pale,” she recalled of their early days. The boy grew up loved and cherished. For years, the public did not know his true origin until the father disclosed it. He now lives in Miami with his family, married to a Brazilian named Zaia, and the couple welcomed a son named Alexander in 2015.
Mikhail Barshchevsky
Lawyer and actor Mikhail Barshchevsky, known for the series What? Where? When?, and his wife Olga raised their daughter Natalia, born in 1977. Natalia later graduated from Moscow State University and became a lawyer herself. In 2006, the couple adopted one-year-old twins Maxim and Dasha. By the time the children were six, they accepted their background information with openness.
In an interview with Jewish Magazine, Barshchevsky explained that he would not deem money as the core duty of parenting. He argued that the role of parents is to provide a solid upbringing and education, and that reliance on money can hamper a young person’s sense of self-reliance.
Natalya Belokhvostikova
In 2007, actress Natalya Belokhvostikova and her husband Vladimir Naumov met three-year-old Kirill at an orphanage near Moscow. The boy made a lasting impact on the couple, leading them to adopt him. When Belokhvostikova was 55 and Naumov 79, they formalized the adoption. On The Fate of a Man program in 2020, Belokhvostikova described Kirill as deeply precious to her.
“I simply dissolved into this person. I cannot imagine life without him. The idea that he might stay in an orphanage did not sit well with me. Through him came a different understanding of life, people, and circumstances. The only sad thing is that he has grown up so fast. I remember him as a funny, little child, and now there is a real man nearby,” she reflected.
Kirill is now 19 and a sophomore at the Faculty of Law. Belokhvostikova shared this update in a April 2023 interview with Moscow Online, though she did not specify which university the heir attends.