Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish have become fathers after using a surrogate mother in the US.
The boy, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born in California on Christmas Day, the 63-year-old singer's publicist confirmed today.
Zachary, who weighed 7lb 15oz, is John's first child with Furnish, with whom he formalised a civil partnership in 2005.
In a joint statement, the couple told USMagazine.com that "Zachary is healthy and doing well" and declared themselves "overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment".
The identity of their son's surrogate mother is being protected by the parents. It is not known whose sperm was used.
The US is one of the most popular destinations for UK citizens hoping to enter into surrogate arrangements. In California, unlike in Britain, surrogates can legally be paid a fee for their services. Sums of £25,000 or more per baby are common.
One of the attractions of going abroad is that some foreign systems of law allow the intended parents to acquire parenthood status after surrogacy automatically. In certain US states, including California, parents who have paid a surrogate can apply for a pre-birth order. This means that they, and not the woman who delivered the baby, will be listed as parents on the original birth certificate, regardless of whose egg and sperm was used in conception.
Though surrogacy is legal in the UK, a surrogate can only be reimbursed with "reasonable expenses". It is illegal to advertise for a surrogate or for a surrogate to advertise, and it is against the law for a clinic to match surrogates with prospective parents.
Surrogacy has been regulated in Britain since 1985, after Kim Cotton was paid £6,500 to carry a child conceived using her own egg but the sperm of a man whose wife was infertile.
John had spoken previously of his desire to become a father,
announcing last autumn he wanted to adopt a 14-month-old boy from
an orphanage in Ukraine. He revealed that the couple had talked about adoption but that it was Furnish who wanted to do it and he who had objected because of his age.
It was the death of his long-term keyboardist, Guy Babylon, that
helped changed John's mind in the end. Babylon, who died last year of a heart attack aged 52, had two children whom the singer described
as "wonderful".
He said at the time: "What better opportunity to replace someone I
lost than to replace him with someone I can give a future to?"
But his plans to adopt were reportedly thwarted by Ukrainian laws.
John's friends congratulated him today on entering fatherhood.
Actor Elizabeth Hurley was among the first to offer her best wishes to the singer and his partner.
Writing on Twitter, she said: "Massive congratulations to David and Elton on having their beautiful son. Can't wait for my first cuddle."