Britain's 'first gay dad' who grew up on a council estate is now a multi millionaire and is splashing out on his eight kids this Christmas as he purchases a £600,000 flat for his baby. Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, 52, and his ex-husband Tony were the first gay couple in the UK to have a child via surrogacy and they have planned a very lavish Christmas for their kids this year.
Barrie who is originally from Manchester now owns properties across the world including in Florida and Essex and is reportedly spending millions on his family over the festive season, Manchester Evening News reports. The splurge will include a £600,000 flat in Manchester, fitted with a designer wardrobe for his baby son, Romeo along with a Rolls Royce equipped with a specifically designed booster seat to transport him to nursery.
His two-year-old daughter, Valentina will receive a brand new luxurious playground at their home in Essex with his eldest twin daughter, Saffron, 22 set to be given a Lamborghini Urus worth £275,000. On top of that, Barrie is also splashing out on his gifts for his now fiancé Scott and his other children.
The business owner told Manchester Evening News: "Christmas is one of those times when it's nice to splash out on your family. I know there are many families that will not be so lucky this year for sure. I feel for them all.
"Sometimes people read things that are just over exaggerated and think that we are just rich snobs who have never had hardship or we were born with a silver spoon in our mouths. This is just not the case at all.
"Everyone gives their children what they can afford. Gay or straight. Remember, I was born to very poor parents, in a council house in Longsight.
"Nobody handed me anything. When I met Tony, he was living in a council house in Wythenshawe.
"We worked hard and make some money and now we want to spend our money on our kids. I just don’t understand people's interest - if I was reading a paper and saw someone buying a Rolex for their son, I'd be thinking 'well done'."
Barrie has defended his decisions to spoil his kids with such luxurious gifts as he says: "People can think what the hell they like, they always do anyway. It's my money - I work up to 20 hours a day some days and now I want to buy things for my kids. I really couldn’t give a flying f*** what anyone thinks."
Barrie who owns the British Surrogacy Centre agency divorced his ex husband Tony in 2019 and is now engaged to Scott, who used to date his daughter, Saffron. However, his ex partner Tony still lives with him in his £10m home in Florida along with his new partner in order to help co-parent their eight children.
The unusual living set up sees Tony and partner, Brent living in the north wing of the mansion and Barrie and Scott living in the west wing. Barrie and Tony were the first British same-sex couple to be legally recognised as gay parents when they had twin baby girls who were born through surrogacy.
The couple made history in 1999 when Saffron and Aspen, now 22 were born. They then went on to have Orlando, 18 and another set of twins, Jasper and Dallas, 11. Barrie then had another two kids with his fiancé, Scott who he shares Valentina, two and five-month-old little Romeo with.
Barrie also has another son called Colin from a past relationship. Barrie and Tony who co-own medical company Princeton Consumer Research are worth around £175m. When their eldest children, Saffron and Aspen were born they fought in court to win the right to be named as 'parent one' and 'parent two' instead of 'mother' and 'father' on their daughter's birth certificates.
Barrie said: "My previous partner (Tony) and I met in 1987, we have always been in each others lives since that day to this. We decided when our relationship had come to an end that we would always be best friends and be there for each other.
"When we first wanted to have children, it was 1996, I was working as a social worker in Essex and London, and thought it would be great to adopt or foster with my partner Tony. In those days, two people of the same sex could not make an application together and to be honest, it was never even thought of as an option for gays.
He continued: "After some searching and looking into alternatives, I decided that Tony and I were going to go to America and look at this thing childless couple were doing, called surrogacy. I had no idea what it was only that you could buy an egg from a woman, fertilize it and then another woman would carry it for you, for a fee.
"So, we did this and never looked back. Dec 1999, 23 years ago this month, our beautiful biological twins were born, Aspen and Saffron. This was the best Christmas of our lives.
The couple's decision caused 'drama all over the world' and there was a lot of negative press about same sex parenting. However Barrie said: " But, the negative press became positive and as more and more gay men, and famous gay men, became parents through surrogacy, public opinion changed.
The British co parents will be spending Christmas in the USA this year but Barrie admits he misses being at home in the UK over the holidays. He confessed: "Christmas is strange as hell in Florida - it's hot as hell all year round, compared to Manchester anyway. I would much rather be at the house in Essex over Christmas to be honest with you.
"Manchester has always felt like home to us. We always say you can take the boy out of Manchester but you cannot take Manchester out of the boy."
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