A woman has been left heartbroken after discovering she is raising another woman’s child after her husband cheated on her. The 36-year-old, who has spent much of her adult life struggling with fertility issues, decided to turn to IVF to help her have a biological child.
Two years ago, she welcomed her son thanks to the help of her college friend, who carried the child as a surrogate. But after pouring her heart and soul into raising the child for two years, she came to learn he is not her biological son.
She said on Reddit: “I can’t believe my life has come to this. I have been with my husband, 35, for a total of almost 10 years, married for seven. We had what I thought was my child by surrogate over two years ago because after four years of trying to conceive with no success despite medical interventions, it turns out I am unable to carry a child to term. I had always wanted to be a mum.”
She turned to her college friend for help, who already has two children, and she agreed to be their surrogate without giving it a second thought. It took three IVF attempts for her to fall pregnant – and nine months later, she gave birth to their happy, healthy baby boy.
Throughout the process, the three formed a strong friendship and this continued after the child’s birth, with her friend and husband now spending time with each other without her too. She added: “I was so happy and busy after the birth, between being a mum and returning to work after a four week parental leave, so I didn’t notice any warning signs.
She explained how she would return home for the weekend and see her friend and husband relaxing in front of the TV together. She said: “I chalked it up as innocuous and it’s good for her to know my husband better since she was in the process of hopefully carrying our child for us.” But finally, the truth came out when she took her son to a routine doctor’s appointment, where they tested his blood.
“He had a blood type that is not biologically possible to have with me as his mother,” she added. “He’s B+, I’m A+, husband is O+. I started worrying it was the fertility clinic’s fault and that they’d messed up and implanted a wrong embryo. I started lining up lawyer consultations to possibly sue the clinic and looked into having a DNA parentage test done.
“The test results showed that I’m not the mother but my husband still is the father. I was heartbroken and angrier than ever, talked to lawyers about medical malpractice in the fertility clinic we’d used. Then my husband confessed that he’d slept with my friend (our surrogate) on a few different occasions during our struggle to have her get pregnant with our embryos.
“This means what I thought was our son conceived by IVF and carried with a surrogate, isn’t my son at all and was in fact conceived the old fashioned way, which I can’t ever do.” Heartbroken, the woman says she doesn’t know how the process the betrayal and now wants nothing to do with her husband or his son.
She said: “I had such white hot rage and delirium, I immediately left home and stayed at a hotel for almost a week before asking my parents to let me stay at home for a while. I admit I left our son with him. I am now filing divorce because he cheated and betrayed me in the worst possible way.
“I have also cut off my friendship with my ‘friend’ the ‘surrogate’ and feel afraid to trust anyone else now. I have seen a divorce lawyer to see about giving up my legal rights to this kid so I don’t have to face such betrayal or owe child support.”
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