Britain’s ‘first gay dads’ expecting triplets with daughter’s ex-boyfriend
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow (R) and fiancé Scott Hutchinson. (Instagram)
The UK’s “first gay dads”, multimillionaires Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow, are to welcome triplets, and are trying to change UK law to list three people on their babies’ birth certificates.
The couple, who have been separated since 2019, found fame in 1999 when they became the first same-sex couple in Britain to be formally registered as parents after they had twins, Saffron and Aspen, via a surrogate.
They later had three more children: Orlando, Jasper, and Dallas.
Barrie, 51, is now engaged to 26-year-old Scott Hutchinson, his daughter Saffron’s ex-boyfriend, and together they have a baby named Valentina.
But the men, who all live together in a 10-bedroom Florida mansion, are set to become dads again, having all given sperm donations to have triplets by a surrogate in the US.
When the babies are born in the UK, they hope to have their three names listed on the birth certificates.
Barrie told The Mirror: “I am as excited about this pregnancy as I was about the first.
“I never thought I would be going down this road again but I’m so in love with Scott and have so enjoyed having Valentina, that when Scott said he’d love to do it again I jumped at the chance. And here we are, pregnant yet again. I love it.”
On become the first same-sex parents on a UK birth certificate, he added: “It still makes me feel amazing that we did that. I’m so wonderfully grateful that fight has been won.
“But if I have three children we will have parent one, two and three and I will challenge the law again.”
“This might sound crazy, but I am sure three people’s names will also become the norm one day.”
The family are “building a mansion” in the UK, and plan to move back when it is complete.
“Each child will have their own room which we are allowing them to decorate with the latest of everything,” Barrie said.
“We have a budget of £1.5 million to decorate the rooms the way they want them. On top, each of our children have an unlimited amount to pick the [Christmas] presents – they can have whatever they like.
“Aspen and Orlando want Lamborghini Urus and Saffron wants a Mercedes.
“Valentina will have a Tiffany diamond bracelet, along with lots of dolls, a pram and a bike.”
Some UK dads are still fighting to be listed as a ‘father’ on their children’s birth certificates
While the Drewitt-Barlows are fighting to list three parents on their babies’ birth certificates, some dads are not even recognised as their children’s fathers.
A 1950s law dictates that whoever gives birth to a baby can only be recorded as the mother on the birth certificate, meaning a trans father who gave birth, for example, would be recorded as his child’s mother.
A new petition calling on the government to equally recognise LGBT+ parents has been launched by trans dad and journalist Freddy McConnell, who unsuccessfully fought a four-year legal battle to be named father on his child’s birth certificate. McConnell is currently pregnant with his second child, and is planning to give birth in Sweden, which properly recognises trans fathers on birth certificates.
The petition states: “Birth certificates should record legal parenthood. Parents need the choice to register according to their legal gender or gender neutrally. The gender neutral ‘parent’ label should be available to anyone to choose.
“All legal parents, including through surrogacy, must be recognised from conception and allowed to register on their child’s birth certificate.”
