The Reason Joni Mitchell Gave Her Daughter Up For Adoption

While the 1960s were a time of cultural revolution, it still wasn’t a period friendly to unwed single mothers. In a 1997 article published by McClean’s (via JoniMitchell.com’s Library of Articles), Joni Mitchell was not only single when she was pregnant with her daughter, but she had no money to her name. Mitchell’s ex Brad MacMath had gone off to California and she was too ashamed to turn to her parents. The singer-songwriter gave up her baby, who ended up being adopted by David and Ida Gibb, who named her Kilauren Gibb.

Mitchell opened up about how her pregnancy made her turn from art to music in a 2017 interview. “I got pregnant. I was the only virgin in art school, right? You’ve been holding onto this precious thing and I just kind of stupidly let it go,” she recalled. “At the time I had her, I was destitute … There was no way I could take her out of the hospital into a blizzard with no job, no roof over my head. There was no way I could take her, and there weren’t even foster homes available at that time.” Miraculously, Mitchell and Kilauren managed to find each other after 32 years and while the reunion was happy, their relationship wasn’t always smooth sailing.