A 68-year-old Spanish TV star has made headlines after having her son’s baby using a surrogate.
Actress and presenter Ana Obregón told socialite magazine ¡Hola! that the baby – named Ana Sandra – is the daughter of her son who died of cancer in 2020.
She said doctors had encouraged her son, Aless Lequio García, to preserve samples of sperm before he began treatment and that he expressed a desire to have a child before dying. The samples, she said, were stored in New York.
Surrogate pregnancies are banned in Spain, although children from such pregnancies in other countries can be registered.
“This girl is not my daughter, but rather my granddaughter,” Obregón told the magazine. “It was Aless’ last wish to bring a child into the world.”
¡Hola! said the baby was born March 20 this year, and was conceived in June 2022, when Obregón’s son would have turned 30.
Legally, Ana Sandra is the actor’s adoptive daughter, according to Hello magazine.
Obregón, a biologist, is one of Spain’s biggest celebrities and has appeared on many TV shows, including an episode of The A-Team.
She told Hello that Ana Sandra, who was born three weeks before her due date, is “very good, a big eater and sleeper, and calm”.
She didn’t disclose the identity of the baby’s biological mother, but said a donor and surrogate were used.
Initial reports about the baby grabbed the attention of the Spanish media and the country’s political parties, sparking criticism from the coalition government.