Millionaire gay fathers celebrate arrival of twins with triple christening

Millionaire gay fathers celebrate arrival of twins with triple christening

A gay couple that made legal history when they fathered twins are celebrating the arrival of their fourth and fifth children.

Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow will be joined by more than 150 people at a christening service for five-month-old twins Dallas and Jasper tomorrow.

The millionaire couple, both businessmen in their 40s, said the boys were born to a surrogate mother in California in February, and would be christened at St John the Baptist Church in Danbury

They said surrogate mother Rosalind Bellamy and the egg donor - 'up-and-coming Russian supermodel' Alexandra Cooper-Strash - would be among guests.

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow said he and his partner had 'angered church groups over the years'. But he added: 'It is important for us to have the children all christened.

'As a Christian family we feel that it is important for our children to be given the opportunity to follow the teachings of the church and if they decide when they are older not to, then that is their choice.'

The Drewitt-Barlows, from Danbury, Essex, first hit the headlines in 1999 when they travelled to the U.S. and used donated eggs and a surrogate mother to become fathers to twins Aspen and Saffron, now ten.

Following a ruling by an American court, they became the first British children to be registered as having two fathers and no mother. The couple used the same surrogate mother four years later when they went on to become fathers to Orlando, seven, who will also be christened at the service.

The couple, who live in a Grade II-listed home with their children, became multi-millionaires in 1998 when they sold their successful clinical research company.

But after the birth of their twins they were accused of creating 'designer' children and received death threats.

They fell out with the genetic mother of their children, Tracey McCune, who accused them of raising a bunch of spoilt brats.

She revealed the couple showered their brood with designer goods and told how Saffron wore Chanel No 5 perfume, diamonds and designer clothing.

The couple 'wed' in an extravagant civil ceremony in 2006 but later provoked anger by posting pictures of their children on a gay dating website.

Read more about parenting options and surrogacy

Article 3rd July 2010: www.dailymail.co.uk

Posted: 03/07/2010 10:34:37



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