Brian Dowling and husband Arthur Gourounlian know which one of them is the biological father of their baby girl but plan to keep the information private, RSVP reports.
The celebrity couple used a donor egg and a surrogate, Brian's sister Aoife, to welcome little Blake into the world this month with the process being the subject of an upcoming documentary on RTE television.
The surrogacy laws in Ireland mean that whichever of Brian or Arthur is not the biological dad will be in limbo for two years and have no rights as a father until they can apply for guardianship.
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Brian and Arthur are spreading awareness about how hard it is for couples to have babies through surrogacy in Ireland.
Brian told RSVP Magazine: "Education is so important. We chose to do the documentary on RTÉ because we learned so much about it.
"We know who the biological father is, but we haven’t disclosed that. Legally, that leaves one of us in limbo for two years, one of us has no rights as a father.
"Aoife is the biological mother of our child, we used a donor, but her name goes on the birth certificate as per Irish law. Aoife can change her mind and decide to keep the baby at any point. Mums get more rights from a legality point of view.
"Our nephew Harvey is only three years old and he already knows the baby in Aoife’s belly is Brian and Artie’s. He is three!
"My sister and her husband are educating him using the correct words and they are explaining it properly."
Brian and Arthur went down a different route for surrogacy and they were unsure how it would work out.
Brian explained: "Surrogacy in Ireland is not legal, but it is not illegal. There is a loophole there somewhere. We got treatment for Aoife’s IVF in Portugal.
"Our donor is from a different country, so we weren’t even sure if we could take her to a doctor or hospital here in Ireland in case they told us what we were doing was wrong.
"Our friend Ian ‘H’ Watkins from Steps and Mark Feehily had done it in America, we didn’t know anyone doing it domestically or with a family member."
Initially, Arthur wanted to adopt a child.
He said: "I was pro adoption, I wanted to save a kid. We didn’t have that choice because we are getting old and we are gay, so surrogacy was our second choice. It took a long time to strategize because neither of us knew anything about surrogacy, but we have learned so much now."
Read the full interview with Brian and Arthur in this month's issue of RSVP Magazine - on shelves now
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