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Sofia Vergara with Joe Gonzalez in 2014 AP/Press Association Images
Modern Family

Sofia Vergara "doing the right thing" by refusing her ex custody of frozen embryos

She is engaged to fellow actor Joe Manganiello.

TELEVISION STAR SOFIA Vergara has broken her silence about her legal battle with her ex-boyfriend over control of the frozen embryos the pair conceived while they were still a couple.

In an interview on Monday, the 42-year-old “Modern Family” star insisted she’s “doing the right thing” in refusing to sign over custody of the embryos to businessman ex-boyfriend Nick Loeb.

IVF

Loeb, 39, signed an agreement with Vergara, America’s top-earning TV star, in November 2013 before they proceeded with in vitro fertilisation, stating that nothing could be done with the embryos unless they both agreed.

Loeb, however, is suing the actress for custody, saying that the agreement did not clearly state what would become of the embyros if he and Vergara were to break up.

The fertilised eggs remain in a Florida clinic, and Vergara refuses to give him permission to unfreeze them.

“Can you blame me?,” the Colombian-born bombshell said on the “Howard Stern Show” of her decision not to allow the embryos to be implanted in a surrogate mother.

A child brought into the world, Vergara said, needs “more than a mother, it needs a loving relationship of parents.”

I’m doing the right thing.
I didn’t do anything wrong. You know, because somebody changes their mind.

Loeb gave his side of the dispute in an opinion article published last week in the New York Times.

“A woman is entitled to bring a pregnancy to term even if the man objects. Shouldn’t a man who is willing to take on all parental responsibilities be similarly entitled to bring his embryos to term even if the woman objects?” the Florida businessman wrote.

These are issues that, unlike abortion, have nothing to do with the rights over one’s own body, and everything to do with a parent’s right to protect the life of his or her unborn child.

The actress, who broke up with Loeb in 2014 and has an adult son, became engaged late last year to Hollywood actor Joe Manganiello.

- © AFP, 2015

Read: Sofia Vergara’s ex-fiance starts legal battle to use couples’ frozen embryos>

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