Entertainment
10 Celebs Who Opted for Surrogacy
Having a family means having your own children, creating or making someone that is a part of you, someone that has your DNA. It’s a miraculous thing, some even say it’s a gift. There are a lot of couples that are not blessed or lucky to receive this gift. No matter how hard they try, it seems impossible to them. Yet, there are some who make the whole science and miracle of conceiving quite easy. You put one and the other together and you solve a problem, the answer is surrogacy. In this day and age, surrogacy is quite common, but still very expensive. That’s why we always hear celebrities are going through with it, and here’s ten of them.
10. Courteney Cox
One of the six members of the most globally-known and loved TV shows ever, Friends is Courteney Cox. Everybody knew her as Monica, Ross’s (David Schwimmer) younger sister, the O.C. of the group. That is not a medical term, that one means Obsessed with Cleanliness. This was what put Courteney on the map. She was relatively an unknown before Friends, working on small roles in various TV shows and some films. Her most famous ones were Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Bedtime Stories, and the Scream series. After Friends, her other successful TV show was Cougar Town. As an ensemble, they won a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance for Friends.
Courteney Cox is engaged to Snow Patrol member Johnny McDaid. Her ex-husband was actor David Arquette. She had trouble conceiving in both relationships. With David Arquette, they tried countless times and ended up doing it via IVF or in vitro fertilization. They had a daughter, her name is Coco. This happened when Courteney was 39 years old. Now that she is in her early fifties, she and Johnny McDaid are trying to have their own family and Courteney is going to do it via surrogacy.
9. Kim Kardashian
Kimberly Kardashian West is no actress, but her influence is so strong and real that she was voted as one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2015. She is a socialite and a reality TV personality. People knew her first as Paris Hilton’s close friend and stylist. A sex tape and a reality show later, she married rapper Kanye West. While they were dating, her divorce with NBA cager and then husband, Kris Humphries is still being finalized. Before Humphries, she was married to Damon Thomas, an R&B record producer.
Kim and Kanye have three children. The first is a girl named North and the second is a boy named Saint. Their third is another girl named Chicago but pronounced Shy-cago. North and Saint were both conceived naturally. Chicago was conceived through surrogacy. Kim has had high-risk pregnancies and if you are watching their reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, you are well aware of these troubles. At 37 years old, Kim was advised of the higher risk to her and the baby if she carries the child, this is why they decided to have a surrogate.
8. Angela Bassett
Tina Turner, Katherine Jackson, Betty Shabazz, and Rosa Parks. These women are all real people. History’s most famous and some of the strongest women all portrayed by actress Angela Bassett. Just like these women she portrayed, Angela was a Harlem kid, born and raised in New York. Her family was poor, they relocated a number of times in her childhood and she and her sister were mostly raised by a civil servant mother. Angela’s husband is Courtney B. Vance, they first met back in 1980. Angela’s acting awards include a Golden Globe Best Actress (What’s Love Got To Do With It) and a Best Actress Oscar nomination for the same film.
Angela and Courtney got married in 1997 and about a year later decided to extend their family. It was a journey filled with hope, failed expectations, countless other second chances, and resiliency. They got all the help they can get from fertility doctors, in vitro specialists, treatments, medications, and countless shots. They eventually went the surrogacy route when a friend told them they were pregnant through it. Their children were born in 2006, fraternal twins Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah.
7. Jordana Brewster
Jordana Brewster was born in Panama by a Brazilian swimsuit model mother and an American investment banker father. She then spent her early childhood in the United Kingdom and then in Brazil. She then moved to America for her education and graduated from Yale University in 2003. She had a nice film career (had because her last was back in 2015) over the past 30 years, her most famous is, of course, and will always be the Fast and Furious franchise. There she played Mia, Vin Diesel’s character’s sister, and Paul Walker’s character’s main squeeze. Jordana’s husband is film producer Andrew Form, whom she met in the movie they were doing together, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. They got married in 2007.
Jordana and Andrew have two sons, Julian (born in 2013) and Rowan (born in 2016). Both children were born through gestational surrogacy. In 2012, she decided on surrogacy after learning about all the other possible options she has. She had serious doubts and called the whole thing a big leap of faith. But after the first baby (Julian) they went through another surrogacy. Maybe they would go for a third and hope for a girl because in a recent interview she said she wanted two to three children.
6. Jimmy Fallon
At age 43, Jimmy Fallon still really looks like a kid. That’s mostly his charisma and outgoing personality. This is also the reason he was chosen as Jay Leno’s successor for The Tonight Show, a gig that he is doing presently. His film was okay, he’s starred in comedies alongside Queen Latifah (Taxi, 2004), Drew Barrymore (Fever Pitch, 2005), and Lucy Liu (The Year of Getting To Know Us, 2008). Before The Tonight Show, Jimmy was a regular on Saturday Night Live for six years. Then his own talk show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon for five years.
Jimmy’s wife is film producer Nancy Juvonen. Nancy and Jimmy decided to keep their surrogacy a secret, they were the only people who knew about it. Maybe this is not their reason, but the general public kinds of take the news about celebrities having babies through these ways with contempt, disdain, or scorn. It’s mainly due to the fact that these methods are really very expensive and the only people that can afford them are rich ones, particularly celebrities. True, money is no object to celebrities, but it does not mean that the money also made all the emotional, mental and physical toll a couple goes through trying and not getting it, go away. Their two daughters’ names are Winnie and Frances Cole. They named their first-born Winnie because she was a “win” for the couple.
5. Robert De Niro
Everybody knows who Robert De Niro is. He’s most fun to watch playing those mafioso, good guy, mobster roles. Here’s the spread: Al Capone in The Untouchables, young Don Corleone in The Godfather Part II, Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas, Sam Rothstein in Casino, Johnny Boy in Mean Streets, and Noodles in Once Upon a Time in America, to name a few. But he also is very good at every character there is. He showed his versatility in his portrayals in the films: Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, Awakenings, Heat, Marvin’s Room, Analyze This, Meet the Parents, and most recently, The Intern, and Dirty Grandpa.
Robert’s film career is a who’s who of favorite characters, famous lines, and the budding young actor’s go-to scene when performing an exercise in acting school. He’s also shown his comedic chops, and now his kind-of-geriatric roles. His next projects include The War with Grandpa (with Christopher Walken) and The Irishman (with Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel), a long-awaited reunion with director Martin Scorsese.
Robert and wife Grace Hightower renewed their vows in 2004, a small event with friends and family, and now their relationship is stronger than ever. Their second child, Helen Grace was born via surrogate. He also has 16-year old surrogate twins with his ex Toukie Smith.
4. Neil Patrick Harris
Only a handful of actors can personify two different characters and both be warmly embraced, accepted, and even loved, by the people. Neil Patrick Harris is one of them. His portrayal of ridiculously smart and ridiculously young doctor Doogie Howser was a worldwide phenomenon. This show ran from 1989 to 1993. His other character was the best buddy, wait for it, Barney Stinson, in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. These two shows won various awards in Primetime Emmys, People’s Choice, and Emmy Awards. Neil’s film career was not as illustrious but he had his shining moments in films like Starship Troopers, The Smurfs, and Gone Girl. His current projects include Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events and NBC game show Genius Junior.
Neil is married to actor and professional chef David Burtka. Neil and David’s surrogacy journey is a medical marvel. They had to get an egg donor and a surrogate mother to put everything into. There were percentages, but they are usually not in their favor. But in their case, everything took. Two embryos, one for each partner, and both developed and grew into fraternal twins. Their names are Gideon Scott and Harper Grace. Talk about one in a million, huh.
3. Tyra Banks
Tyra started her career as a model at fifteen. She started being a precious commodity in the fashion world in 1991, her first runway season. She then was on the cover of magazines like Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair. She modeled for Givenchy, YSL, Chanel, CK, Perry Ellis, Armani, Hilfiger, and Oscar de la Renta. She was the first African-American woman in the in the cover of GQ and Victoria’s Secret catalog. She then appeared in TV and movies, most notably in Coyote Ugly and Halloween: Resurrection. Her famous TV shows were the talk show Tyra Banks Show and the reality show America’s Next Top Model. She is currently a host in the reality show America’s Got Talent.
Just like the celebrities on this list, and couples all over the world trying to have families, Tyra Banks had her ups and downs trying in vitro fertilization. But as she got older, the chances of it happening have gone slimmer. At 42 years of age, she had her first baby with Erik Asla via surrogacy. They are reportedly having a second baby, Tyra always wanted two children, hopefully, they have a baby girl this time around. Their baby boy’s name is York.
2. Elton John
Knighted in 1998, Sir Elton Hercules John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight. He was knighted because of his very moving song dedicated to Princess Diana, Candle in the Wind, which he sang during the princess’s funeral. Well, not just that! He was given the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to the British pop music and his charitable work in raising money for the benefit of Aids.
He is a talented composer, pianist, and singer. His top works include Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, Mama Can’t Buy You Love, Blue Eyes, Can You Feel The Love Tonight, and Something About The Way You Look Tonight. He is married to director David Furnish.
Established in 1980 and based in California, the Center for Surrogate Parenting had Elton and David as clients. The center catered to its first gay couple back in 1989, Elton and David had theirs in 2011. It was a bouncing baby boy named Zachary. Controversy soon followed as feminists expressed their views on the fact that Elton put in David as the mother of Zachary. They then had another baby with the CSP, the same surrogate mother, and the same egg donor. Their second baby was named Elijah.
1. Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker had a big family with seven siblings. She was born in Ohio and then later moved to New York where she learned singing and ballet. She got her big break as the lead role in in the Broadway musical Annie (1977-1981) and then her show business career flourished. She appeared in films like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with Helen Hunt, Honeymoon Vegas opposite Nicolas Cage, and Mars Attacks! Through these years she was also dating Robert Downey, Jr. Then in 1998, the role she was meant to play came and cemented her career and transformed her into the real life Carrie Bradshaw. The series went on for six amazing seasons in HBO and had two feature films as well.
Sarah’s husband is actor Matthew Broderick, they have been together since 1997. Sarah shared in an interview that after she gave birth to her son James Wilkie, she had problems getting pregnant. They opted for surrogacy as a last option, because she and Matthew really wanted to have a bigger family. In 2009, they announced to the world that they are expecting twin
daughters through surrogacy. Young James now has two sisters, Tabitha and Marion.