When you’re a queer person and on your parenthood path, it’s easy to feel like you’re alone. But more and more famous queer icons are sharing their stories on how they became parents. While it’s true that every parent’s journey is unique to them, the path to parenthood is well traveled. Here’s a list of queer celebrities who have used donor eggs to build their families.
Sir Elton John & David Furnish
Elton John and longtime husband David Furnish welcomed their first child, Zachary, on Christmas Day 2010. A little more than two years later, in January 2023, their second son Elijah was born. The couple once told People Magazine that they kept all of the scans and pictures in a scrapbook as the egg donation and surrogacy process played out. “We want the boys to understand the spirit and love that was at the heart of the process,” Furnish said.
Anderson Cooper & Benjamin Maisani
In 2020 and again in 2022, Anderson Cooper and Benjamin Maisani welcomed sons Wyatt Morgan and Sebastian Luke into their lives. Although the couple split in 2018, they both knew they wanted to be parents and they both knew they wanted to be parents together. The couple still live together and co-parent their boys. They used a surrogate and egg donor for both births.
Neil Patrick Harris & David Burtka
Neil and his husband David Burtka welcomed twins Gideon and Harper in 2010. Both children were born via surrogacy and egg donation. Both parents provided sperm to fertilize the donor eggs. Harris told People Magazine, “We inserted two eggs, one with my sperm and one with David’s sperm and they both took.”
Tom Daley & Dustin Lance Black
The Olympic medalist and social media star, along with his Oscar®-winning husband, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, became fathers to son Robbie in 2018. Daley has a very popular YouTube channel where you will often see both hubby and Robbie getting up to various shenanigans. Robbie was born via egg donation.
Nate & Jeremiah
Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent are daddies to two children born using egg donation. Daughter Poppy is the oldest and son Oskar isn’t far behind. The celebrity designers have been busy lately, not only with fatherhood, but with Nate being the stand-out addition to Netflix’s “Queer Eye.”
Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Justin Mikita
In 2020 Jesse and his husband Justin Mikita welcomed their first son Beckett, and then again in 2022 their second son, Sullivan. Both children were born via surrogacy and egg donation. Now that Ferguson’s long-time show “Modern Family” is no longer filming new episodes, he has had the time to be a hands-on dad. “It’s really nice settling in and seeing the daily changes,” he said.
Cheyenne Jackson and Jason Landau
In 2016 Cheyenne and Jason became parents to twins! Willow and Ethan are just as adorable as you’d expect, too. The Hollywood couple married in 2014 and decided to get started on their parenthood path pretty shortly after that. The couple used egg donation and surrogacy to build their family.
Matt Bomer and Simon Halls
Bomer and Halls first became parents in 2005 when son Kit was born. They wanted to build their family even more, so in 2008 they added twins Walker and Henry. Bomer had never been secretive about his sexual orientation but he’d never been super public about it. But that would change while receiving a humanitarian award in 2012, he shouted out his family and, the rest is history. All three children were born via egg donation.
Ryan Murphy & David Miller
We don’t how Ryan Murphy found time to get married and have kids, with something like a kabillion television shows airing all at the same time, but somehow he did. Murphy and his photographer husband Miller have three children. Logan was born in 2012, Ford was born in 2014, and Griffin was born in 2020. All three came from egg donation.
All these celebrities have used the same process — Surrogacy and Egg Donation. In every instance, when they first started their parenthood path, they didn’t start with a particular egg donor in mind, and many of these parents have never met them. In most cases, the donors aren’t even aware that it was their eggs that were used to create these famous offspring.
