EAGERLY-AWAITED photos of actress and comedienne Anabel Alonso's newborn son have finally appeared on social media, over two-and-a-half months after his birth.
Anabel made headline news in the celebrity press at the beginning of June after becoming a mum for the first time at the age of 55 – especially as nobody had realised until the spring that she even had a partner.
Heidi Steinhardt, who turned 43 last month, is from Argentina and works as a scriptwriter and producer for television and theatre, a job that normally has her 'on the go' between Buenos Aires and Madrid, although she settled in the latter a few weeks before giving birth so the baby could be with both his mums.
Ígor, who was born on May 24, is also Heidi's first child.
The couple married two months later, on July 25, although they dispensed with the pomp and circumstance completely – according to reports, they simply booked an appointment at a court in Madrid, signed the papers, and went home, with no guests, party or special clothes bought for the occasion and their only witness other than the court officials was newborn Ígor.
“It's amazing,” says Anabel of her new-found parenthood.
“Everyone tells you it's going to change your life, and it's incredible, until you experience it you don't realise just what a miracle it is.”
She says she 'couldn't ask for more' in life and that she and her wife are 'on cloud nine'.
Anabel has posted a picture of herself on Instagram (anabelalonso_of) holding Ígor, and Heidi uploaded one on her own site (heidisteinhardt) of her sitting on the edge of their swimming pool breastfeeding the baby.
Although most famous in Spain for her parts in sitcoms such as Aída and 7 Vidas, for having presented the New Year chimes from Madrid's Puerta del Sol square in 2007 and also, more recently the celebrity lookalike reality show Tu Cara Me Suena, as well as appearances in La Que Se Avecina and Masterchef Celebrity, Anabel – who will be 56 in November – has also been involved in films.
Cult director Pedro Almodóvar gave her a part in Kika in 1993 – where the lead and title rôle was played by Verónica Forqué, who recently joined British actress Sienna Guillory in the Anglo-Spanish film Remember Me – and she has also given voice to the dubbed Spanish versions of Finding Nemo, and the 2005 Hoodwinked!, the original voices for which included Glenn Close and Anne Hathaway.
Alonso dubbed the character of 'Twitchy', played in the English-language original by Cory Edwards.
Spain still one of the few countries that allow female couples to be mums
Anabel would not have been able to be Ígor's 'carrying' mum, since in Spain, private fertility clinics will only perform insemination or IVF on women aged up to and including 50 – right up until their 51st birthday – but unlike in many countries, even several EU member States, fertility treatment is available on the national health system for single mothers and all-female couples up to and including age 40, and private clinics will also treat both.
Egg-freezing, or embryo-freezing where a donor or a male partner or spouse is used, is becoming increasingly popular in Spain, which has one of Europe's highest ages for first-time mothers – an average of about 32, kept down by the typically much younger non-Spanish resident mums, although an estimated 70% of women aged 35 in Spain do not have children, even if this is in their eventual plans, and one in five first-time mums is aged over 40.
For this reason, fertility clinics operate in almost every large town and are covered by stringent legislation and quality standards – and are proving to be a highly-successful business venture.
Donor eggs, semen and even embryos are available via private clinics to single women and all-female couples, and Spanish law allows for both women, where they are a couple – even if they are not yet married to each other - to register as the child's legal parents.
Becoming parents together is much harder for all-male couples, since surrogacy remains illegal in Spain – or rather, not legally recognised, meaning the woman who agrees to be a surrogate is automatically registered as the mother and only the man who is biologically related to the child can register as the father, not his husband or partner.
Spain remains one of the few countries where egg, sperm and embryo donors not only remain completely anonymous – whether or not they want to be – but the recipient does not get to choose, or even have a say in, who the donor will be; in fact, they are not allowed to know anything about the donor's characteristics, only basic indicators of their physical appearance, and their nationality.
For many recipients and donors, this suits them fine, and they would not want to see a situation like in the UK whereby anonymity is no longer permitted and the child is allowed to make contact with the donor upon reaching age 18.
But for others, the freedom to choose at least certain characteristics of the donor, even if these would not allow the future child to trace his or her biological origins, is very important; Spanish law, however, links this knowledge and choice to anonymity or non-anonymity.
A debate has been under way since last year on whether anonymity should be optional, or dropped altogether, in Spain.
Those against changing the law fear donor numbers would plummet and point out that many would-be parents from countries where donor identity is not a secret choose to travel to Spain for fertility treatment because of the condition of anonymity.
Others, in favour of changing the law, say that although it is not a legal right in the EU, it is largely recognised that humans have a psychological need to know their biological origins, and that a high number of donor recipients would like to be able to have a choice, or at least, as much information as possible about the other 'parent' of their future child.
Egg- and semen-donors do not get paid in Spain, other than out-of-pocket expenses for travel and for working days lost.
Donor embryos are usually those unused or 'left over' by women who have had IVF and who are given the option to allow them to be used by other women to be able to have a child, although the maximum age of an embryo-donor is, like egg-donors, 35.
