‘Pro-Parent’ Nick Loeb Defends Embryonic Custody Dispute With Sofia Vergara In New York Times Op-Ed

In a revealing New York Times Op Ed piece published Wednesday, businessman Nick Loeb expressed his motivations behind a complaint he filed involving ex fiancé Sofia Vergara over the fate of the former couple’s frozen embryos.

Loeb and Vergara broke off their engagement last year. While they were together, the couple attempted in vitro fertilization and a surrogate to have children, signing a form stating that any embryos created through the process could only be brought to term with both parties’ consent, writes Loeb.

In the complaint, filed in a Santa Monica Court, Loeb requests to void a California law that limits him from bringing to term two frozen embryos produced with Vergara, without the actress’ consent.

Loeb contests that he is entitled to “bring his embryos to term” against the wishes of his famous ex Vergara.

When the couple became engaged in 2012, Loeb had pushed for children, as he explains in the Op-Ed.

“My fiancee insisted we used a surrogate. With her eggs and my sperm we created two female embryos. I was so excited once the lives were created that I began to suggest names we could call our girls. The first embryo we implanted didn’t take. The second time, the surrogate miscarried, and I felt crushed.”

A year after the miscarriage, Vergara and Loeb succeeded in creating two more female embryos, says Loeb, but the then-couple never followed through with implantation. Loeb claims his desire for children was much stronger than Vergara’s, and his ultimatum to create a family led to their break-up.

“But as we begain to discuss other potential surrogates, it became clear once more that parenthood was much less urgent for her than it was for me.”

In the op-ed, Loeb explains that his unstable upbringing made him yearn for normalcy and parenthood, yearning for “the type of family based on the images one might ssee in a Norman Rockwell painting.”

Loeb is an heir to one of New York’s wealthiest families. His parents divorced when he was a small child. Loeb’s father — a former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark — traveled extensively and he was effectively raised by a nanny. His mother, with whom he had little contact, died when he was 20 years old. In the piece, Loeb does not elaborate on his mothers’ tragic death — an alleged suicide after she shot and killed her second husband, newspaper publisher Jeffrey L. Bauer.

Loeb, 39 years old, has a varied repetoire of businesses and posts, including film and documentary production, dabbling with politics, and most recently starting a condiment venture.

Loeb, who claims he “has always dreamed of being a parent” cites a previous relationship with a girlfriend that resulted in a pregnancy and abortion, in which “the decision was entirely out of my hands,” as well as previous attempts to produce children with his ex-wife which proved fruitless for the couple.

Regardless of Loeb and Vergara’s notoriety, the op-ed raises questions about embryonic custody disputes and paternal rights.

“When we create embryos for the purpose of life, should we not define them as life, rather than as property? ” Loeb muses.

Do you think Loeb should be granted permission to bring the frozen embryos to life, regardless of the wishes of his ex, Sofia Vergara?

(Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Yahoo News)