Iron Chef Cat Cora is is expecting a baby — and so is her wife Jennifer.
They are both pregnant at the same time.
Both expecting boys, Jennifer, 37, will deliver in April, while Cat, 41, is due in July.
The couple’s new sons are from the same sperm donor as their older boys…the baby Cat is carrying [is] from Jennifer’s eggs. In Jennifer’s current pregnancy, both women’s embryos were transferred, so the biological mother is unknown. The couple do not to plan to conduct DNA testing to determine this.
“[Jennifer] carried my embryo and I carried hers,” Cat explains. “It’s like surrogating, but obviously all of our kids are equal.”
“It’s really crazy! We decided that having them a year apart is harder than having kids as infants together.”
I’ll agree with one part of that sentence. Having lived in a house with 3 other women when we were all on the same cycle, I can only imagine the nuclear fallout that happens when two women who are in a relationship with each other are pregnant at the same time.
I’m not trying to sound like an ass by only posting to point this out, but I believe I saw this same story a couple of weeks ago (without Kelly’s voice, though). I recognize the picture.
yeah this has been done
Yep, same story, same picture.
I do love me some Kelly though. :o)
nah, it’s okay. It’s the first thing that I thought to (and I’m sure, a ton of other people who are grossly addicted to EB as well!!!)
I share Gail’s sentiments tho. Love Kelly, no blamesies. And I still think this story is rather interesting… even the second time around :)
“In Jennifer’s current pregnancy, both women’s embryos were transferred, so the biological mother is unknown. “<– at least, I believe, this part is new, no?
oh and I think they are both ADORABLE and look like sisters….
Yep. Wendie wrote it; my link is to the original post.
Omg I’d give anything to have come out of that woman’s vagina. Do you know how good a chef she is? I can only imagine dinner at their house…god damn it now I’m hungry and a granola bar is only going to disappoint me.
you are so my new favorite commenter Jeremy. (At least I believe you are newish…)
Meh. I’m a chef, and Cat Cora doesn’t impress me. As far as the rest of the story… it’s kind of pushing the whole shared experience thing a little far :) If my partner wanted to be the pregnant one, I’d happily agree and agree to doing the dishes for the rest of my life!
How are you able to assess Car Cora’s ability over a television screen? I mean, you being a chef and all.
oh snap
It’s not too hard. Her basic skills are lacking, so that makes me question everything else. Just so’s ya know… Giada is even worse.
This is the internet, you have no backing for any claim you make that we cannot directly experience. Thus faced with the choice of believing an anonymous stranger or the woman who has won numerous culinary challenges, I’m going to have to side with Cat Cora.
Feel free. Believe me when I say, however, that you’re taking this way too seriously. Now go eat or something! ;)
Nah I just don’t want you to shatter my illusions about the Food Network.
I suppose it is pushing the shared experienced thing, but by making it so that it is unclear who the biological parent is it is more likely that the two of them will be viewed equally, unlike in other gay relationships where only the biological parent is seen as a parent of the child.
First I’ve heard of this…Thanks Kelly!
I think it shows that they gave their choice to bring another human into this world with a lot of thought. I believe that it strengthens a sense of FAMILY that they are creating, because they share both mothers…pretty cool….
They are very clever to do this. If they carried each others embryos, doesn’t that mean they are both technically the biological parents?
Wow, that is gonna be one ugly custody battle when these two split up.
just what I was thinking!
why.. cuz if they just had their “own” children, they would just divide them up as such??? u crazy?
it’d be just as difficult as any custody battle.
Except same-sex couples are vastly more likely to split up than legally married hetero couples (that’s fact, not opinion) and, unlike those boring old traditionalists who provide their kids with their own mother and father, it’s not remotely clear who these kids’ “real” parents would be in the eyes of the law if they broke up. It’s a clever kind of insurance, from their perspectives; if they both have either a DNA connection or a gestational connection to all children, they both would have a claim to them according to precedent. Very clever, for the adults involved; very thoughtless, for the children who never asked to be born into someone’s social experiment.
All these donors and no known bioparents….Many years down the line there will be angst-filled adults wondering, wondering, wondering who those donors were. I understand the parent’s need for anonymous donors and I’m not knocking it. I just think there should be better protocols in place for the time when these babies grow up. You can’t just erase a child’s deep need to know who his or her biological parents are. Tough issue when this couple has no intention to find out, even just for recordkeeping purposes. Something about that strikes me as a bit selfish. I would find out, for my child’s sake. I’d do that out of love. And if, against the odds, my child never wanted to know, well, so be it.
I think in this case they know who their sperm donor is but aren’t giving the name to the press. So the donor is only anonymous to us.
In other cases though, the DONORS want their identity kept anonymous so that they won’t have 20 kids coming to them years later wanting to be a part of their life, or wanting support. Personally I don’t think I could ever anonymously donate my eggs, just because I would want to know that the child(ren) turned out well. I would personally feel a bit responsible for them. Others are able to separate themselves though, and see giving a kid the chance at life a great thing on it’s own. I see it along the same lines as adoption where the donor gives up their eggs/sperm to other couples who “adopt” the “child” and the donors identity is kept secret just like many parents who give their children up for adoption.
I get what you’re saying – I really do. My issue is that all those arguments are good for the adults in the equation, but not the kids.
They say they are not having DNA testing done to determine the identity of the biological mother. All I’m saying is that one day all these fertility-treatment kids are going to want to know where they came from. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with this. Just think of the questions these poor kids will all have 20, 30, 40, 50 years down the line, know what I mean?
I’ve seen this up close and personal with a family member who doesn’t know who his father is and will never meet the guy. To say he suffers anxiety or depression about it would be somewhat of an understatement. It’s more like…..a profound feeling of being lost in the world. No amount of hugs, kisses or financial comfort can erase that.
I’m not sure what the answer is because I do understand donors wishing to remain anonymous or parents wanting the donors out of the picture. It’s a tough bioethics issue and ultimately I come down in favor of the children and their innate right (or so I believe) to know where they came from.
I think it’s pretty clear that none of the adults involved have spent more than about 5 minutes thinking about the needs and rights of the children involved, rather than their own passing fancies and whims.
Wow, JR. Do you enjoy living in the 50’s?
To me, it’s not just an issue of where (or who) you come from, but also an issue of genetics. There are so many instances of genetic diseases, predilections, and syndromes – knowing your family history can become very necessary. I don’t care who adopts a child, or who gives birth to an implanted embryo, or whether the resulting family is ‘traditional,’ but I think information about family medical history is vitally important.
By the way, what’s most disturbing is that these women look like sisters or a mother/daughter combo.
*shudder*
They even smile the same. One is just the larger, clunkier version of the other. Very odd.
(Ahhhh, the superficial. Like an old shoe.)
Lolly lolly lolly get your-thanks, now I won’t be able to get that song out of my head for the next few days…..
why do you assume sooooooo much? as far as we know, the donor is their best guy friend ever. stop making up stories. sheesh
You are correct. I must have just assumed that they explicitly stated they will not be seeking the identity of the egg donor (bio mom). Good call. And yes, that some parents are icky must justify forgoing determining and filing away the identity of biological parents just in case one’s children should ever wish to know. And by all this I mean, “How was that Pabst?”
that’s not the children’s right though. It is more an issue of privacy with the parents. If the parents want a closed adoption, there is usually a decent reason. Yes, I think it would be unfortunate to not be able to know who your “true” parents were, but I think protecting the process of adoption is more important.
Was your first part sarcasm? I can’t be sure. There is still nothing in the story that says they have an anonymous male donor. And why would the kid care technically which of his mother’s eggs he came from? They are both right there with him.
Oh, and above, to your– “I’ve seen this up close and personal with a family member who doesn’t know who his father is and will never meet the guy. To say he suffers anxiety or depression about it would be somewhat of an understatement. It’s more like…..a profound feeling of being lost in the world.”
That describes a million people, many that know both of their parents. That’s not a unique case for people that do not have fathers/mothers.
related: how do you think children feel whose moms are whores, and they never know her their father is anyway? Or their father is some drug dealer, in jail, is horrible, wants nothing to do with them, abuses them, and so on and so on. Wake up. There are a lot of problems concerning parents and kids. (potentially) not knowing who your bio-father are is not the biggest freaking deal in the world. At least they have two mothers who love them. That is more than a lot of people have.
What about adoption? Some parents only give their children up for adoption if the child has NO WAY OF EVER CONTACTING THEM AGAIN. do you think there should be no adoption too?
call me old fashioned, but this is craziness.
Recycyled story. We kicked it around a couple of weeks ago-maybe one new line of info in the whole thing, but that’s it. I actually thought something was up with my browser, pulling up old pages or something…. Everybody’s the biomom in this case…. Any legal eagles with opinions in here?
Woah, sorry guys. I missed that one. I’ve tried really hard not to miss a single post since Beet hired me, and I do a search of the site before I post anything to avoid posting repeats. This story was just old enough that I didn’t catch it and it didn’t show up on the first page of search items. It was in the news again yesterday– not trying to recycle old stuff. My bad!
this has already been posted on this site and countless others A MONTH AGO.
slow news day?
better to not post at all.
I know! It seems like just a slow repeat lately. All the bloggers should read the blog postings before they post so as not to repeat. Duh
I know! It seems like just a slow repeat lately. All the bloggers should read the blog postings before they post so as not to repeat. Duh
why do they look like a giant version and a life sized version of Vanna White?
omg…they so look related! Don’t ya think?