Does a viral image authentically show "Richard Miller" surrounded by "nine Black girls that nobody wanted" 46 years after he adopted them? No, that's not true: According to three AI detectors and Lead Stories' manual review of the picture, it's highly likely to be a product of generative AI. Lead Stories found no reports by credible media organizations confirming the story.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on September 23, 2025. It opened:
In 1979, he adopted nine Black girls that nobody wanted: what they became 46 years later will leave you speechless...
Richard Miller's world fell silent in 1979 when his wife, Anne, passed away. Their home, once full of dreams of having children, was left empty. His friends suggested he remarry, but he held on to Anne's last words:
'Don't let love die with me. Give it somewhere to go.'
On a stormy night, fate led him to St. Mary's Orphanage. There he found nine little girls, all abandoned together, their small cries echoing down the hallways. No one wanted to take them all. Separation was inevitable.
But Richard bent down, his voice breaking, and whispered:
'I'll take them. Each and every one.'
The world thought he was crazy. Social workers doubted him. His relatives mocked him. Neighbors whispered: 'What is a white man doing raising nine Black girls?'
But Richard sold his belongings, worked double shifts, and built nine cribs by hand. Nights became bottles, lullabies, and braiding hair by the kitchen light. The struggles were heavy, but the laughter, Anne's stories, and the girls' growing personalities bound the family together.
Sarah's contagious laugh. Naomi's mischief. Leah's kind heart. One by one, they grew into women--teachers, nurses, mothers--who never forgot the man who chose them.
And now, in 2025, Richard looks at his radiant daughters gathered around the table and sees the miracle Anne asked for.
See what they look like now, 46 years later....full story in first comment:👇👇👇👇👇
This is what an image attached to the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at facebook.com/groups/324968788859904)
The story began circulating on the internet at least a ten days earlier (archived here). It was originally published (archived here) by a website that lacks an About tab, which would typically name the team behind the project.
Three AI detectors -- Hive Moderation, AI or Not and InVid -- said that the picture from the post reviewed in this fact check is very likely to be the product of generative AI:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Hive Moderation)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of AI or Not)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of InVid)
A manual review of the image in question revealed inconsistencies with people's hands, a telltale sign of AI's presence.
One woman's hand had a single knuckle:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of InVid)
The man's thumb blended into the skin above his wrist:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of InVid)
Another woman's thumb appeared to have two nails:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of InVid)
Google's About this image tab (archived here) confirmed that it was an AI image:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of google.com)
A search across Facebook for the keywords "Richard Miller" and "adoption" showed multiple variations of the picture of the supposed adopted children surrounding an older man, but both the man and his "daughters" looked different in those images; the number, age and gender of the adopted children varied as well:
(Image source: Lead Stories gif of Facebook.com)
A search across a database that includes over 1300 U.S. newspapers, magazines, wires and blogs and covers the period between 1980 and the present day didn't yield any reports corroborating the claim from Facebook:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of U.S. Newsstream Collection via Proquest)
Searches across journalistic materials on Google News and Yahoo News (archived here) didn't produce any results, either.
