'This is not a gay issue' – Big Brother star Brian Dowling hits out at surrogacy laws

By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

Former Big Brother host Brian Dowling has hit out surrogacy laws after he revealed he is not recognised as the father of the two children he shares with his partner.

Dowling and Arthur Gourounlian have two daughters, Blake and Blu, through a surrogate, Dowling’s sister Aoife, and she is recognised on their birth certificate but not him, he says.

The TV presenter, 46, told ITV’s Loose Women: “I think in Ireland, the lack of legislation, I think people sometimes always see surrogates as victims and my sister Aoife is certainly no victim.

“She’s a very strong, strong woman, and just so graceful and just handed it with… I don’t know where she gets her strength from, honestly, because what she’s done is so courageous, and kind of put herself in the firing line as well for a lot of hatred, a lot of trolling.”

A post shared by Brian Dowling Gourounlian (@bprdowling)

He added that everyone has “the same rights over my children” as he does currently.

Dowling says: “Arthur is the biological father of both our children. I even hate saying that sentence, because I feel like it, degrades and devalues my relationship with my children at the moment.

“Aoife is the legal mother to both our children, not the biological mother, because we used an egg donor, and, Arthur is the biological father, so they are on the birth certificate. I’m not.

“And we are hoping there will be a time soon in Ireland where my name will be on it. I feel like, because it’s a legal document for the girls, and that, we are both their parents, and also for Aoife.

“Aoife does not want her name on a legal document, for a child that’s not hers.

“Change is needed, change is coming, but you have to fight hard to get it. I think people think surrogacy is a gay issue. It is not a gay issue, it is a family issue. It affects so many people, and so many people have been fighting this fight long before us.”

He also said he was “very fearful of what the relationship would be like” between his first child and Aoife, but she is seen as their aunt.

“We’ve never done this before,” Arthur said. “So we’re just floating into this water, just going with the flow.”

Dowling, from Co Kildare, won the second series of the reality show in 2001, and triumphed on the spin-off show Ultimate Big Brother in 2010.

He took over from Davina McCall, when the reality series moved to Channel 5. Dowling was replaced by Emma Willis, and the show was then cancelled in 2018 before being resurrected by ITV in 2023.

Dowling is a presenter on ITVBe reality series The Real Housewives Of Cheshire.