Former "Bachelor" Colton Underwood has been pursuing "daddyhood" (which also happens to be the name of his podcast) for more than two years, and he and his husband, Jordan C. Brown, announced on Instagram that they will be welcoming a baby boy in the fall.
"Our little boy is coming this fall 💙" the ex-NFL player captioned a photo carousel featuring an ultrasound image. He also posted a video to share his joy about the good news.
Becoming a father “has always been a goal of mine,” Underwood said in a backstage interview when he visited TODAY earlier this year. “It’s been something that I’ve always wanted to accomplish and I never thought it was possible as a gay man.”
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His path to parenthood wasn't an easy one.
Underwood was told early on that his active sperm count was low, so he worked with doctors to determine a “plan of action” that included changes to his lifestyle, diet and workout regimens. Though his husband didn't have the same issue, Brown made the same lifestyle changes to support Underwood.
Once Underwood's sperm count "bounced back," he and Brown began looking for a surrogate. They weren't looking for any specific physical attributes, he said: They were in search of personality traits.
Underwood told Men's Health, “We want somebody deep and cool. I believe in nature versus nurture. So give us the basics and we can show this kid love.”
In the couple's first conversation with an egg donor, they met virtually, and Brown and Underwood didn't use video or their real names. Fatefully, Underwood shared an elevator with his egg donor: He was heading to a routine physical and she was there for testing prior to her egg retrieval.
“So for me to share an elevator ride, as silly as it sounds, was such a bonding thing and also just such reassurance that we were on the right path,” Underwood told Men's Health.
Underwood and Brown divided their sperm between the surrogate's 22 eggs. They ended up fertilizing three embryos and transferred the one doctors deemed the "healthiest." The couple doesn't know whose sperm was used, but whoever is not the biological father of this child will go through the process again for their second child.
Their son is expected to arrive this October.
Until then, the couple will likely continue practicing parenting skills on their two dogs, a German Shepherd and an Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix.
“I’m more the cool and casual and calm dad," Underwood told TODAY.com in February 2024. "He very much has to be the disciplinarian. He’s pulled me aside multiple times to let me know that I have to start disciplining the dogs because they will hate him if not.”
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