Celebrities and Surrogacy

The word surrogate means tosubstitute.  Surrogacy is a method of reproduction in which a woman agrees tobecome pregnant and deliver a child for a contracted party also called intendedparents, such as a couple or single individual. In the most traditional form ofsurrogacy the surrogate mother is also the child’s genetic mother; however ingestational surrogacy, the surrogate mother is simply the host of an implanted embryo and is thereforenot related biologically to the child.

There are many reasons intendedparents seek a surrogate in order to have children. Common reasons areinfertility, underlying medical issues that may make pregnancy or delivery riskand age. Read more about contributing factors to pregnancy risks in magazineslike Pregnancy, Fit Pregnancy, Parenting and American Baby.

Besides Sarah Jessica Parker and MatthewBroderick many celebrity couples have chosen surrogacy in the last few years:

Actor Dennis Quaid (formerly Meg Ryan’s husband), 55, and wife Kimberly, 37,became proud parents of twins Thomas and Zoe, who were born in November 2007. Readmore about Dennis Quaid in People magazine.

Joan Lunden (co-host of ABC's Good Morning America morning newsshow from 1980 to1997; an EntertainmentWeekly magazine national viewer poll named her "television'sfavorite morning anchor") and her husband, businessman Jeff Konigsberg, welcomedtwins Kimberly Elise and Jack Andrew via a surrogate in 2005.

ActorsAngela Bassett (best known for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the movie What’sLove Got to Do with It) and husband Courtney B. Vance, welcomed twins –daughter Bronwyn Golden and son Slater Josiah in 2006 via surrogate afterstruggling for seven years to have children.

ActorKatey Sagal (best known for her role on the Fox sitcom Married with Children)and husband Kurt Sutter welcomed their first child together, daughter Esmé LouiseSutter, in January 2007 via surrogate. The couple's new daughter joined oldersiblings Sarah and Jackson, Sagal's children from a previous marriage.

Alsoin Hollywood, there are many fictional surrogate situations in recent movie andTV shows. And just like in real life, Hollywood’s fictional characters have amyriad of reasons (infertility to blackmail) for choosing surrogacy.  

Inthe 2008 film Baby Mama (starringTina Fey and Amy Poehler,) a successful single business woman (Fey) hires awoman to carry a child via surrogate because she discovers she has fertilityissues.  In 2007 the character ChristinaMcKinney in TV’s Ugly Bettyacted as a surrogate for character Wilhelmina Slater. Also, in the fourthseason of the popular sitcom Friends, which aired in 1997, the character PhoebeBuffay was a gestational surrogate mother for her brother and famouslydelivered triplets; the storyline was written around actor Lisa Kudrow’s reallife pregnancy. Read more about movies and TV shows featuring surrogates inEntertainment Weekly magazine.