Spanish TV star says her adopted baby was conceived using her late son's sperm

The front cover of "Hola", a Spanish celebrity magazine, is seen at a cafeteria bar showing a picture of 68-year-old television star Ana Obregon amid controversy of surrogacy, in Barcelona, Spain April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

MADRID (Reuters) - A 68-year-old Spanish TV actress said that her newly adopted daughter was conceived using her dead son's frozen sperm and is in fact her granddaughter, reigniting a debate over the bioethics of surrogacy and children's right to privacy in Spain.

The weeks-old baby, named Ana Sandra, was born to a surrogate mother identified on Wednesday by the Lecturas magazine as a Cuban woman living in Miami, Florida.

"This girl isn't my daughter, but my granddaughter," TV actress Ana Obregon told celebrity magazine ¡Hola! in an interview, posing with the baby for the cover.

"If that was my son's last will and testament, how could I not do it?" she said, adding that only parents who had lost a child have a right to express an opinion on the matter.

Obregon's only biological child, her son Aless Lequio, died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 27. He was related through his father to Spain's King Felipe VI.

¡Hola! reported on March 29 that Obregon had adopted a child born through a surrogate pregnancy in Miami, sparking a debate in Spain where all forms of surrogacy - including so-called "altruistic" ones where no money changes hands - are illegal.

Following that report, several government ministers criticised the practice.

"It is a form of violence against women," Equality Minister Montero said, adding that there was a "clear poverty bias" with regards to women who become surrogate mothers due to financial need.

Neither the actress nor her management agency have responded to a Reuters request for comment.

Obregon told ¡Hola! that surrogacy was not controversial in the United States.

"People here are open-minded, but in Spain, my God, we are in the last century," she said, adding that her son had originally wanted five children so she could not rule out further surrogate births using his sperm.

Obregon rose to prominence in the 1980s and starred in Spanish sitcoms in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She also made cameo appearances on U.S. TV shows such as "The A-Team", "Who's The Boss?" and "General Hospital".

On Wednesday, she said on her Instagram account that a book co-written with her son would go on sale on April 19.

(Editing by Aislinn Laing and Gareth Jones)