Britain’s first transgender parents introduced their second daughter to the world on Lorraine on Thursday 24 June, praising “what people can achieve when they're just given love and support”.
Jake, 42, and Hannah Graf, 34, spoke to TV host Lorraine Kelly with their newborn baby Teddy, who was born via surrogate and delivered by emergency C-section.
The couple are already parents to a two year old daughter named Millie Winter Grad, born in April 2020, who is believed to be the first baby born in the UK to transgender parents by surrogate.
The pair, who married in 2018, shared how happy they were with their two children, with Hannah praising how “lucky and privileged” they felt.
“When I came out as trans, I thought I was giving up the opportunity to be in a relationship, let alone find love, get married and have kids,” she explained.
“So you have to pinch yourself in the middle of the night to remind yourself that it's real. But we just feel so lucky and so privileged and we know that there are so many trans people who would love to have what we have and you know, we are where we are because of the support we've been given by our friends and family.”
She added: “So it just goes to show that's what you can. That's what people can achieve when they're just given love and support.”
However, the couple have also faced heartbreak on their journey to parenthood, when their surrogate Laura suffered an ectopic pregnancy.
Hannah said: "I think with Millie happening first time, we [had a] false sense of security… and then all of a sudden, Laura had to call us up and give it that that difficult news.
"And it was difficult for us, because we were emotionally grieving, and having lost a child we had a limited number of embryos to start off with so it really hurt us.
"But then Laura had to go through all the actual physical things that go along with ectopic pregnancy which is difficult for her."
Despite the ectopic pregnancy, Jake noted: "I mean, come on how lucky have we been – we've had two out of three, we've been absolutely blessed, and we know that every day."
Jake works as an actor, director and writer, having undertaken roles in films The Danish Girl and Collette.
Meanwhile, Hannah is an MBE and former officer in the British Army, having been deployed to Afghanistan, Kenya and Canada.
The couple, who live in South London, praised the kind messages they have received from the public, following becoming parents.
Jake said: “We get so many messages from people saying ‘I've never seen a trans person before… I didn't know that you are normal’. You know, we just need to see more trans people out there living our lives – and we are everything from doctors, to nurses, to actors, to activists.
“We're just the same as anybody else and we just want people to know that.”
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