Sofia Vergara’s Ex Wants to Have Her Baby—Even Though They Split Up
Nick Loeb and Sofia Vergara (seen here at the 2014 Golden Globe Awards) are at odds over what to do with their frozen embryos. (Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Sofia Vergara and ex-fiancé Nick Loeb broke off their relationship almost a year ago. But the two might start seeing each other again — in court. A legal battle appears to be brewing over what to do with the embryos Vergara and Loeb had frozen in happier times, when they planned to become parents.
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In 2013, the couple underwent IVF, which resulted in embryos created from Loeb’s sperm and Vergara’s eggs, reported In Touch Weekly. The couple planned to have the embryos implanted in a surrogate, but they split up instead, state court documents obtained by In Touch. Ever since, the two female embryos have been preserved in ice in a fertility center.
Loeb filed suit against Vergara (using the aliases “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” to protect their privacy) because he wants to continue preserving the embryos, so he can have children in the future, according to the court documents. But Sofia “hoped for the female embryos to ultimately be destroyed.”
Complicating things is an agreement Loeb signed stipulating that if he or Vergara died, the embryos would be destroyed, according to In Touch. But the agreement didn’t address what would happen if they separated, Loeb says. So he’s also suing the fertility center to prevent them from disposing of the embryos.
The battle for Vergara and Loeb’s genetic material is just beginning to snake through the legal system. But similar cases involving ex-partners at odds over their embryos have increasingly landed in courtrooms, family law specialist Felice Glennon Kerr, a partner in the Delaware law firm MacElree Harvey, tells Yahoo Parenting.
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So how do judges decide what to do? It varies by state. “Generally courts will try to go by the agreement couples sign at the fertility center, which is supposed to spell out what will happen to the embryos in the event the relationship ends or a partner dies, says Kerr, who adds that not all agreements are solid—and thus enforceable.
If the agreement Vergara and Loeb signed didn’t stipulate what would happen in case they separated, as Loeb claims, the case can get much more complicated, despite the fact that most states have measures in place to protect ex-partners who don’t want their embryos used.
While embryos are generally considered property, they have special status because of the potential for life, Barbara Collura, President/CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, tells Yahoo Parenting. That gray area can be exploited if “personhood” laws are passed, she says. “No state has declared an embryo a person, but personhood statues made the ballot in two states in 2014, and if they’d succeeded, embryos would have all the rights of humans,” says Collura. That could potentially override a couple’s agreement to destroy their embryos in case of a separation, she says. One thing’s for sure: the courts have a lot of catching up to do with advances in reproductive technology.
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