Adam Frisby and Jamie Corbett have spoken out about the legal and emotional strain of not being recognised as the legal parents of their daughter, Leven, despite one of them being her biological father.

The situation

The couple welcomed Leven via a US surrogate, using an egg donor, in January this year. Under current UK law, their surrogate remains Leven's legal parent until a parental order, a lengthy process involving a 200-page application, is approved, something that typically takes up to 12 months.

What they've experienced

Speaking to Sky News presenter Sarah-Jane Mee on The UK Tonight, Corbett described early confusion when registering Leven with a GP surgery, where staff initially said they couldn't record two fathers on NHS systems and needed to know who the mother was. He said the surgery ultimately handled it well once the situation was explained, but the couple's medical records still note that they aren't recognised as Leven's legal guardians in the UK, despite one of them being her biological father.

Frisby described the emotional toll of learning what restrictions they might face as parents, including the possibility of needing High Court or surrogate consent in a medical emergency involving Leven. He said the situation has also involved visits from social workers to assess their suitability as parents, something he described as feeling wrong given that surrogacy, unlike an unplanned pregnancy, involves years of deliberate planning. Corbett noted that if such assessments are considered necessary, they would make more sense taking place before a surrogate child's birth rather than after.

Taking it to Parliament

Frustrated by the current law, the couple launched a petition calling for reform, which was debated in Parliament this week. However, they said in a joint Instagram statement that they felt let down by how the conversation unfolded, with MPs reportedly framing the debate around concerns about wealthy men exploiting women through surrogacy, rather than addressing the parental recognition issue they'd raised. They wrote: "We really believed today might move something forward. It didn't. We gave it everything."