The incredible story of twins who have different parents

Calder and Alexandra are twin brothers but they do not have the same father.

When their parents, Simon and Graeme Berney-Edwards, learned that they were going to be parents, they experienced a ride of emotions.

They first saw the ultrasound. Then they heard the heartbeat of a baby, then on the other.

And, like millions of couples around the world in these circumstances, they felt the tears and joy melt into them.

But his case did not look like many others.

To begin with, during the first ultrasound study, they were able to see through a video call request by Canada Meg Stone, the woman who had volunteered as a surrogate mother.

And they, the parents, were in the family home in the UK.

"I remember we sat at the table for two hours, going from euphoria to tears," said Simon during an interview for the Victoria Derbyshire show at the BBC.

The most surprising thing, however, is that unlike many gay couples, Simon and Graeme did not have to choose which of the two would be the biological father of babies, but Stone would bring to the world a son designed by everyone.

And that was the case: Alexandra is the daughter of Simon and Calder is the son of Graeme.

But how was that possible?

Four parents, three countries, two babies

The children, now 19 months old, live in the UK with their parents. But the process of bringing them to the world involved a lot of logistics and science.

When Simon and Graeme decided to grow their family, they went to an agency to help parents in the process of in vitro fertilization.

Initially, they had the idea that they would initially have a son spawned by one of them and, later, a second son procreated by him. other.

However, in the agency that helped them, they indicated that it was possible to have both children at the same time and with the same mother.

After hesitating a bit, the couple decided to go ahead with this idea, for which he got an anonymous egg donor in the United States.

They traveled to Las Vegas, where the eggs were collected and separated into two groups: one half would be fertilized with Simon's sperm and the other half with Graeme's.

The resulting fertilized embryos were evaluated and frozen until the time of implantation into the uterus of the pregnant woman.

Mother in Canada

The mother has been sought after in Canada because, although surrogacy is permitted in the United Kingdom, the Canadian legal framework has given them greater peace of mind because the agreements are easier to implement.

According to the BBC, they do not like the fact that in the UK, birth certificates are initially issued in the name of the pregnant woman, who has six weeks to decide whether or not she wants to keep her children.

"We chose Canada because we like the legal framework they have, it's very similar to the UK, in that it's very altruistic, it's not a business," he said. said Simon.

"For us, it was very important to have good long-term relationships with the pregnant woman, because we can not have any connection with the anonymous egg donor." We want them to have this relationship in the future, but the legal framework in Canada is: clearer and offers you more guarantees, "he added.

Once the embryos were implanted, Simon and Graeme followed the pregnancy remotely and made arrangements to travel to Canada approximately six weeks before the possible date of birth.

This prediction, however, did not spare them fear, while a week before they left for America, there was a false birth alert.

Do you think you have more children ?, asked Victoria Derbyshire.

"We have always said that if we had the chance to have one, that would not be enough, we would never consider having four, but I never say, never say," he said. said Simon, who revealed that they still had nine frozen embryos.