Drewitt-Barlow

Barrie Drewitt and Tony Barlow, known as Drewitt-Barlow, male homosexual couple who became the first in England, UK, to obtain children by means of paid IVF and surrogacy. Until 2015, they ran a surrogacy business The British Surrogacy Centre in Maldon, Essex UK. Since then they have moved to the USA. They have courted publicity in every possible way, by displaying themselves and their five children from birth onwards on TV series, in newspapers and on social media such as Facebook and Instagram.

After the UK legalized same-sex marriage in 2013 the Drewitt-Barlows threatened to sue the Church of England (which has a legal exemption from conducting same-sex marriages) for refusing to marry them. They claimed to be practicing members of the church.

Jilted Bride

Barrie and Tony met in Manchester in 1989, two weeks before Tony was supposed to be marrying a woman. He broke off the engagement. The honeymoon in Barbados had been booked, so Barrie and Tony went on it together instead of the jilted fiancée.

Quarrels with Surrogate Mothers

In 1999, they had the first of their surrogate children, using a woman in America, Tracie McCune as egg-donor. They later fell out with Ms McCune who accused them of bringing the children up as "spoilt brats". They had a similar disagreement and stand-off with Rosalind Bellamy, who gestated the babies.

Litigation

In 2004, the couple moved to Spain, blaming the "homophobia" they had encountered in England, They claimed that people had sent them threats of violence and kidnapping, but although these claims were accepted by pro-LGBT newspapers such as The Guardian, no evidence for them was ever shown. In Spain they set up their own school for children of ex-pats, and enrolled around 70 children, charging a registration fee of around £500, and annual fees of £3,000. Barrie, who was unqualified, did some of the teaching himself. However, it turned out that they had not completed the legal requirement of applying for a licence, and so the local authority closed the school down. Once more, Barrie blamed "homophobia". Many of the parents of pupils were furious, several asserting strongly that the Drewitt-Barlows had assured them that the school was licenced and legal. One commented, "'It was all a pack of lies. The traumatic effect on my daughter has been awful. She has lost all her friends and her confidence. Barrie blames everybody else when things start going wrong and nearly always accuses his critics of being anti-gay."

In the wake of this, around thirty parents banded together to file a £300,000 breach of contract lawsuit for compensation against the Drewitt-Barlows, in the Spanish courts. Barrie responded with death-threats. He warned one mother: 'You're number one on my list. I'm going for your jugular. I have already dealt with people like you.' And he told another mother: 'I have already dealt with people like you. I'm going to bring people over from England to shoot you.' He was convicted of threatening behaviour, but got off with a fine of only £90.

Business Investigated

On their return to England, they set up a new company, Euroderm, which was closed down and subjected to investigation in March 2008. A drugs testing business, Euroderm had siphoned thousands of pounds into a sister hair care company and then collapsed, resulting in creditors being left £542,000 out of  pocket. As a result of this the Drewitt-Barlows were banned from holding any directorships for eight years. The business was also investigated for allegedly faking scientific data.

Far from Monogamous

In October 2006, the pair were criticized by children's charity Kidscape for placing pictures of themselves with their children on a homosexual link-up website, Gaydar, where homosexuals advertise for more sex partners and encounters. Stating their ages to be 32 (in reality 37 and 42) they admitted to a taste for "'firemen, footballers and married men,"" blatantly setting out to break up other people's marriages and recruit heterosexual men into a homosexual lifestyle.

In 2013 they had a lavish civil wedding ceremony, before which they contacted Christian groups opposed to same-sex "marriage" and urged them to turn up and protest as it would attract more publicity.

Long-Lost Son

In 2008 Barrie discovered that he had fathered a son, Colin, by a very brief encounter in 1987. He told Woman's Own magazine that it was a "drunken night with my neighbour". Colin was 21 when he finally met his father, who had contributed nothing to his upbringing, financially or otherwise.

Response to Surrogacy Investigation

In 2014, a journalist alleged that the Drewitt-Barlows' surrogacy business was breaking UK and USA laws by advertising for women to act as commercial surrogates in those countries, where payment for surrogacy is illegal. Barrie Drewitt-Barlow responded by sending the journalist the following Email:-

From: Barrie Drewitt-Barlow <barrie@BSC-AMERICA.COM> To: L--- M--- . . . Sent: Friday, May 2, 2014 9:26 AM Subject: RE: i always have the last word . . . This time, you have met someone who is not only wealthier than you who can fight your pathetic attempt to blacken their name, but someone who is far more intelligent then you and someone who actually, does not give a shit about what anyone else in the world thinks of him! . . . Do yourself a big favour and move on, you cannot win a fight against me, I’m far too well respected for some little idiot like you to do anything to. And as far as using other people to do the job for you as you say, hahahhahahaha I laugh in your face, and say to you, BRING IT ON, my vast wealth and contacts will crush anyone you bring onto your team! . . . [T]onight, I will sit in my 16 bedroomed, £18 million pound London mansion, sipping champagne and eating the finest foods available to me, cooked by the house keeper and served by one of our three live in maids, before tucking my stunningly good looking 5 children up in their amazing bedrooms! After which, I will go for a swim in my swimming pool with my husband and talk about how much money we have made over the past 48 hours whilst YOU, sit in the poverty of your own making! Now do something worthy with your miserable life and get a job! You prick! lolol

The message is not quite accurate in certain respects. The Drewitt-Barlows did not own any house in London, let alone an £18 million mansion. They lived in a rented house in Chelmsford, Essex, owned by a policeman. They told a newspaper around this time that they had no maids - only a housekeeper, and Barrie's parents, who lived with them.

The boast "my vast wealth and contacts will crush anyone" possibly sounds like an admission that the pair, who call themselves "GayDads" had found ways and means of obtaining favorable treatment in previous cases where people had attempted to prosecute them.

In another case, when a journalist criticized the couple's business record, Barrie Drewitt immediately contacted the editor, demanding that the writer should be sacked.

Accused of Breaking Laws on Surrogacy

In 2017, Baroness Warnock of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority called for an official investigation of the BSC. She said that from what she had found out, the Drewitt-Barlows' business was apparently operating in defiance of UK laws on commercial surrogacy and was exploiting both would-be parents and surrogate mothers. Investigative journalists, posing as potential clients, had been told about loopholes and ambiguities used by the Drewitt-Barlows, and had also been quoted very high fees, which were difficult to justify. She said, ‘It seems pretty clear that they are breaking the law. I think their motive is to get around the law and they should be investigated by the authorities on that basis alone. I would like to know the details of their financial profits and I think certainly the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority should investigate their activities. This is a plain case of exploitation.’

Cruelty to Applicants

In a recent case, Barrie Drewitt-Barlow offered one infertile woman a reduced fee on condition that she appeared with him on a TV documentary about her quest for a child. Then, on camera, he turned her down, and said she was not suitable. He proceeded to denounce her on Twitter, using her real name, and telling her she did not meet their standards, and she had "mental health issues". The victim says she contemplated suicide as a result.

Sued by Surrogate Mother in America

In 2015, Megan Hoffner, an American woman hired by the Drewitt-Barlows company to act as a surrogate mother, complained to newspapers that she had been appallingly treated, had lost money the deal and had been abused as "trailer trash" by Barrie. She delivered twins for their client, but was left $60,000 in debt and risked loss of her home .

Ms Hoffner, a 35 year old mother of two, in San Diego, described the Drewitt-Barlows as "grossly incompetent". They blamed the problems on that they were trying to supply the babies to clients in Brazil, where surrogacy is illegal. When she sent them repeated appeals for help with expenses she got abusive Emails in return. One said “I advised your Ips [Intended Parents] NOT to pay you anything at all because you are a crazy bitch who deserves to be locked up! Your Ips will not be paying you one more penny! I am so happy that they ran from you!’ Another says: “U (sic) should be ashamed of urself (sic) you utterly selfish cow! You are just trailer trash woman and I want nothing more to do with u! (sic) I will dig up all ur (sic) dirt including all the lawyers u p****d off on this case! You will not get one more penny, let’s face it ur (sic) contract will not stand up in any court in Brazil! Lol.”

The babies were grabbed from her while she was still under sedation from the caesarean and had not been paid the money contracted.

In 2016, another woman with experience in the surrogacy business wrote this on Facebook: "BSC is the very dark side of surrogacy! They could not care less about their surrogates or their IP'S unfortunately. My experience and 99% of the surrogates I've talked with that have went through BSC all have been through the worst with them. I was 3 hours away from dying and had to have emergency surgery due to the RE that they said we had to use, (found out later we didn't) patient neglect. I almost died and never once heard a word from BSC not to mention how they literally stole $20k+ from my FIF by telling him he needed to use one of their egg donors and so he chose a VIP proven donor and they made him pay 100% for donor before she was cleared medically and needless to say she was not cleared to due having major medical issues (disease that the bones deteriorate) and they never refunded his $ (had already spent it) and several rude emails were sent from the owners of BSC to my FIF. The agency is so in debt that the LA office had to close. Its all such a very sad story and has made me think twice about using another agency again due to the traumatic experience I had with them." And another woman writing on the same page reports from her personal experience of the Drewitt-Barlows: "These men are the worst. I had to block the on Facebook and Twitter after they came at my family, just because I (as a surrogate, and a human being) openly disagreed with their choosing the sex of their embryos to get another girl. They discussed it like it was choosing a car interior and my friends and I were attacked for pointing that out. Foul and loathesome."

Publicity-Seeking

Compulsive attention-seekers, the Drewitt-Barlows have two non-business websites and also appear regularly in TV documentaries, in which every detail of their children's existence, particularly their lavish allowances, and shopping habits, is reported avidly.