All About Kym Whitley’s Son Joshua (Who Is Following In Her Hollywood Footsteps!)

Kym Whitley calls her son Joshua Whitley her “gift.”

The comedian welcomed her son via adoption in 2011. She had the “desire to become a mother,” but didn’t have “a husband or a steady man where I was like, ‘I’m going to get pregnant,’ ” she told Essence in October 2022. “So I was not ready for motherhood at all. But God laughs at our plans.”

In January of that year, the Friday After Next star got a call from a hospital telling her that she had one hour to decide if she wanted to adopt a baby boy from a young woman whom she had been mentoring for over a decade.

“Luckily my parents were there, and my mother looked at me and she was like, ‘You’ve always wanted a baby! Go get that baby!’ ” she told The Ellen Show in January 2014. “So, there it is. I took the baby!”

Kym couldn’t be more grateful for taking that chance. “Whether you get pregnant, adopt, sometimes it just happens,” Kym told Essence. “Sometimes you just gotta roll with life. You’ve got to snatch it up and say, ‘I’m going to close my eyes and I’m just going to say yes.’ ”

Fans later watched the Curb Your Enthusiasm actress’ motherhood journey on her docuseries Raising Whitley, which aired on OWN from 2013 to 2016.

Here’s everything to know about Kym Whitley’s son, Joshua.

Joshua was born in 2011

The Big Holiday Food Fight host’s life changed forever on Jan. 9, 2011, when she got the call about baby Joshua. After giving birth to him, Joshua’s biological mother listed Kym as the child’s guardian.

“I was mentoring young girls and one of the girls got pregnant. She left my name at the hospital,” Kym shared on The Ellen Show in 2014. “No biggie, until the hospital called me and said, ‘We got your baby ready!’ ”

Joshua’s biological mother “wanted him to have a better life than what she could have given him,” the actress shared on the first episode of her OWN show, Raising Whitley.

Though Kym admitted she had “no idea how to take care of a baby,” Joshua ended up being “a gift that she never asked for,” she continued.

“13 years ago God blessed me to be a mother to a 6 lbs. 8 oz. little boy,” she recalled in a January 2024 Instagram. “The years have been filled with laughter, tears, and lots of adventures. This little human has changed my life for the best.”

Actor Rodney Van Johnson is a father figure to Joshua

Joshua calls The Young and the Restless star Rodney Van Johnson his “daddy.”

“Me and Rodney have been friends for like 25 years. We tried to date, it just didn’t happen,” Kym revealed in her docuseries. “Rodney said, ‘I will step in and be his father so he won’t have to say I don’t have a father.’ Joshua loves Rodney!”

It’s important to Kym that Joshua has strong male role models in his life.

“I keep Black men around Joshua. He’s got to see what he is and what he’s going to be,” she told Ebony in November 2022. “My brother is here in Los Angeles and I have male friends. He has three males in his life.”

Kym often shouts out Van Johnson, who is the father of two other boys, on social media.

“Happy Father’s Day to my baby’s daddy @rodneyvanjohnson,” she wrote on Instagram in June 2020. “Thanks for being there for us!!”

Kym’s parents inspired her approach to parenthood

When Kym first welcomed Joshua, she had “no idea” how to raise a baby, she said in her docuseries. So, her parents lived with her for the first three months of Joshua’s life.

However, just six months after they left, Kym’s mom Kaysonia Whitley died from a stroke.

“When I rushed back to Cleveland with Joshua, she was in intensive care, and when Joshua came in, she reached for him,” she said in her docuseries. “She grabbed his hand, and after that, nothing.”

Kym’s parents still serve as an inspiration for how she wants to raise Joshua. “My parents exposed me to so much as a kid,” she told Cleveland Magazine in February 2016. “I want to be able to do those same things with my son.”

She always admired how “positive” and engaged her father was with her and her siblings while growing up.

“My father always made sure we had a great family structure and the best of everything,” she told Black America Web in June 2016. “My dad made sure he was home every night for dinner … We played together, we did certain activities as a family. I thank him for always believing in me, no matter what I did.”

Kym had the support of a “village” while raising Joshua

The Young & Hungry star may have been surprised to become a mom, but she was able to rely heavily on her friends, whom she calls her “village.”

“My village, they’re like my superheroes. I call them the other parents,” she told DeGeneres. “So they are the ones helping me, and signed a contract with me that they would help raise this baby for the rest of his life.”

Raising Whitley documented Kym’s friends supporting her through Joshua’s early years.

“Families come in all different types of people,” she told Essence in October 2022. “Family does not necessarily mean blood. Family is the relationship you form with others, the village, the support, the people that uplift you every day. The people you cry with, argue with. That’s your family.”

Kym told Joshua that he was adopted at an early age

Kym has been open with Joshua about his adoption story. During a 2016 episode of Raising Whitley, she sat down with her son to tell him about how she became his mother.

“God brought you to me, do you know why? Joshua was made by God for Mommy, and then this other lady held him in her tummy,” she explained. “She gave you to me because she knew that I was going to love you and you were very special and I needed you in my life.”

“Kids that are adopted are special and loved and chosen,” she continued. “Do you know you were chosen?”

Kym said it was important to her that her son knew that “adoption is a beautiful thing.”

During a 2015 episode of Raising Whitley, Kym had an emotional meeting with Joshua’s biological mother, where she thanked the comedian for caring for Joshua.

“I just knew that I wanted something better for him. You were it,” the woman said. “You’ll always be my mentor.”

“She gave me something I didn’t even know I needed,” Kym said in the clip, adding that she was “proud” of her former mentee. “She gave me something that I couldn’t imagine my life without. So I thank her. Because if I had to give Joshua up, I don’t think I could live. So she gave me life.”

Becoming a mom made Kym “make better decisions”

A lot changed for Kym when she became a mother, including her lifestyle. In July 2025, Kym told PEOPLE that she’s been losing weight with the help of GLP-1 drug Zepbound — a choice that was motivated by her son.

“I try to balance my lifestyle for [Joshua],” she said. “That’s why I started on this weight loss journey, so that I could feel unstuck, because I was stuck for a long time.”

She also thinks carefully about her options now, because she knows her son is watching her every move.

“Because I’m pouring into another human being’s life, it made me make better decisions,” she told Ebony in November 2022. “They are sponges of us. So if I am doing something out of control, my son does the same thing. I catch myself and say, ‘Oh, I gotta be better.’ “

Joshua is following in his mom’s footsteps

Joshua started starring in a docuseries when he was a toddler, so it’s no wonder that he’s drawn to Hollywood.

In his Instagram bio, Joshua reveals he loves to “dance, act and play with Legos.” Many videos on the account show him dancing, painting and doing magic tricks.

Joshua is Kym’s favorite red carpet date

Kym loves bringing her son along to red carpet events, like in September 2023 when she won the Urban League Salute to Women Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award.

“So blessed to be able to accept this award with my son, Joshua,” she shared alongside an Instagram photo of the two. “Everything I do is to make sure he is happy. So glad he got to see me get honored.”

Joshua seems to enjoy the events, too. In February 2023, he posted about how excited he was to attend the premiere of his mom’s new show with her.

“I had so much fun attending my moms LA premiere of her new show #actyourage on @bouncetv!!” he wrote on Instagram. “I love you mom!”

Kym maintains her career while parenting

Kym made a point to continue acting after becoming a mom.

“I want women to understand that you can still pursue your career. You can still become a mother,” she told Essence in October 2022. “You don’t have to give up either one. You can do them simultaneously.”

At the beginning of Raising Whitley, she explained how she brought Joshua to set every single day while working on the NBC sitcom Animal Practice.

“I want women to walk away knowing that it’s okay. There’s no book,” she added. “There’s no manual to life and we can laugh at our mistakes.”

Read the original article on People