Couple are UK’s first transgender parents
A FORMER Army officer and her husband have become the first transgender parents in the UK.
Hannah and Jake Graf announced the good news by sharing a picture of their new arrival on Thursday.
Born in Cardiff, Hannah is the former highest ranking transgender officer in the UK, while Jake is a writer, director and actor who has appeared in the likes of the Danish Girl.
The pair had announced last year they were expecting their first child with the help of a surrogate.
Their daughter is also genetically linked to Jake after he had his eggs collected several years ago when he temporarily stopped taking testosterone.
Posting on Twitter, Hannah said: “She’s finally here! Our amazing surrogate brought our daughter into the world at 5.30 on Tues morning. Both are doing well and Jake and I are in love!”
Hannah and Jake first met while doing public events for transgender advocacy.
Their first date lasted 11 hours, before Jake proposed two years later.
Speaking last year, Hannah revealed how Jake had asked her within weeks of meeting whether she wanted children.
Talking to the Daily Mail, she said: “He wouldn’t have taken the relationship further if I’d said “no”.
“I did want children but
I never thought I’d end up having them. I thought I’d never have a boyfriend, let alone get married.”
Jake added that in total five eggs were harvested and fertilised with an unknown sperm donor – one who fitted Hannah’s description even though the pair had yet to meet.
He said: “I’m quite short and artistic, rubbish at science and logic, and I wanted a sperm donor to balance that. So I chose a tall, sporty, brown-eyed engineer. I picked someone just like Hannah!”
Describing the couple’s surrogate, Jake added: “We’ve met her lots of times.
“Right from the start she was very open and down-to-earth. When we first met we felt we’d known her for ages, we got on so well.
“She’s given us the ultimate gift with no expectation of anything in exchange.”
During the interview, Hannah described how both she and Jake travelled back to Cardiff to announce the news to her parents, Wendy, a retired teacher, and Brian, a programme manager.
She said: “I bought a little card saying ‘Thank you for your support’ and put a scan photo inside.”
“I’d written, ‘you’re going to be grandparents!’ and they were so excited.
“When I came out as trans they rewrote their wills, so any children I had who were not genetically linked to me would be treated equally to any other grandchild.”