Shilpa Shetty to Shah Rukh Khan: Bollywood celebrities who welcomed children via surrogacy

Actress Shilpa Shetty surprised all when she announced the birth of her second child early this morning. The actress and her businessman hubby Raj Kundra, who are parents to a 7-year-old son Viaan Raj Kundra, welcomed a baby girl via surrogacy, it was reported. Shilpa has now joined the long list of Bollywood stars including Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, Tusshar Kapoor and several other celebrities who opted to turn parents through surrogacy. Let's take a look at stars who took a different route to welcome their little bundles of joy.

Shilpa Shetty and husband Raj Kundra were blessed with a daughter, Samisha Shetty Kundra through surrogacy on February 15, the proud parents announced on social media.

"Samisha Shetty Kundra... Born:15th February 2020 ... Junior SSK in the house.... 'Sa' in Sanskrit is 'to have' and 'Misha' is Russian stands for 'someone like God'... You personify this name, our Goddess Laxmi and complete our family," Shilpa wrote as she shared a glimpse of baby Samisha.

Kapoor siblings, Tusshar and Ekta also joined the parent’s club when they welcomed their kids through surrogacy. While it was Tusshar who took the first step in the family to become a single parent and welcomed son Laksshya Kapoor in June 2016, Ekta followed behind and welcomed a son, Ravie Kapoor in January 2019. Both parents have been opening up about their fulfilling and joyous experiences of becoming parents, while also sharing little glimpses of their babies from time to time. Last year, it was also revealed that Ekta had been through a 7-year-long journey with multiple unsuccessful IUI and IVF attempts, before finally opting for surrogacy.

Bollywood director Karan Johar took the brave step and opted to become a single parent when he welcomed twins Roohi Johar and Yash Johar through surrogacy in February 2017. The protective father kept the news of his babies arrival under wraps for months before he finally made the big announcement via his social media handle. Since then, the star has been speaking his heart about the joys of parenthood and has given his mother Hiroo Johar due credit for her active role in co-parenting his kids.

Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan opted for surrogacy to welcome their third child – AbRam Khan in May 2013. “Amidst all the noise that has been going around, the sweetest is the one made by our new-born baby, AbRam. He was born prematurely by several months but has finally come home,” SRK had said in a statement at that time. Since then, AbRam has become quite a popular star kid and has been a paparazzi favourite. From accompanying his superstar dad for vacations around the world to greeting fans outside Mannat, AbRam is one kid who doesn’t seem to mind all the love and attention.

Actor and director Sohail Khan and wife Seema Khan also decided to go the surrogacy way to have their second baby ten years after the birth of their first son, Nirvaan. The couple considered IVF surrogacy as an option and their second child, Yohan, was born in June 2011.

Actor Aamir Khan and his filmmaker wife Kiran Rao were among the first few celebrity couples to go public about their decision to have their child Azad, through IVF surrogacy. The star couple even went on record to state that that they decided to take the surrogacy route as Kiran had suffered a miscarriage and uterine complications. Aamir, who was a father of two children - Junaid and Ira, from his previous marriage to Reena, welcomed Azad in December 2011.