Sofia Vergara, ex spar over embryos
In what may be a new low in bizarre celebrity disputes, millionaire TV star Sofia Vergara and her millionaire ex-fiancé, businessman Nick Loeb, are fighting for custody of their frozen, and microscopic, embryos.
It's a continuation of their brief-but-tumultuous engagement, only now the epically unsuited couple are shouting at each other via court documents, lawyers and in the media, instead of in public places, about their failed efforts to make a baby via surrogate when they were together.
Loeb, a Florida businessman who once considered running for the U.S. Senate and who now sells a relish called Onion Crunch, filed a lawsuit last week accusing Vergara of seeking to thaw, and thus destroy, the two female embryos.
He wants a judge to issue a no-destruction order about the embryos, now stored in a Beverly Hills fertility clinic. He wants to bring the embryos to term whether Vergara likes it or not.
At first, Modern Family star Vergara and her team, in the midst of promoting her new movie, Hot Pursuit, treated his lawsuit as inconsequential and silly.
But that didn't stop the celebrity and mainstream media from pouncing on the story with gusto once the "John Doe and Jane Doe" in the lawsuit were revealed to be Loeb and Vergara.
So her lawyer, Fred Silberberg, issued a statement for her, calling Loeb's claims "uncredible" and without merit, which is what lawyers usually say. More to the point, he said Vergara couldn't destroy the embryos even if she wanted to because legal consent forms both signed in November 2013 prevent either party from taking such unilateral action.
"Vergara has never wanted to destroy her embryos," Silberber's statement said. "She has always maintained that (the embryos) be kept frozen." Vergara, who is now engaged to someone else, "is content to leave the embryos frozen indefinitely as she has no desire to have children with her ex, which should be understandable given the circumstances."
Now Loeb's lawyer, Abram Moore, has issued a statement on Loeb's behalf, explaining why he wants to force his ex to become a mother against her will. Moore refers to Vergara as the mere "egg donor."
Loeb says he wants to preserve the embryos because he believes life begins at conception. He says that all attempts to resolve the dispute have failed, so he had to file suit. Also, he seems to suggest he alone made the embryos and Vergara had nothing to do with it.
"Every embryo is a life on the journey towards birth," Loeb said in the statement. "I created these two female embryos with the purpose of taking them to term and not destruction, because I have always dreamed of being a father.
"I have previously offered to waive any parental or financial responsibilities or obligations on the part of my ex, and to even give her the opportunity to be involved with the child in the future, should she change her mind."
At the time the Colombian-born Vergara and Loeb were a couple, she was over 40 and he is three years younger. She already had one son, then 21; Loeb was childless. Even if Vergara wanted to become pregnant, her chances of conceiving were not high, so they turned to a surrogate. The first attempt failed; before the second attempt could happen, the couple split.
They broke up at least in part because of their public fighting and the issue of children.
When Vergara next got engaged, to True Blood's Joe Manganiello, Loeb said he was happy for her.
"They are much better suited for each other," he said. "I have nothing but the highest regard for her!"
Not any more apparently.
Disagreements over embryos, surrogacy, abortion and whether life begins at conception are not new among non-celeb couples. But it's supposed to be a largely settled area of the law and of fertility practices, involving contracts, consent forms and full disclosure for all involved.
Still, Forbes magazine was just one of several mainstream news organizations that saw the juicy dispute between rich-and-famous stars as a legal lesson for anyone contemplating in vitro fertilization and surrogacy.
