Sperm donor explains why he fathered ten children for strangers

Kenzie Kilpatrick, 26, has tried to help 50 women with the result of fathering 10 babies by nine of them. Photo / 123RF

Cradling a baby in his arms, Kenzie Kilpatrick looks like any proud new dad.

But although he is the biological father of three-week-old Tylan, it's unlikely he will be holding him this close again.

Mr Kilpatrick, who is gay, donated his sperm to a lesbian couple so they could have this baby. The 26-year-old has fathered ten children by nine women in the past 13 months, giving his sperm free of charge to women he met through Facebook.

Mr Kilpatrick said he began donating sperm, mostly to lesbian couples, because he wanted to do something to help others.

His own upbringing means he does not think a man is a necessary ingredient in a happy family. Mr Kilpatrick's father walked out when he was five, leaving his mother to bring him up on her own.

"You would see him one year and then you wouldn't see him for a couple of years. I've only now, in my 20s, started speaking to him," he said.

"My mum taught me to shave. My mum taught me to drink a beer. She's my rock. With the lesbian couples I couldn't think of anything better than having two mums.

"My mum has been fab. Women just do a better job - they've got it in their blood."

Mr Kilpatrick, from Birmingham, did not know any of the women he has helped before meeting them online.

He claims to have been contacted by more than a hundred hopeful mothers from as far afield as Colombia, Mexico and Poland. But after fathering ten babies, he has decided to stop.

He is in the process of agreeing to co-parent a child - he and the mother will each care for the baby but will not be in a relationship.

Mr Kilpatrick was not paid for the sperm given to nine couples, asking only for travel and, if necessary, accommodation expenses.

He was working as a carer at the time but is now off work with depression and living on benefits. Tylan, the latest child he has fathered, is from a sample he gave to lesbians Gemma Hughes and Charlene Allen.

Miss Allen, 32, who has five other children from a previous relationship, and Miss Hughes, 25, trawled the internet looking for donors before they found Mr Kilpatrick, whom they described as "sensible, caring, and responsible".

Miss Hughes, an aerial fitter, said: "He will always be part of the family and when Tylan grows up I will tell him he has two mummies and a special man helped us have a baby".

Although Mr Kilpatrick has built a relationship with each of the couples he has helped, he does not see himself as a father. Describing his meeting with Tylan, he said: "It was fantastic but it wasn't like, 'Oh my God, it's my child'. I had no attachment. To do something like this you can't be attached."

Mr Kilpatrick has signed an agreement with each couple that they are not able to ask him for any financial support.

"I got it online. I don't even know if they stand legally to be honest. I trust these people," he said.

He added that his door will "always be open" to the children he has helped bring into the world.

"It's just a bit of an assurance so if we go to court then it's there in writing."

- Daily Mail