Ireland AM star Brian Dowling and his husband Arthur Gourounlian have welcomed their first child together.
Brian's sister Aoife is their surrogate after they travelled to Portugal to find a donor egg and she gave birth today to the joy of the young family - RSVP Live reports.
Brian said on Instagram: "Please be upstanding for the arrival of our BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER Blake Maria Rose Dowling Gourounlian. Yes people another BDG.
"Blake was delivered safely on Thursday September 1st at 14:52pm weighting 7lb 4ozs. We @gourounlian are ABSOLUTELY TOTALLY IN LOVE with her & can't believe she's here & is ours.
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"None of this would have been possible without our donor, a woman we have never met or even seen a picture of but has given us the GIFT OF LIFE. Now, where do we even start with you @effidy_dowling_ you are a SAINT to us & we will FOREVER be GRATEFUL to you for the REST OF OUR LIVES. Baby Blake can't wait for her Aunty Aoife to spoil her."
Opening up about their journey, Brian told RSVP Magazine: "We married in 2015 and we always talked about having a family. But it really escalated in 2018 or 2019 after my mum passed away.
"During the pandemic, we had so much time to talk about it. We lived in America pre-Covid and there were so many things we could do over there with surrogacy, fostering and adoption. Living in Ireland, we were limited as a gay couple in what we could do. Initially, we didn't want surrogacy, we wanted adoption."
Brian and Arthur kept the pregnancy news private for the first six months and they revealed they were becoming fathers back in May in an emotional online post.
"It completely fills our hearts to be able to reveal we are pregnant and due to our beautiful bundle of joy later this year," Brian and Arthur said, sharing a video of the baby's scan via a joint statement. "We actually never thought this day would be a reality for us."
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