Andy Cohen isn’t staying quiet after tennis legend Martina Navratilova’s controversial tackle surrogacy. The Bravo host, 57, known as out the 68-year-old athlete in the course of the Tuesday, August 5 episode of “Andy Cohen Dwell” on Sirius XM — and didn’t maintain again.
Cohen, who’s a father to 2 youngsters — son Benjamin, 6, and daughter Lucy — each born by way of surrogacy, took main challenge with Navratilova’s blunt stance. The previous tennis professional had declared that “surrogacy is mistaken” in a now-deleted tweet, sparking backlash on-line and, now, from Cohen himself.
“What Martina tweeted was, ‘Surrogacy is mistaken.’ She mentioned, ‘Surrogacy is simply mistaken. Generally you possibly can’t have all of it.’ Properly, right here’s the deal, that’s simply ill-informed and dumb,” Cohen mentioned on-air.
He added, “Principally, she’s uninformed on the problem, so I simply assume she’s not knowledgeable. It’s a nasty take. What can I inform you? She’s simply mistaken.”
Navratilova’s tweet, initially shared by way of X (previously Twitter) and later deleted, drew consideration when it was reposted by a fan account on July 13. Critics had been fast to level out the obvious hypocrisy, noting that Navratilova and her spouse, Actual Housewives of Miami star Julia Lemigova, adopted two boys. Some questioned how she may condemn one non-traditional path to parenthood whereas embracing one other.
“I requested Julia about it on WWHL,” Cohen mentioned in the course of the Sirius XM broadcast, referencing his different present Watch What Occurs Dwell.
He continued, “Julia and I’ve mentioned this offline. Martina is not going to be on the Miami reunion, so I cannot be asking Martina about this.”
Lemigova, 53, appeared on the July 30 episode of WWHL and addressed the controversy. She stood by her spouse however made it clear they don’t all the time agree — particularly on this challenge.
“Properly, you recognize, Martina and I share a mattress, however we don’t share a mind. And we don’t all the time agree on completely different views, however I consider in surrogacy,” Lemigova mentioned. “And I fully disagree along with her feedback.”
Cohen has all the time been vocal about his journey to fatherhood and the gratitude he feels towards the ladies who helped make it potential. In a 2022 Instagram submit, he referred to surrogates as “rockstars.”
He additionally mirrored on the importance of surrogacy in a heartfelt second with Anderson Cooper on New 12 months’s Eve in 2018.
“Once I was rising up, and after we had been rising up … I simply by no means thought it will be potential as a homosexual man to develop up and have a household,” Cohen mentioned. “And right here we’re in 2018, virtually ‘19, and something’s potential. And I’m so grateful to a beautiful surrogate that I’m working with.”
