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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kirsty McCormack

Westlife's Mark Feehily opens up about 'privileged' and expensive surrogacy journey

Westlife singer Mark Feehily has revealed he feels "quite privileged" to have been able to become a father via surrogacy.

The 42-year-old pop star appeared on Wednesday's Lorraine where he spoke to host Christine Lampard about his young daughter Layla.

Asked how it felt to hold Layla in his arms for the first time, Mark said: "Absolutely amazing, myself and Cailean couldn't believe it."

He then said: "Like first of all, one of the things that isn't spoken about is surrogacy is expensive, so in many ways I kind of feel quite privileged in a sense you know, because there's a lot of people out there that would like to do surrogacy but it's not the most affordable thing.

Westlife singer Mark Feehily has revealed he feels 'quite privileged' to have been able to become a father via surrogacy (ITV)

"So that is something that would be great to see changing over the years as well is to make it more accessible to everybody," Mark continued.

"Our journey started a good three years before Layla was born and I would be very meticulous in sort of making sure everything was done properly and that all the research was done, there was no kind of knee-jerk decisions made at all.

Mark's daughter Layla will be turning three soon (Instagram)

"There was three years before the pregnancy was even confirmed and then another nine months obviously before she was born and now she's nearly three."

The singer then gushed: "She really is the apple of my eye. You've heard a million parents say it before but then when it actually happens to you, you realise what they actually all meant.

Layla with her dad Cailean O'Neill (ITV)

"She's back in Ireland now and she's got a little bit of a tummy bug at the moment so I'm here in London and I feel a million miles away, I wanna just get back home and take care of her but thankfully we've got a brilliant support network back home as well.

"She's doing amazing and she's just at a brilliant age, she's hilarious and she's very strong-minded and she loves singing, all day everyday," he added.

Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV and ITV Hub.

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