Victor Ortiz Quotes

Of course, screwed up families are not the exclusive province of the famous. Still, most families get to screw up in private.

When you are abandoned by two parents as a baby - wow, that is something to live with.

Many children in the foster care system are often in the midst of a family challenge.

When I was young, my brother David and I were farmed off to foster homes, and I spent time in orphanages. My father abandoned us. Here's the most important person in my life, and I never met him.

When I was in the group homes, I saw some of the kids being moved into foster homes with the potential for adoption. I remember well asking a social worker if I could find a home, too. I was told I was 'too old' and 'no one wants to adopt a 16-year-old.' I felt hopeless and alone.

You see women struggling to keep it all together while a loved one is in jail. But we don't hear about them or their struggles in a way that resonates with others. Their stories are so compelling. It's as if they are in their own little world and no one else sees them.

We need to ask questions about how we're going to give low-income kids who come from a broken home access to a loving home.

Growing up, I did not have many friends with parents who were together.

I had no father. I had no mother after I was 8.

Mum didn't have shoes. She was the eldest of 10 kids, and some nights they went without food. That's why, from a young age, I wanted to work hard and change that cycle, to provide not only for my parents but my siblings, too.

I felt like I was an outsider. I think what happened to me made me develop this street sense of watching people and working out what made them tick, wondering whether I could trust them or not. I went to a lot of schools along the coast in California, made few friends and stayed with aunts, uncles and grandparents while my folks tried to make ends meet. It was tough. We had no money.

They've had a hard life, the Oasis brothers. They've done really well to be semi-normal. It's always sad when your dirty linen is brought out in public.

My father walked out on us when I was three months old, and my mum, well, she wasn't the driven sort.

I was born in Berlin, and when I was 6, my mom passed. When I was 9, I moved to near Washington, D.C., where I lived with my aunt and uncle. And then at 11, I moved back to Berlin. And then at 16, I got in trouble in school and moved back to the Washington area.

With social distancing restrictions in place, many are finding themselves isolated from their support networks and suddenly navigating parenthood differently than they expected.

My nanny took me in at 12 with my brother, who is a year younger than me. We're the closest brothers you'll ever meet.

I lived in a homeless shelter. That's what I mean when I say I've been in situations where people need help. I don't remember my exact age, but I remember there were two bunk beds and five of us in there: me, my three sisters and my mum.

I very much wanted the perfect nuclear family, and I came from the perfect nuclear family, but like so many people, that isn't the way things have worked out.

Some people don't necessarily have family helping them or anyone, even friends, that care enough to help.

I can understand a family that's imploding. I have experience of that in my own life.

I have said to myself that if I don't find the right person, I think I would probably adopt on my own, because I think I would be a great dad.

My dad was an only child. His father raised him all but alone after his mother abandoned the two of them. He was only three years old.

My mother, Carole Hedges, was my world until she walked out of our house when I was 7. Actually, she didn't walk out. Alcohol walked her out.

I'm very grateful to my adoptive family. My mother sorted my life out.

My mother wasn't any better than my father.