In recent years, a growing number of celebrities have turned to surrogacy to realize their dreams of starting — or growing — their family. There are many factors that can lead stars down this path, whether it’s fertility struggles, a difficult pregnancy history, health issues, their age, or being single or in a same-sex relationship. Some stars have even admitted to using a surrogate because they didn’t want to pause their careers or put their body through a pregnancy.
Whatever the reason, one thing is universal: The experience is a beautiful and joyous one (how could it not be when one person is helping another person bring new life into the world?). But it can also stir up a complicated mix of emotions and worries for the would-be parents.
A number of celebrities — from Khloé Kardashian to Anderson Cooper — have talked candidly about their surrogacy experience, opening up about both the rewarding and more challenging aspects of it. Here, 15 of them share their stories.
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Rebel Wilson
Andy Cohen
Bravo host Andy Cohen, who welcomed two children via surrogate, explained to Today‘s Hoda Kotb why he chose surrogacy over adoption when he decided to start a family on his own at age 50. After noting that it’s illegal for gay people like himself to adopt in certain places, he said using a surrogate seemed like the best route for him.
“I was fortunate to have the means to be able to. It can be expensive and complicated,” he told Hoda in 2019. “And I just said, ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to try to do this,’ and I did. It’s incredible to me as I’ve now learned that surrogacy is illegal in many states and I don’t understand why.”
After the birth of his daughter in 2022, he even gave a public shout-out to his surrogate. “Thank you to my rock star surrogate (ALL surrogates are rock stars, by the way) and everyone who helped make this miracle happen,” he wrote on Instagram.
Sarah Jessica Parker
Following the birth of her son, James, Sarah Jessica Parker turned to surrogacy when she was unable to get pregnant again. “We’ve been trying to expand our family for a number of years, and we actually have explored a variety of ways of doing so,” she told Access Hollywood after news broke in 2019 that she had twins on the way (daughters Tabitha and Marion) via a surrogate. “This was one of the things we discussed with seriousness that had real possibilities for us.”
But what should have been a beautiful experience sadly was a rocky one for Sarah after her surrogate’s identity was revealed publicly. “The most unsavory things have been done,” she said. “She’s had her phone hacked, her personal computer information hacked, she’s had threats against her and true harassment.”
Kim Kardashian
After giving birth to her oldest two children, North and Saint, doctors told Kim Kardashian — who suffered from both preeclampsia and placenta accreta — that it would be dangerous for her to attempt another pregnancy. Though she was initially reluctant to use a surrogate, conversations with then-husband Kanye West helped sway her.
“After talking to Kanye, I think that I always knew that surrogacy was an option, but I didn’t think it was that realistic of an option. Now I feel like that’s my reality,” she said during an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Kim and Kanye would go on to add daughter Chicago and son Psalm to their family with the help of a gestational carrier.
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris’ surrogacy process has an interesting twist. When his twins, Harper and Gideon, were conceived via IVF (an egg donor and a surrogate were used), he and husband David Burtka both contributed their sperm to fertilize the eggs. “We inserted one of my sperm and one of David’s sperm into two eggs with the hope that they would both take, just because we both wanted to be dads biologically, and both took miraculously,” Neil explained in a 2014 interview with Barbara Walters.
But neither he nor David knows which child is biologically theirs. “I have no interest in [finding out]. We are their parents, and I love them implicitly,” Neil insisted.
Tyra Banks
A brutal battle with infertility ultimately led supermodel Tyra Banks to choose surrogacy. The former Dancing With the Stars host spent more than a year doing seven back-to-back IVF cycles that all failed, and it took a huge toll on her physical and mental health. It didn’t help that people were constantly pestering her about when she was going to have a baby.
“I’m so tired of seeing on my social media, ‘Why don’t you have kids? Why don’t you have kids?’ You don’t know what I’m going through — you have no idea,” she said on her talk show FABLife in 2015.
A surrogate helped her bring her son, York, into the world in 2016, and Tyra made sure to give her a special shout-out on Instagram: “As we thank the angel of a woman who carried our miracle baby boy for us, we pray for everyone who struggles to reach this joyous milestone.”
Jordana Brewster
Fast & Furious star Jordana Brewster felt confident in her decision to use a surrogate for both of her sons, but was a bit uncomfortable sharing the news publicly. “But I didn’t really have a choice about being open since it was obvious I wasn’t pregnant,” she told Yahoo Parenting in 2015. “For me, it wasn’t a choice; I needed to use a surrogate. But I didn’t feel judged. It’s more like I felt awkward.”
She also admitted to feeling a little FOMO because she couldn’t experience being pregnant with her boys. “Sometimes I feel a little left out when other moms talk about what their birth experience was like, and I feel the loss of not having carried or having been able to carry,” she said, touching on a common emotion for moms who use surrogates.
