Riley Keough used a surrogate to have her child. Here's why — and what it means.
"I think it’s a very cool, selfless and incredible act that these women do to help other people," the new mom says.
Actress Riley Keough and her husband Ben Smith-Petersen became parents to a baby girl in August 2022, but the news didn't break until this past January, during the memorial service for her mother, Lisa Marie Presley. After Smith-Petersen — who married Keough in 2015 — referenced their daughter in a moving speech he gave on his wife's behalf, a representative for the Mad Max: Fury Road star confirmed to Yahoo that the couple had welcomed a baby.
Keough, fresh from receiving an Emmy nomination for Daisy Jones & the Six and being named the new owner of Graceland, is now sharing more details about her child, a year-old girl named Tupelo in honor of her grandfather Elvis Presley's Mississippi birthplace. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the 34-year-old Keough also revealed that Tupelo was delivered via a surrogate. Here's why — and what the surrogacy process entails.
Why Keough and Smith-Petersen opted for a surrogate
While many heterosexual couples turn to surrogacy due to infertility, Keough told Vanity Fair that she has no issues conceiving.
"I can carry children, but it felt like the best choice for what I had going on physically with the autoimmune stuff," explained the actress, who detailed her struggle with Lyme disease in the interview. The tick-borne illness typically entails flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, fatigue and muscle and joint aches, as well as swollen lymph nodes.
Keough, who traveled to Switzerland for treatment for her Lyme disease, also spoke of her gratitude for the surrogacy process.
“I think it’s a very cool, selfless and incredible act that these women do to help other people," she told Vanity Fair.
What is gestational surrogacy?
Keough did not disclose any details about the woman who gave birth to her daughter, but her comments in the interview about Tupelo's physical resemblances to her parents — "she’s literally like someone shrunk my husband and that’s our baby," she says, adding that the baby's blonde curl is something she herself passed on — suggests that this was a case of gestational surrogacy rather than traditional surrogacy, the latter of which is "less common and legally and emotionally riskier," notes American Surrogacy.
Per Surrogate.com, in traditional surrogacy, a surrogate uses her own eggs and is therefore the biological mother of the child. In gestational surrogacy, the surrogate has no genetic link to the baby, as an embryo is created using an egg from the intended mother (in this case, Keough) or, if necessary, an egg donor, fertilized with the sperm from the father (or a sperm donor) and transferred to the surrogate, who carries the pregnancy and gives birth.
Compensated surrogacy vs. altruistic surrogacy
Again, Keough did not reveal the terms of her surrogacy arrangement. For some couples who rely on surrogacy to become parents, a close friend or family member — such as a grandma — may offer to be a surrogate without receiving financial compensation. If money is exchanged, that is considered compensated, or commercial, surrogacy. As previously reported by Yahoo Life, compensated gestational surrogacy is not legal in all U.S. states. Michigan, Nebraska and Louisiana outlaw the practice, while other states have various statutes that make surrogacy contracts unenforceable. New York, meanwhile, only legalized compensated gestational surrogacy in 2021.
International laws regarding compensated surrogacy also vary. In Canada, for example, surrogacy is only allowed for altruistic reasons, and intended parents cannot pay for anything beyond out-of-pocket expenses (such as medical bills, prenatal vitamins or anything else required for the pregnancy). Some other countries technically allow surrogacy but don't enforce surrogacy agreements — which means the surrogate would hold parental rights until a legal transfer is approved after birth — while others ban it outright. That includes Spain, whose government criticized actress Ana Obrégon earlier this year after the Spanish star revealed that she'd hired a surrogate in the U.S. to carry a child created using a donor egg and her late son's stored sperm. To bypass Spain's crackdown on surrogacy, Obrégon shared that she planned to legally adopt her grandchild before bringing her back to her home country, Yahoo Life reported at the time.
What does compensated surrogacy cost?
While it varies depending on location and experience, the typical compensation for a surrogate in the United States ranges between $30,000 and $60,000, the New York Times reported in 2021. As recently reported by Yahoo Life, the latest "State of Surrogacy" survey from surrogacy agency Surrogate First found that expected base salary compensation rates and benefits have increased by up to 35%, and doesn't account for legal costs, agency fees and fertility treatments. All told, the entire process can result in fees between $100,000 and $150,000, per the Associated Press.
What other celebrities have turned to surrogacy?
Andy Cohen, Gabrielle Union, Kim Kardashian, Khlo? Kardashian, Jamie Chung, Chrissy Teigen and Rebel Wilson are among the celebrity parents who have welcomed children via surrogate.
