18 celebrities who have opened up about choosing surrogacy
An increasingly popular, and increasingly visible, option for individuals and couples looking to have kids is gestational surrogacy. Though the procedures and arrangements have been around since the ’80s, it’s an intensive and expensive process, making it out of reach for many. But in Hollywood, more and more celebrities are opening up about the decision to use a surrogate, whether for medical reasons or practical ones. (Many same-sex couples, for instance, choose surrogacy.)
In the surrogacy process, sperm and eggs from the parents and/or donors are used to create embryos, which are then implanted in the gestational carrier via in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The carrier is typically not the egg provider, so while they may birth the child, they are not biological parents.
If you’re thinking of exploring surrogacy, discuss all the legal, financial, and other logistical aspects with your doctor as well as the potential emotional effects. And scroll through this slideshow of celebrities who have gone the surrogacy route and ended up with babies they love.
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Paris Hilton and Carter Reum
Paris Hilton and her husband, Carter Reum, wasted no time in trying to get pregnant, starting IVF shortly after tying the knot. Hilton’s bestie Kim Kardashian advised her about the IVF process and the surrogacy process, the heiress revealed on her podcast. Hilton and Reum welcomed baby boy Phoenix via surrogacy in January 2023, sharing exclusive pictures with GLAMOUR in our coverstory.
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
Kardashian suffered from placenta accreta during her pregnancy with daughter North, and the delivery left a hole in Kardashian’s uterus, she said, making her unable to get pregnant again. She used IVF to implant the embryo that became Saint but suffered from pre-eclampsia, as she had with North. With two embryos left, Kim’s doctors told her she should not get pregnant again, so she and then husband Kanye opted to use surrogacy to expand their family two more times, an experience Kim has spoken positively and candidly about. She mentioned meeting her surrogate and her surrogate’s husband before starting the process, and using a therapist to facilitate communication.
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Rebel Wilson
Announcing the birth of her daughter, Royce, on Instagram in November 2022, Wilson wrote, “Beyond proud to announce the birth of my first child, Royce Lillian, born this past week via surrogate…I am forever grateful to everyone who has been involved, (you know who you are), this has been years in the making…but particularly wanted to thank my gorgeous surrogate who carried her and birthed her with such grace and care. Thank you for helping me start my own family, it’s an amazing gift. The BEST gift!!”
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Khloé Kardashian and Tristan Thompson
Kardashian carried and delivered the couple’s first child, a daughter named True. Her second child with Thompson was welcomed via surrogate, a process she says her sister Kim helped her through. “If it wasn’t for Kimberly, I definitely don’t think I would have been as comfortable,” she shared. “I wouldn’t have been aware, I wouldn’t have known as much.” Even so, Khloé said her experience with surrogacy wasn’t as “comfortable” as her sister’s because “I’m such a control freak.”
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Andy Cohen
The Bravo exec has a son and a daughter, delivered via different surrogates, who are “biological siblings,” Cohen revealed, suggesting that he used the same egg donor for all his embryos. He also added that he still has two or three embryos left, and that if his kids grow up and want to “raise their siblings,” they can.
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Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung
After welcoming twin boys, Jamie Chung revealed the reason she and husband Bryan Greenberg chose surrogacy: “I was terrified of becoming pregnant,” she revealed. “I was terrified of putting my life on hold for two-plus years. In my industry, it feels like you’re easily forgotten if you don’t work within the next month of your last job. Things are so quickly paced in what we do. So it’s a compromise that we made together as a couple.”
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Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra
Chopra Jonas explained that using a surrogate to bring daughter Malti into the world was a “necessary step” because of “medical complications.”
“I’m so grateful I was in a position where I could do this,” she said. “Our surrogate was so generous, kind, lovely and funny, and she took care of this precious gift for us for six months.”
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Alec and Hilaria Baldwin
Mere months after Hilaria delivered the couple’s sixth child, they welcomed their seventh, a daughter, via surrogate. Mrs. Baldwin later opened up about the experience on her podcast and wrote on Instagram, “Some of the best advice I was given when considering surrogacy was to be open and talk about it. ‘People stop talking about things they are ashamed of…and this is a beautiful journey where many people work so hard to bring a soul into the world.’”
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Kristen Wiig and Avi Rothman
Wiig and Rothman spent three years in an “IVF haze” before turning to surrogacy to have their twin boys. “So many things were bittersweet,” the famously private Wiig revealed. “I was over the moon feeling them kick for the first time, but then I would get in my head and ask myself all these questions, like, ‘Why couldn’t I do this?’ At the same time I would tell myself it didn’t matter. She was giving us the greatest gift, and I just wanted them to get here.”
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Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union
Union wrote extensively about her motherhood journey in her memoir, from her attempts to get pregnant via IVF to “countless” miscarriages, and how her husband ultimately persuaded her to use a surrogate they found named Natalie. She was brutally honest about the toll of this decision, writing, “I will always wonder if [my daughter] would love me more if I had carried her. Would our bond be even tighter? I will never know what it would have been like to carry this rockstar inside me.… We met as strangers, the sound of my voice and my heartbeat foreign to her. It’s a pain that has dimmed but remains present in my fears that I was not, and never will be, enough.”
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Anderson Cooper
Cooper is coparenting two sons, both of whom arrived via surrogate, with his former partner and current best friend. When announcing the birth of his second boy, Cooper said of the carrier, “The sacrifices she and her family, her entire family, made and the love they gave Sebastian this past year has been extraordinary…. We will never forget the kindness and all of her and her family and all surrogates who help bring new life and new love into the world.”
- Bruce Glikas
Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker
Parker was pregnant with son James during the initial run of Sex and the City, but to expand their family, she and husband Broderick turned to surrogacy. “It would be odd to have made this choice if I was able to, you know, have successful pregnancies since my son’s birth,” Parker revealed in 2009. Sadly, surrogacy was not as well understood at the time, and not only was the woman carrying the couple’s twin girls identified, she was chased and harassed by the tabloids.
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Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka
Harris explained that he and husband Burtka used an anonymous egg donor for both of their twins, and implanted their surrogate with two embryos—one created with Burtka’s sperm, the other with Harris’s. They claim they don’t know who is biologically whose. (Though they have a theory.)
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Jordana Brewster
After multiple rounds of IVF, Brewster and her then husband turned to surrogacy, though the actor explained that she initially felt ashamed and didn’t want to take maternity leave. Now mom to two sons, Brewster recalled that she was vocal about her issues conceiving to dispel any thought that “because I was young and an actress that I was using a surrogate to avoid gaining weight,” she said in 2021.
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Dennis and Kimberly Quaid
The pair welcomed twins after Kimberly suffered “multiple miscarriages,” according to a source. “And then they found the surrogate. She had a miscarriage, as well, so they tried so hard to have these children.”
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Jimmy Fallon and Nancy Juvonen
“My wife and I had been trying a while to have a baby. We tried a bunch of things—so we had a surrogate,” the Tonight Show host revealed following the birth of his daughter Winnie Rose. The couple used surrogacy again to have their second daughter, Frances Cole.
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Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent
Berkus and Brent used surrogates to carry both of their children, Poppy and Oscar, and described having a close relationship with the women they chose. “We see it as a very beautiful experience,” Berkus said in 2018.
