Tragic Details About Stranger Things Star Millie Bobby Brown

From the outside looking in, the life of Millie Bobby Brown seems pretty close to perfect. She has global fame after bringing Eleven to life on "Stranger Things" for five intense seasons. She has fortune, with a net worth of $20 million, thanks to her successful acting endeavors and fashion/beauty brand, Florence by Mills. And she has a loving husband, Jake Bongiovi, and daughter, all by the age of 22.

However, life has certainly thrown its hurdles at Brown. Though she might not be facing Demogorgons, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), and the Upside Down (which did exist before Eleven opened it, despite debate), she's no stranger to dealing with her share of real-world villains. From peers at school who incessantly bullied her, to tabloids and keyboard warriors who critiqued her appearance at a young age, Brown has been the target of many unkind words.

Additionally, just as Eleven's lifelong psychokinetic abilities sometimes pose challenges on a day-to-day basis, a condition that Brown was born with — being deaf in one ear — makes some aspects of her career a bit difficult. And similar to Eleven, who experiences great loss throughout her journey in "Stranger Things," Brown grieved the death of her beloved grandmother, Ruth, who passed away from Alzheimer's disease.

When Millie Bobby Brown was born, she was diagnosed with partial hearing loss. However, as she got older, she became completely deaf in that ear. Though she didn't let this stop her from pursuing her dreams of becoming an actress, it does present some challenges that she must work around. For example, on the set of "Stranger Things," directions often had to be repeated.

"I miss 'action' and 'cut.' I do miss very important things in my life because I can't hear," Brown said on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "I was born with it and they [the doctors] kind of gave up. They said, 'She's broken.'" Even in her personal life, she sometimes doesn't hear what her friends and husband say to her. She said on the podcast, "Things are just very, very, like, muffled underwater to me. I miss a lot of things he [Jake Bongiovi] says. He calls it 'selective hearing.'"

Still, Brown has made it work for the past 20-plus years. She followed her passions and ended up landing the role of Eleven, which couldn't have worked out better. As Brown stepped into her breakout gig, she didn't need to worry about not fully hearing herself perform, as Eleven is almost nonverbal in "Stranger Things" Season 1. Brown said in an interview with Variety, "It's very easy for someone to say, 'I'm mad. I'm sad. I'm angry.' I have to just do it with my face."

Before she became a household name thanks to her work on "Stranger Things," Millie Bobby Brown faced something that many kids and teens can, unfortunately, empathize with — bullying. Brown was victimized by a group of her classmates, with the bullying becoming so anxiety-inducing that she had to move her education to another school.

However, once she achieved a platform to have her voice heard, she became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and spoke publicly about the long-term implications of being a victim. During World Children's Day in 2019, she said, "I remember feeling helpless. School used to be a safe place. Now I was scared to go. I didn't know who I could trust — who I could turn to."

Brown went on to explain how, even when she escaped the in-person bullying at school, it shifted to virtual harassment on social media once she started gaining fame. She said, "It's a terrifying feeling to look at your phone and see that the messages that people are sending you are filled with anger, hate, and even threats ... Bullying and online threats are never harmless. Never just words. It puts children's mental health at risk."

Millie Bobby Brown is obviously no longer the 12-year-old child star that the world met in "Stranger Things" Season 1 ... and the internet has made its disdain of that fact loudly known. Since her teen years, when Brown began trading her youthful, poofy dresses for more mature silhouettes, news articles and social media comments tore her apart, stating that she looked 60 instead of 16. And as the years have passed, the criticism has only gotten worse.

In 2025, while on a press tour for "The Electric State," tabloids churned out numerous articles that spoke negatively about Brown's appearance. From one that claimed she was aging poorly to another that accused her of getting bad plastic surgery, Brown saw and read each one of them, becoming depressed for days because of the harsh commentary. But instead of staying silent, she called the writers out in an Instagram video.

"I grew up in front of the world and for some reason, people can't seem to grow with me. Instead, they act like I'm supposed to stay frozen in time, like I should still look the way I did on 'Stranger Things' Season 1. And because I don't, I'm now a target," Brown said. She added, "The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices, it's disturbing. The fact that some of these articles are written by women? Even worse."

In November 2020, Millie Bobby Brown endured the heartbreaking loss of her beloved grandmother, Ruth, who had Alzheimer's disease. Even more tragic, due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, Brown was unable to see her one last time in person and was instead limited to a tearful "goodbye" via FaceTime.

"Alzheimer's is evil. It's cruel. Taking away someone's ability to remember memories and then how to function like a human being. It's so hard to sit there and watch," she said in an Instagram post (via BBC). "I loved you more than anyone could ever love. I'll tell everyone about you and the lessons you taught me. I'll thank you every day for the laughs and memories you gave me all throughout my life so far."

Brown is certainly keeping Ruth's legacy and memory alive. In 2023, she collaborated with author Kathleen McGurl to release her debut novel, "Nineteen Steps" — a historical fiction novel inspired by the personal stories Ruth shared with her about living through World War II. On "Today," Brown described the book as having "a lot of tragedy ... but there is also a lot of humor and a lot of love, community, and friendship." For Brown, getting her grandmother's stories down on paper was "therapeutic," both for herself and her family as they continued to mourn the loss of Ruth.

Just as "Stranger Things" defined a chapter of life for millions of viewers around the globe, it did the same for Millie Bobby Brown, who, along with the rest of the cast, literally grew up on set. From bringing countless iconic scenes to life to forming lasting friendships with costars like Noah Schnapp, Brown's "Stranger Things" experience was an incredible one. Therefore, when it came time to film the fifth and final season, the emotions were understandably heavy.

In an interview with ET, she recalled the last table read, when everyone learned that Eleven wouldn't be staying in Hawkins and living happily ever after with Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard). Brown was so distraught, she didn't trust herself to operate a vehicle afterward. "I actually couldn't drive home. I had to wait and sit for, like, half an hour and then drive home," she said.

It was particularly bittersweet to part ways with Eleven. Though Brown can now continue to expand her resume with wide-ranging roles, the psychokinetic, Eggo-loving girl was a part of her for nearly a decade. In a touching Instagram video, she read a handwritten letter from a 21-year-old viewer, who explained how "Stranger Things" — and Eleven's journey — became part of his own story and friendships, beginning in primary school and concluding in college. Brown said, "That's really lovely to hear that people have watched her, and loved her, and grown up with her. It makes me feel very connected to the world."