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1Gigi Hadid Celebrates Her 30th Birthday with Boyfriend Bradley Cooper at Star-Studded Party
Adam Sandler and his wife, Jackie, share two daughters: Sadie and Sunny
Stephanie Kaloi is a contributing writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. She has also written about entertainment news for a number of outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, Parade and LittleThings.
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Adam Sandler is a girl dad.
The actor and his wife, Jackie Sandler, first became parents in 2006 with the arrival of Sadie.
"[Fatherhood's] fun. It's great," he said shortly after his first daughter was born. "I love that kid … I was dying to do it."
Sadie's little sister, Sunny, joined the family in late 2008, and since then, the Sandlers have kept a low profile when it comes to their home life.
"My kids give me the most joy, but there are life adjustments," Adam told the HuffPost in 2018. "I don't go out to meet anyone after 9:30 at night. I eat dinner at 6 or 7. If someone makes me stay out until 10:30 at night, I'm angry the entire next day because I'm exhausted."
Sadie and Sunny have appeared in several of their father's films over the years, including his 2020 Netflix movie, Hubie Halloween. But it wasn't until 2023 that they landed starring roles.
Netflix's You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah follows seventh-grade student Stacy (Sunny) as she plans her dream bat mitzvah amid a rift with her best friend, while her mom (Idina Menzel) and sister (real-life sibling Sadie) encourage her to make peace. To round out the family affair, the movie also stars Adam as Stacy's father and Jackie as a woman named Gabi.
As an A-list actor in Hollywood, Adam can get tickets to just about anything. In October 2023, he took his daughters to the Los Angeles premiere of Taylor Swift's concert film, and following the screening, the pop star took photos with Sadie and Sunny.
When appearing on the New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce podcast, Sandler emphasized how much that outing meant to his kids. "What a girl. Dude, she means so much to our house,” he said, adding that his family is "high-fiving" when they see footage of Kelce and Swift out together.
In August 2024, Adam told PEOPLE his daughters have been looking out for his health the way he did with his dad.
“You go, ‘Man, I want this guy around,’ so I used to scream at my dad to quit smoking, and my kids scream at me to just calm down and try to eat a little more like a normal person," he said.
From their early years out of the spotlight to their starring Netflix roles, here's everything to know about Adam and Jackie Sandler's two daughters, Sadie and Sunny.
Adam and Jackie welcomed their first daughter, Sadie Madison Sandler, on May 6, 2006. Shortly after her arrival, the comedian joked to reporters about his newborn's lack of focusing skills. "Every time I think the kid likes me [while I'm playing with and talking to her], I'm like, 'Oh, she's staring at my forehead," he cracked.
When Sadie was 14 months old, her dad told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show that he had "dethroned" Jackie as the little girl's favorite person. "We're very tight with this child – everything we do is about the kid, and the kid now all of the sudden worships me. It was my wife the whole time and then the last month or two, it's all Sandler. It's like anything I do, the kid wants to do," he joked.
At a young age, Sadie started accompanying her father on set, making her first on-screen appearance in his 2008 movie, You Don't Mess with the Zohan. That same year, she had a small role in Adam's film Bedtime Stories, in which the actor plays an uncle whose tall bedtime tales stir up trouble for his niece and nephew. While promoting the movie, Adam admitted that the plot hit a little close to home, as his nightly bedtime story ritual often had a reverse effect on Sadie.
"I'm not great at the bedtime stories," he said. "The bedtime stories are supposed to put the kid to sleep, [but] my kid gets riled up."
Sadie's bedtime routine was again a topic of conversation for her father during a 2008 appearance on Live with Regis and Kelly, where the actor revealed that she was the one to tell him that he was about to be a father of two.
"I came home at night and [Jackie] kept saying 'Sadie wants to give you a present,' and normally Sadie falls asleep around 8. It was like quarter of 9 and I just got back from working," he recalled.
"And then Sadie hands me a little something, like a gift. And I was 'Aww, that's nice Sadie, thank you.' And then Jackie kept saying 'Open it up, open it up.' And I open it up and it was one of those pregnancy [tests] and I was like 'Woowww.' "
In 2019, Adam spoke about watching Sadie grow up, telling Ellen DeGeneres that listening to his almost teenage daughter talk about boys was tough.
"You know, I drive around with [her and] her friends and I hear them talking about boys now … it's amazing, the feelings I had about the same boys five years ago. When they would mention the kid's name, I'd be like, 'I love that kid.' Now, I get very jumpy," he joked.
When it came time for Sadie's bat mitzvah in 2019, Adam pulled some serious strings to make his daughter's big day extra memorable, including arranging a special performance from Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine.
Adam explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live that he asked Levine by text, saying, "I text him, 'I'm sorry to do this to you, my kid's getting bat mitzvahed Saturday night. Would you mind coming and singing a few tunes? It would be incredible.' "
Levine agreed and brought along fellow Maroon 5 bandmate James Valentine to play a few hits at the party. "It was the coolest thing, man," Adam told Kimmel. As for Sadie's reaction to the performance? "Oh, she hugged me so much, my Sadie," he said.
In February 2024, Sadie joined her parents at an NBA game. The trio sat courtside as they watched the Los Angeles Lakers face off against the Denver Nuggets.
Adam and Jackie welcomed their second daughter, Sunny Madeline Sandler, on Nov. 2, 2008. Adam announced Sunny's birth on his website, calling the family's latest addition "beautiful" and adding that "everyone is happy and healthy."
Like her older sister, Sunny has appeared in several of her father's movies, including Grown Ups, Blended and Murder Mystery. After accumulating over a dozen acting credits from Adam's projects, however, it appears that both Sunny and Sadie are ready to strike out on their own.
"I hear sometimes in the house, 'I wanna be in a movie' and I say, 'You are, you were in this, this and this' and they go, 'Not yours.' I go, 'Oh, Daddy's not good enough!' " Adam said on The Drew Barrymore Show. "They wanna do their own thing one day."
In addition to her acting roles, Sunny also has a passion for singing. In June 2019, she performed a song from The Greatest Showman onstage during one of Adam's comedy shows. After a sweet introduction from her father, Sunny belted out "A Million Dreams," earning her a huge applause and a standing ovation from the crowd.
Sunny accompanied her dad onstage again that October during a charity performance, where she and Sadie joined Adam in singing a rendition of Taylor Swift's "Lover," which the comedian described as "one of their favorite songs."
"We're gonna sing a song! They've been so excited and nervous, but we're gonna sing a song," Adam told the crowd. "They saw Taylor Swift last night, we were at Saturday Night Live. That was a big night, man. Taylor Swift — holy s—."
After the girls drew a standing ovation, Adam thanked the crowd for "being so nice to them," adding, "They were dying to be a part it. Girls, you did great! Sounded awesome — confident and cool. I love you, now get out of here."
For Sunny's bat mitzvah in May 2022, Adam again turned to his celebrity friends to make the party extra special. The star-studded bash was attended by his previous costars Jennifer Aniston and Taylor Lautner, and included performances from Charlie Puth and Halsey.
Halsey later discussed the party during an appearance on The Tonight Show. "First of all, it was the craziest bat mitzvah I've ever seen in my life," the singer told Jimmy Fallon. "As you would expect from Adam Sandler. It was like… I mean, it was like Coachella."
Sunny was seemingly pleased by the party's A-list guest list — and the attention that came with it. After a TikTok user shared a video from the bash, which showed several celebrity attendees posing with a giant Smarties candy package, Sunny summed up the event with a one-worded comment: "Viral."
Gilbert Flores/Variety
A few months later, Sunny and her sister had another viral moment when their father received the Film Tribute Award at the 2022 Gotham Awards. Instead of going the traditional route, he allowed his daughters to write his acceptance speech.
"They were like, 'Can we write your speech so you've got something to say?' I said, 'Absolutely! It would be nice to see you doing something other than watching YouTube or going to f------ Lululemon every f------ weekend,' " Adam teased on stage before going on to read the speech his girls prepared for him, which included several hilarious jabs at their father.
The proud dad ended his speech on a sentimental note, thanking his wife and daughters for being a part of his journey.
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