Jacey Duprie Welcomes Baby Boy After Secondary Infertility Diagnosis — See the Photos!
Photography by Felicia Lasala
Jacey Duprie is a mom of two!
The Damsel in Dior founder, 39, and husband Grant Leavitt welcomed their second baby together, son Hugh Lawson Leavitt, via surrogate, on Friday, July 15, her reps confirm exclusively to PEOPLE.
Baby Hugh arrived at 7:23 p.m., weighing 8 lbs, 12 oz. and measuring 21 inches at birth. The couple is also parents to 3½-year-old daughter June.
Prior to baby Hugh's birth, Duprie spoke to PEOPLE about her and her husband's decision to welcome their second child via surrogate and why she wants to shine a light on the different paths to creating a family.
Duprie, the creative director of Wyeth, a new women's brand launching in October, reveals that she was diagnosed with secondary infertility after the birth of her first child.
"I knew something was wrong in my gut postpartum," she explains. "I had always toyed with the idea of freezing embryos as an insurance plan. And so we just did it. I was like, before I fully heal from postpartum — because I was still struggling even a year later — I'm going to just freeze these embryos."
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Photography by Felicia Lasala
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"Through that process, I learned that I had adenomyosis, and later found out that I have endometriosis, which has led to basically the doctors telling me that it's not a good idea for me to carry and deliver," she continues.
"I don't have a problem getting pregnant, but for me to actually deliver a baby is very risky. Because I have both endometriosis and adenomyosis I was just given that diagnosis," she shares. "And honestly, thank God I did the embryo freezing because had I not done that I really would've never known."
According to the Mayo Clinic, endometriosis is a disorder in which the tissue similar to the tissue that typically lines the inside of a woman's uterus grows outside of the uterus. Adenomyosis is a type of endometriosis that only occurs in the uterus, according to the Seckin Endometriosis Center.
The Liking Myself Back author says she and Leavitt started to discuss the idea of surrogacy after their daughter turned 2.
"It was a really difficult choice to make," she admits. "I mean, it's not your usual way of going about having a child. It feels, and this might sound weird, a little more transactional for lack of a better word, and a little less ideal. But once we were able to get past that part, then I was able to really deal with it from an emotional standpoint."
"As a female, having a surrogate carry your baby, and knowing what it felt like to carry my own first time around, it's actually been okay. I'm actually so incredibly grateful, of course. It's been kind of a mind trip, though, at the same time because it's very out of body," she adds.
Once Durprie and Leavitt began the process of looking for a surrogate, she says the "cards aligned so easily."
"The very first surrogate family we met with, we were like it was too good to be true," she recalls. "It just felt so right. The cards aligned so easily and we said, 'This is the right family for us, and this is the right way to do it.' "
Duprie says the couple and their surrogate have a "wonderful relationship" and planned to be in the delivery room with her. "It just feels very comfortable," says Duprie. "She's been so respectful of the process, and she's such a lovely human. And she already has had three children of her own."
Photography by Felicia Lasala
The mom of two says she also plans to introduce her son to the surrogate's family. "She's given us the greatest gift of all, and it's so cliche, but it's amazing that we have people in the world that are willing to do that for other families," she adds.
Being in the public eye, Duprie also reveals why she felt it was important to wait to share the news of her baby boy until his arrival.
"I was really apprehensive about sharing my first pregnancy because it's such an intimate thing," she explains. "It just feels very important to keep things that are in that category of personal, family, health, all of that as private as I possibly can."
As for June, Duprie says her little girl is "really excited" to have a baby brother.
"She fully understands what's going on and she's at such a wonderful age. She would talk about the baby, she helped us with the nursery, and she thinks this is her baby," Duprie says with a laugh. "
Photography by Felicia Lasala
"June does understand that Mommy's not carrying the baby in her tummy," she continues. "We nicknamed the surrogate Rose, because my grandmother loves roses, so we talk about her all the time in our house, and she likes to see pictures of her and see pictures of the baby growing. And she gets really excited. It's really sweet."
In sharing her story, Duprie says she hopes to "bring more awareness around endometriosis and getting yourself checked out if you feel as though something is off with your body."
She also hopes her experience will "open people's eyes" to all the ways one can become a parent.
"I want to open people's eyes up to other options," she says. "Adoption, surrogacy, there are more ways than one on the path to creating a family."
