When Steve Harvey married Marjorie Bridges in 2007, the wedding joined more than two people. It brought together seven children from their previous relationships and began the difficult work of turning two households into one family.
Harvey already had four children: twin daughters Brandi and Karli, and sons Broderick Jr. and Wynton. Marjorie was the mother of Morgan, Jason and Lori. After the marriage, Steve adopted Marjorie’s three children, who took the Harvey name.
But the language used inside the family mattered to him just as much as the legal relationship.
“She is my daughter”
In September 2009, Harvey spoke about blended families during a segment on ABC’s Good Morning America. He explained that he and Marjorie chose not to use the word “stepchildren” in their home.
Harvey said he did not want any of the children to feel separated or less fully included when he introduced them. Referring to Lori, the youngest of Marjorie’s three children, he made the relationship unmistakable.
“She is my daughter,” Harvey said, according to ABC News’ contemporaneous report.
The statement was short, but it captured the rule the Harveys were trying to establish. Biology and family history would not determine who belonged more.
- 2007Year Steve and Marjorie married
- 7Children in their blended family
- 4Steve’s children from earlier marriages
- 3Marjorie’s children adopted by Steve
Source: ABC News, Parade and Us Weekly
How the family of seven came together
Steve’s four biological children came from his first two marriages. He shares Brandi, Karli and Broderick Jr. with his first wife, Marcia Harvey, and Wynton with his second wife, Mary Shackelford.
Marjorie brought Morgan, Jason and Lori into the marriage. Parade, Us Weekly and other established entertainment publications report that Steve adopted all three after the couple married in June 2007.
The result was a family of seven children with different ages, histories and relationships to the newly married couple.
Harvey’s 2009 ABC appearance did not pretend that combining families was effortless. He described practical choices the family made to help the children form relationships, including pairing older children in ways that gave them shared privileges and responsibilities.
That detail matters because a loving intention does not erase the adjustments children face when family roles change.
Becoming one family took work
Years later, Harvey acknowledged that some of the children initially opposed his marriage to Marjorie.
In a conversation discussed by BET, he recalled that Lori and Morgan and his twin daughters, Brandi and Karli, did not immediately connect. Some urged the couple to delay the wedding.
The disclosure adds useful context to the family’s public image. Their unity was not automatic. It developed through clear expectations, time and the decision by Steve and Marjorie to treat the marriage as the foundation of a single household.
Harvey’s refusal to use the word “step” was part of that approach. It did not deny the children’s histories or biological relationships. It was his way of signaling that every child would be treated as a full member of the family.
Morgan, Jason and Lori built lives of their own
All seven Harvey children are now adults.
Morgan has worked as a chef, cookbook author and food and lifestyle creator. Jason entered fashion and founded his own label. Lori became a model and entrepreneur, building a public career that has often placed her in entertainment headlines.
Steve has continued to refer to Lori publicly as his daughter. His comments about her career and relationships reflect the familiar mixture of protectiveness, humor and concern associated with a father discussing an adult child.
That consistency gives the 2009 statement added weight. “She is my daughter” was not only a phrase used during a television discussion about blended families. It became the way he continued to describe their relationship.
- June 2007Steve and Marjorie marryTheir marriage brings together seven children from previous relationships.
- After the marriageSteve adopts Morgan, Jason and LoriMarjorie’s three children take the Harvey family name.
- September 2009Harvey discusses blended families on GMAHe explains why the household does not use the term “stepchildren” and says of Lori, “She is my daughter.”
- Years laterHarvey acknowledges the early challengesHe says some of the children initially struggled with the marriage and the process of combining the two families.
Belonging was the point
The Harvey family’s experience does not provide a universal formula for blended families. Every adoption and remarriage involves different relationships, legal circumstances and emotional needs.
What their story does show is the importance of making belonging explicit.
Steve and Marjorie could not erase the complexity that came with combining two families. They could decide, however, that no child would be introduced as secondary. They could create shared expectations and repeat, through both words and actions, that all seven belonged.
For Harvey, the clearest expression of that choice required only four words: “She is my daughter.”