Brian Dowling has spoken out about his unique family after his sister Aoife was a surrogate for the Big Brother and The Real Housewives of Cheshire star and his husband Arthur Gourounlian. The Irish TV presenter, who shot to fame winning Big Brother in 2001 and Ultimate Big Brother in 2010, welcomed a beautiful baby girl Blake in September using a donor egg from a woman they have never met.
Brian, 44, spoke to Kate Ferdinand on her podcast Blended about their experience. He told Kate, who is married to Manchester United legend Rio, about their experience. He told Kate proudly: "Her and Blake are going to have such a unique relationship."
As he reflected on her amazing gesture, he said he was taken aback that he and Arthur had received homophobic abuse. "Peope are fascinated with surrogacy," he said.
"What I found odd was there's been a lot of shaming for Arthur and I, and the stuff that has been said to us. I was on Big Brother 21 years ago and there was no social media, so there was no homophobia.
"The amount of homophobia that Arthur and I ... it's been so odd. Aoife also put herself out there publicly right in the lion's den for all of this."
As he opened up to Kate, he spoke of their special bond with Aoife, who gave birth to Blake by caesarean section at The National Maternity Hospital, Dublin. "She's now helping Arthur with Blake," he said. And he explained: "Aoife never thought the baby was hers. Aoife knows it's her niece. We have eight other nieces and nephews and it's the exact same relationship."
'When we made this public, the stuff we were geting, like 'how could she give her baby away?' Shameful. She was like 'it's not my baby.' Aoife doesn't think that motherhood is for her but as a woman, as a woman she wanted to experience pregnancy."
Explaining the legislation in Ireland, he said: "She's biological mother but only one of us is the father. We knew that's how it was. It leaves one of us in limbo with no legal rights to our daughter in Ireland. We have to apply for guardianship once Blake is two years old." He added: "Hopefully there will be a day where both names will be on birth certificate."
Speaking about his appreciation for his sister, 33, he marvelled: "Is she a saint? is she an angel? to say to me 'go be with your family.' I look at her so diferently. She could tap into me for anything at this point and she hasn't. Nothing. We get a takeaway, she goes to pay for it."
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