Why I revealed that my twins were born by a surrogate mother – Chimamanda Adichie
Award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has opened up about her decision to publicly disclose that her twins were born through a surrogate.
The 47-year-old spoke about her reasons during a recent panel hosted by media personality Chude Jideonwo, saying it was important to speak the truth and challenge the stigma surrounding fertility.
Why did I say that I had my twins via a surrogate? Well, because it’s true.
There are certain things that you cannot hide, and you cannot hide the existence of two perfect beings. People just went off with this thing about me, ‘She’s 47 and she had babies,’ and I don’t like to lie about things that can be consequential for other people. I felt as though there’d be other women who would then be pressured and be told, ‘Look, she’s 47 and she has twins; what about you?
The celebrated novelist emphasised that while she is typically private, this disclosure was necessary to counter the pressure society places on women. She did not want to run the risk of potentially being used as a tool of oppression to other women who may be struggling.
Just in general, I think there’s so much shame around fertility that I think is too much of a burden on women. Women are ashamed when they have fibroids or when they have trouble getting pregnant and I don’t believe in that sort of shame.
The interviewer had said to me, ‘You look fantastic for someone who just had babies,’ and I wasn’t going to say thank you because that’s a lie , so I told her that they were born by a surrogate and I hear that there was a bit of noise about that.
