Celebrities Who Have Used Donor Eggs

Egg donation is becoming an increasingly common way to grow a family, with tens of thousands of families using donor eggs each year. And while many families choose to keep the decision of using donor eggs private, some celebrities have hinted or spoken openly about their experience.  

The truth is, there are many more celebrities than we even know who used donor eggs to build their family. It’s their personal decision, and something that they may want to keep private. Or perhaps they want their children to have the option to know and share the information before random people on the internet know. 

On the other hand, when celebrities talk openly about their use of IVF and donor eggs, it helps normalize this experience for others. So while celebrities don’t have to speak publicly about using donor eggs, when they do they are helping so many other families.

Sometimes it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of using donor eggs. We find it can be helpful to read about famous faces who went through a similar journey. Promoting the wonders of egg donation to their audiences is a public service - and so, here, we’re happy to spotlight a few. Here is a list of celebrities who became parents through egg donation:

Mom celebrities who have spoken openly about donor eggs:

• Barbara Corcoran had a son, Tom, at age 46 through donor eggs from her sister.
• Mariah Carey used donor eggs to get pregnant with her twins after suffering a miscarriage. 
• Mary Coustas, actress and comedian, shared that she did 15 rounds of IVF “before I came to the conclusion that I should use donor eggs as an option. And I wish I knew 10 goes before, that was an option for me.”
• Marcia Cross used donor eggs to conceive her twins, Savannah and Eden.
• Brittany Daniel, star of 'Sweet Valley High' used her sisters eggs and a gestational carrier to have a child after battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
• Camille Guaty-Kaye, actress, shared that after five years of failed IVF, she had her baby with donor eggs. “I share my story not because I think it's unique, but because I think it's something we don't talk about. I want to inspire women to start speaking out about their fertility challenges. Let's encourage these conversations, so we can build awareness and advocate for each other and future generations of women.”
• Sonia Kruger, TV host, got pregnant at 48 with the help of donor eggs from a close friend. “'Genetics are immaterial,” she said. “DNA has nothing to do with a mother's love for her baby.”
• Tina Malone got pregnant using donor eggs at the age of 50 with just one round of IVF.

Dad celebrities who have spoken openly about donor eggs:

• Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka talk openly about using an egg donor to conceive their twins. They used each of their sperm to create embryos, and the family has chosen to not find out which child is from which sperm.‍
• Perez Hilton used an egg donor to have his three children, and said one of the main reasons he chose his (anonymous) egg donor is because she seemed nice.‍
• Ricky Martin has twins from donor eggs, saying they have “polar-Opposite” personalities.‍
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family star, has had two children through donor eggs. He said “the hardest part of the process was choosing an egg donor”. 

Celebrities who have had children after 45:

A natural pregnancy after age 45 is extremely rare, and even with IVF, the chances of getting pregnant with your own eggs at 45 is just 5% (it’s 1% at age 50). Getting pregnant after 45 generally means someone used frozen eggs (either from their younger self, or from an egg donor).

• Susan Sarandon, 45
• Chloë Sevigny, 45
• Savannah Guthrie, 45
• Jane Kaczmarek, 46
• Halle Berry, 47
• Cameron Diaz, 47
• Holly Hunter, 47
• Kelly Preston, 47
• Tamron Hall, 48
• Rachel Weisz, 48
• Geena Davis, 48
• Hilary Swank, 48
• Beverly D'Angelo, 49
• Laura Linney, 49
• Janet Jackson, 50
• Naomi Campbell, 50 
• Hoda Kotb, 52
• Nichole Kidman, 53
• Salma Hayek, 54
• Naomi Watts, 54
• Kelly Wearstler, 55

Tens of thousands of families have babies each year through egg donation, and celebrities are no different. While some celebrities choose to speak openly about their decision to use donor egg IVF, others choose not to. Looking at the data, we can speculate that many people over 45 (celebrity and otherwise) use frozen eggs to conceive. But if those frozen eggs were from their own egg freezing cycle years ago, or from a donor egg freezing cycle, is their story to tell.

‍Cofertility is a human-first fertility ecosystem rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. With our Freeze by Co platform, women can freeze their eggs for free when they donate half of the retrieved eggs to a family who can’t otherwise conceive. Our Family by Co platform serves as a more transparent, ethical egg donor matching platform. We are obsessed with improving the family-building journey — today or in the future — and are in an endless pursuit to make these experiences more positive.