A woman has welcomed a new baby with her girlfriend – using her ex-husband’s sperm.
Linda Fruits, 33, from Sunrise, Florida, US, made headlines earlier this year after revealing she asked her former partner to father her new child.
Linda ended her marriage to Christopher Haerting, 36, in August 2021 after eight years together after struggling with a “sexless” relationship since welcoming their second child in early 2020.
While scrolling TikTok, she realised she was attracted to a woman and had a “sexual awakening”, realising she was a lesbian.
After meeting now-girlfriend Maddy Gross, 36, in November 2021, the two became inseparable and their relationship quickly progressed – with Maddy openly sharing her desire to have children.
Six months after meeting, Maddy moved into the family home with Linda, Christopher and their two sons, Elliot, four, and Owen, two.
They asked Christopher if he would consider being their sperm donor to expand the family, and the trio decided to move forwards together – with Christopher being the child’s father, as well as sperm donor.
Now, the “modern family” have welcomed their new addition – baby Arlo, who was born last week.
“The family is doing great – the boys are so excited,” Linda told NeedToKnow.co.uk.
“They ask where the baby is as soon as they walk in the door, pick them up from school, cry over who gets to sit next to him in the car, it's adorable.
“They were so excited to meet their brother. They are so in love with him, they say it multiple times a day.
“I had one job, when the baby came out it was to announce the gender. I was so excited the baby was here and my girlfriend was safe that I completely forgot and it didn't even matter.
“I feel relieved that they are both, safe and happy. We are trying to get in naps whenever and wherever possible, so Christopher is getting some alone time with the boys and taking them on the weekends to do fun things when we need a nap.
“We are taking it day by day to see what we all need at any given moment, and can all in grandma for backup as needed.”
Linda previously revealed how she and Christopher decided to remain a family unit after she came out to him and they split in August 2021.
Christopher said: “It was still difficult from time to time, but we talked through our emotions all of the time, and this helped a lot.
“We both knew that our kids are the most important and being able to see them every day was more important than dividing our family and honestly, making things more complicated on ourselves.
“Most couples whose romantic relationship ends, need to get away from each other to move on or because it’s toxic. We found a way to move on while still co-parenting and living together and it’s been great.
“It was definitely not an instant yes [when I was asked to be a sperm donor]. I had a lot of questions for each of them that I needed answered before I felt comfortable with it.
“My biggest non-negotiable was that I wasn’t comfortable being just a donor. I wanted to be the father/co-parent and legally on the birth certificate.
“Other than that, I wasn’t and am not worried about everything else. We will figure it out. I know that we will all do what’s best for our kids.”
Linda added: “We told our sons that we will always be a family and that we will always love them, and that mama and papa were going to be raising them as best friends from now on.
“They were so young and didn’t seem to care because they still had both parents under one roof. We continue to have little age-appropriate updates, again to give them the context so they don’t come up with the wrong ideas.
“The last conversation we had was about how lucky they are to have so many adults under one roof that love them.”
