Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas Just Welcomed a Baby via Surrogate

Congratulations are in order for Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas! The couple confirmed on Friday that they’ve just welcomed their first baby.

“We are overjoyed to confirm that we have just welcomed a baby via surrogate,” Chopra Jonas posted on Instagram. “We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family.”

The couple, who celebrated their third wedding anniversary in December, have spoken in the past about wanting to have kids—but kept their plans tightly under wraps. “[Kids are] a big part of our desire for the future,” Chopra Jonas, 39, told Vanity Fair in January. “By God’s grace, when it happens, it happens.” While neither Chopra Jonas or Jonas have spoken about their fertility or family planning process publicly, it has officially happened. 

Having a baby via gestational surrogacy (which is where a surrogate carries an embryo they are not genetically related to) is still fairly rare. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 31,000 pregnancies in the U.S. used a gestational surrogate between 1999 and 2013—that’s about 2% of all pregnancies resulting from assisted reproductive technology during that period. Part of that may be because surrogacy is legally complex. Most states now allow some form of paid gestational surrogacy, per the New York Times, but surrogacy contracts can be limited. And outside of the U.S., legal gestational surrogacy is even less common. The practice can be a game changer for LGBTQ+ people and those who have dealt with fertility challenges, but there’s also a lot of debate surrounding surrogates’ rights and health.

Even in a legal landscape that varies from state to state and country to country, data suggests gestational surrogacy is getting increasingly popular. The number of pregnancies involving a gestational surrogate increased from 727 in 1999 to 3,432 in 2013, according to the CDC. 

Source: SELF