Surrogacy row: Marriage registered 6 years ago, surrogate a relative, says Nayanthara

Chennai: Celebrity film couple Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan, facing a probe over surrogacy, had chosen the former's relative as the surrogate mother.

In an affidavit given to the Tamil Nadu health department, the couple also clarified that though they tied the knot in a ceremony in June this year, their marriage was registered six years ago.

They have also produced the marriage registration certificate along with the affidavit.

The development comes in the wake of a probe ordered by Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian to find out if the couple had violated surrogacy laws.

According to the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, enacted in 2021, the couple is deemed ‘eligible’ for surrogacy only if they have been married for five years. The wife must be aged between 25 and 50 years and the husband, between 26 and 55 years. The couple must not have any living child, biological or adopted.

As per the law, a surrogate mother has to be a close relative of the couple, a married woman with a child of her own, aged between 25 and 35 years, who has been a surrogate only once in her life.

It was on October 9 that the couple revealed they had become parents of twin boys.

The couple maintains that they have not violated any laws. According to them, the surrogacy agreement was signed last December.

The surrogate is indeed a relative of Nayanthara based in UAE who takes care of the latter's business in Dubai. The hospital in Chennai where the twins were born has also been identified.

Nayanthara, a leading actress in the south India, belongs to the Kodiyattu family based at Thiruvalla.

This is not the first surrogacy case among film stars. Earlier, Bollywood celebs like Karan Johar and Tusshar Kapoor, who aren't married, had children through surrogacy.

However, these cases were before the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act came into force in 2021.