Modern Family star Sofia Vergara has been fighting a custody battle involving two frozen pre-embryos and ex-fiancé Nick Loeb for roughly the last two years. The 44-year-old actress created the embryos with her former fiance during the height of the pair’s relationship, back in 2013. After Vergara and Loeb split, he filed legal documents asking the California court system to grant him full custody of the reportedly viable pre-embryos.
Since his custody suit was filed, Glamour reports that Sofia Vergara has been fighting tooth and nail (and at a considerable financial cost) to prevent her ex from obtaining custody of the pre-embryos and having them implanted in a surrogate to be gestated. Last December, a California judge dismissed Sofia Vergara’s ex-fiance’s custody case. However, the battle over the pre-embryos is still ongoing.
As Fox News reports, Loeb followed-up the custody suit dismissal with a new lawsuit, this time a so-called “right to live” case, against Vergara. In the new filing, 41-year-old Nick Loeb asked the court (once again) to grant him full custody of the pair of pre-embryos. According to Loeb, he wants the embryos he and Sofia Vergara created to be implanted into the womb of a surrogate and to be gestated as soon as possible. What’s more, Loeb claimed in his legal filing that the he has already named the pre-embryos, “Emma” and “Isabella,” respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFNyVNE7w74
In his legal filing, Loeb goes on to tell the court that he has already provided the potential children he and Sofia Vergara created with financial stability by way of dual trust funds, in addition to choosing names for the pre-embryos. However, it is that forward planning that may be Loeb’s undoing in his legal endeavor.
In legal documents reportedly filed last Tuesday, Sofia Vergara denounced her ex-fiance’s future plans for the pair’s pre-embryos, citing a legal document that was signed with the fertility clinic when the embryos were created. Reportedly, according to that paperwork, neither Vergara nor her ex are entitled to “use” the frozen pre-embryos without the consent of the other. The documentation reportedly does not allow for either Vergara nor Loeb to gestate the pre-embryos (or have them gestated) unless the other expressly agrees.
“The terms of the Contract expressly state that neither party may use the pre-embryos created from the IVF procedure without the ‘explicit written consent of the other.’”
She said: “Leggo my eggo”.
— Mr. Zinger (@MrZinger) February 16, 2017
I feel sorry for her that she even has to deal with this it makes him look awful/vengeful he needs to get a life and more on
— Tonya Owen (@housebunny1598) February 15, 2017
In Tuesday’s filing, Sofia Vergara reportedly asked the court to not only dismiss her ex-fiance’s erroneous “right-to-live” lawsuit (as it a direct contradiction of the agreement that Vergara and Loeb reportedly signed when the pre-embryos were created), but also that the court force Loeb to cough up some cash. The presumption is that Sofia Vergara is asking for the money to compensate her for the money she’s spent fighting her ex’s pre-embryo custody suit.
Throughout the ongoing, years-long custody battle, Sofia Vergara has been fairly open with her fans and the media about the situation she’s been enduring. Since the pre-embryos were created (reportedly with the express stipulation that they could not be gestated unless both she and her ex agreed), not only have Vergara and Loeb split, but she has remarried.
During a 2015 Sirius interview, Vergara spoke very candidly about the drama she’d found herself a part of. She was asked about not wanting to have a child with an ex, and she admitted that she had no desire to do so, adding, “Can you blame me?”
Vergara went on to explain why she doesn’t want to see the pre-embryos gestated now that she and their sperm-donor are no longer a couple.
“I couldn’t imagine anyone saying that it’s sane to bring into the world kids that already [have] everything set up wrong for them. It would be so selfish. More than a mother, [a baby] needs a loving relationship of parents that get along, that don’t hate each other.”
As TMZ reports, Sofia makes it clear in her lawsuit that her ex-fiance was full aware of his legal rights to the disputed pre-embryos when they were created – well before his initial 2014 custody lawsuit was filed. Because legal documents on reportedly signed by both parties and reportedly on file with the fertility clinic clearly state that both parties must agree in order for the pre-embryos to be gestated, Sofia Vergara claims in her new lawsuit that her ex’s new “right to live” filing is simply a waste of time and money.
[Featured Image by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP Images]
