How many children does Bob Dylan have?

over 9000

4 of his own, but he also adopted Sarah’s daughter. No idea if he also has any illegitimate ones.

Per Wikipedia, he had five and adopted one:
Dylan married Sara Lownds on November 22, 1965; their first child, Jesse Byron Dylan, was born on January 6, 1966. Bob and Sara Dylan had four children: Jesse Byron, Anna Lea, Samuel Isaac Abraham, and Jakob Luke (born December 9, 1969). Dylan also adopted Sara’s daughter from a prior marriage, Maria Lownds (later Dylan), (born October 21, 1961 now married to musician Peter Himmelman). In the 1990s his son Jakob Dylan became well known as the lead singer of the band The Wallflowers. Jesse Dylan is a film director and a successful businessman. Bob and Sara Dylan were divorced on June 29, 1977.[259]
In June 1986, Dylan married his longtime backup singer Carolyn Dennis (often professionally known as Carol Dennis).[260] Their daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, was born on January 31, 1986. The couple divorced in October 1992. Their marriage and child remained a closely guarded secret until the publication of Howard Sounes’ Dylan biography, Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan in 2001.[261]

So that brings the count up to 5+1 (I didn’t know about Desiree). Any more?

@Jack79…Fame + fortune + time on the road = I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if there are more (Dylan may perhaps not even be aware of some). I met a kid in L.A., and heard of another, whose famous rock artist fathers conceived them as they passed through town (that is, of course, reportedly….tho the kid I met had talent and was in a band).

Yeah my story is similar, though I don’t think about it that way. And I certainly wouldn’t like to be associated with my biological father.

Did you know Bob fell in love with Mavis Staples from The Staple Singers?

The Staple Singers performed with the then-acoustic folk musician Bob Dylan and began to record his songs, including the blistering antiwar anthem “Masters of War.” Dylan, for his part, had been a Staple Singers fan ever since he heard their recordings on Nashville AM radio powerhouse WLAC as a 12-year-old in Minnesota. A romance sprang up between Dylan and Mavis Staples, although it was not publicly revealed until many years later. Dylan proposed marriage at one point but was turned down even though Pops Staples backed the union. The two remained friends, and Staples later regretted her decision. “It was really too bad,” she told Harrington. “I often wonder when I see Bobby’s son Jakob, how would our son have looked and how would he have sounded.”

Do you mean children that he knows about?

@aprilsimnel- Who’s Harrington?

@AstroChuck….I’m guessing the interviewer since there is a quote in it.

@AstroChuck – Oops. The whole section was too long, so I only cited the relevant passage. Harrington was the reporter at The Washington Post with whom Ms Staples was talking.

@Jack79…Whatever the circumstances are with your biological father, I suspect your experience of that situation, is responsible for a good deal of your steadfast resolve to be reunited with your daughter. What an absolute delight it will be to one day soon log on to fluther and see a @Jack79 question posted: “Guess who is home?” You have a strong character @Jack79…...keep fighting!

@whatthefluther thanks, though it has not affected me in that way. I only have one father, the one that I’ve always known. My love for my daughter stems from my love for children in general, combined with the fact that my daughter is such a wonderful little person who has given everyone around her so much happiness, yet has had to suffer so much pain in her life through no fault of her own. It’s more of a duty to be there because she needs me, and I’d certainly have given up long ago if I thought she could survive without me. Yes, I was also hoping to post something like that in June, but it could take years if I have to wait for the local authorities to get off their arses