One year after getting married, Colton Underwood has revealed he and his husband, Jordan C. Brown, are expecting their first child.
Underwood posted an image from an ultrasound scan to his social media.
“Our little boy is coming this fall 💙” he said in an accompanying caption.
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He also linked to an exclusive story in Men’s Health in which he talks about discovering he had a low sperm count and the challenges he faced in starting a family.
He says that after they wed, both he and Brown went to provide sperm samples for analysis.
Underwood says he presumed both samples would be fine: “We’re healthy.”
Before finding fame on The Bachelor, Underwood was briefly affiliated with the NFL. He was signed in 2014 as a free agent for the San Diego Chargers and then for the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad. He then joined the Oakland Raiders’ practice squad in 2015 but was released later that year.
Underwood then discovered reality TV fame on The Bachelor. However, he came out as gay in 2021, at the age of 29. He subsequently made a documentary series for Netflix about coming out.
Discovering his fertility issues
Once he and Brown provided their sperm samples, they were called back a few days later to a doctor’s office in California.
Brown, Underwood recalls, had a “crazy amount of sperm, like 50 or 55 million.” However, the news was not good for Underwood. The doctor told him he only found four sperm cells.
“And three of them are dead. Word for word, what the doctor said, he goes, ‘Uh, I can maybe make this one work.’ This one?!”
Men’s fertility rates have been falling for the past few decades, down a shocking 50% in the past 38 years. There are likely many reasons for this, but experts believe an increase in man-made chemicals that impact our hormones are a major factor.
Understandably, knowing he was not alone in having a low sperm count was not much comfort to Underwood.
His doctor advised him to make some lifestyle changes. They said that because of his intense workouts and daily use of hot tubs and saunas, his balls were possibly exposed to too much heat.
They also told him to stop taking testosterone supplements as this can fool the body into thinking it doesn’t need to produce the hormone itself. This is like switching off your balls, where testosterone is produced.
Underwood followed his doctor’s orders. Six months later, his sperm count had returned to normal levels. It allowed him and Brown to continue their journey to parenthood.
Surrogacy
They opted for a surrogate. Once they matched with an egg donor, doctors obtained 22 eggs from her. Underwood and Brown evenly divided their sperm. Three eggs were fertilized. The healthiest one was chosen to be implanted in their chosen surrogate.
Underwood says that when the embryo transfer was happening, he and Brown marked it in their own, unique way.
They had sex.
“We just thought that, as the transfer is happening, it’s really important that we feel a part of it somehow,” Underwood says. “Because we’re building our family in love.”
The couple says they plan to have two kids. Whoever’s sperm wasn’t used this time will be used the second time. They don’t, as yet, know whose sperm was successful this time but think it won’t be hard to tell. We presume a test will be done if there’s any doubt!
Meeting and marrying
Underwood and Brown met at a party in April 2021. They were first linked when paparazzi shots emerged of them kissing on a vacation to Hawaii in September 2021. In December of that year, Underwood publicly confirmed the romance and said they were “in love”.
They became engaged in February 2022 and married in Napa Valley in May 2023. Underwood recently posted about their anniversary on Instagram.
“Happy Anniversary to the man that challenges me to be a better version of myself every day,” Underwood said. “Loving you is easy and I can’t believe I get to do it for the rest of our lives. Love you, sharks.”
Underwood’s post about expecting a child has received hundreds of congratulatory messages. However, as a Christian, Underwood has also attracted some criticism from other people of faith. Others have questioned the choice of surrogacy over adoption.
However, most just wished him well.
“As a devout Christian, I am taught to show others kindness and grace as Jesus showed us,” was one well-liked comment on Instagram. “Do I agree with everything that Colton and his husband do? No. But there’s a lot of things and people in this world I disagree with.”
“Also, who am I to judge? I’m not perfect. I’ve done things that our Father doesn’t approve of. So have every single one of you. That being said, I am absolutely thrilled that these two are going to be parents. I only know what I have seen on social media, but they seem like a lovely couple who have a place in their heart and love to give a child. What more can you ask for?”
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‘Bachelor’ alum Colton Underwood marries Jordan C Brown in Napa Valley
“I’ve never been more sure about something,” says Underwood.
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