TV star Vergara sued for embryos
The former fiancé of actress Sofia Vergara has defended his controversial decision to sue her for custody of two frozen embryos they created through IVF during their relationship.
Nick Loeb, 39, a multimillionaire businessman and the nephew of Canadian billionaire Edgar Bronfman, Sr., accused his former partner of wanting to keep the embryos “sitting in a freezer until the end of time” which, he claimed, would be “tantamount to killing them.”
In an opinion piece published in the New York Times, Loeb said he had always “dreamed of being a parent” and his desire to bring the embryos to term also stemmed partly from Catholic beliefs.
Loeb and Vergara, 42, were a high-profile couple during their four years together. He is a scion of the Loeb banking family and his father served as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
Vergara was born in Colombia and stars in the U.S. sitcom Modern Family. She has been the highest-paid actress on American television for the past three years.
The couple split in May 2014 and the two female embryos remain frozen at a fertility clinic in Beverly Hills.
In August, Loeb used a pseudonym to sue Vergara for custody, but their identities were leaked to the media. The case has since become a touchstone in America for discussion about issues including when life starts, who should have the power to end it, and whether men should have the same rights as women over frozen embryos.
Writing under the headline “Our Frozen Embryos Have a Right to Live” from his home in Florida, Loeb said: “Many have asked me: Why not just move on and have a family of your own? I have every intention of doing so. But that doesn’t mean I should let the two lives I have already created be destroyed or sit in a freezer until the end of time.”
In the highly personal article, Loeb said he was a baby when his own parents divorced and spent much of his childhood being taken to Mass by a Catholic nanny.
In 2010 he met Vergara. By 2012 they were engaged and he pushed to have children, at which point Vergara insisted they use a surrogate.
Two embryos were created and Loeb began “suggesting names for our girls” but “parenthood was much less urgent for her than it was for me.”
Loeb said: “As I was coming on 40, I gave her an ultimatum. When she refused, we split up.”
When the case became public earlier this month, the actress’s lawyer Fred Silberberg said: “Vergara, who has happily moved on with her life, is content to leave the embryos frozen indefinitely as she has no desire to have children with her ex, which should be understandable given the circumstances.” Miss Vergara is now engaged to actor Joe Manganiello, 38.