Gay couple father triplets with DNA from both men
Image: Christo and Theo Menelaou with their triplets. Picture: Sky News
A GAY couple from South Africa are believed to be the first in the world to father triplets with DNA from both men.
Theo and Christo Menelaou have become the fathers of three babies – including a set of idential twins – after they provided sperm to fertilise their surrogate’s eggs.
The couple were introduced to their surrogate through infamous South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who was recently convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Both the couple and the surrogate were neighbours of Pistorius.
The twin girls and the boy were delivered prematurely on July 2, despite a gynecologist recommending that the pair terminate two of the pregnancies after the egg split.
“When you’re gay, there’s always the thought that it just may not be possible to be a parent no matter how much you would love to be,” Christo told Sky News.
“It’s very hard to be accepted for adoption and we were told we would always come after heterosexual couples. And then we just never thought we’d ever find a person who would want to be surrogate to a gay couple.”
Congratulations to these fathers. They look a bit tired already, unsurprisingly. Amazing journey they’re on together. Love to the surrogate too, who had to be brave and strong for the new family. They all needed a lot of faith that this family was meant to be.