Retail guru Mary Portas opened up about her unique family arrangement and the emotional reason behind asking her brother Lawrence to help
Mary Portas has shared intimate details about her family setup, revealing how her brother Lawrence is the biological father of her son. The retail expert became emotional while speaking on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast.
Mary, 65, cheekily made clear that her brother didn’t have relations with her former wife Melanie Rickey, but explained her wish to “have a bloodline” when Mel suggested having a baby.
“So, Mel decided she wanted a child, and I was very clear that I wanted to have a bloodline,” said Mary, who is also mum to twins Mylo and Verity from her first marriage to Graham Portas.
“I wanted, if I was going to have another child, I wanted to make sure that it was related in some way and biologically related to my other kids.”
She detailed how the “particular bond” she has with her younger brother Lawrence, combined with knowing he “didn’t particularly want to have children”, led her to ask him to donate sperm, reports the Mirror.
“He looked after me,” she said. “It was a real symbiosis. And Lawrence turned up to the old donor place and said, ‘Done it, sis!'”.
Mary also noted that her son Horatio, who was carried by Mel and born in 2012, bears a striking resemblance to her family line. “Lawrence lives abroad now, but he rings us regularly and they talk about football,” she added.
“God, it’s so boring!” Mary was visibly moved as she reminisced about the moment Lawrence first held Horatio. “The most beautiful time is when, you know… he came into the world and I rang Lawrence and Lawrence turned up and picked him up,” she shared.
“And it was like, it was his gift to me. God, I get emotional. It was his gift. And it was the greatest gift.”
Jamie probed further, asking: “Why the greatest gift?” Mary responded: “Oh my God, you know, like because of the years that we helped each other,” she explained. “You know, I was always his big sis,and then he was able to give me this gift.”
Social media was abuzz with reactions to Mary’s unconventional family setup. One user queried: “That is still quite a weird family setup. Is it his uncle or his dad?”.
Another admitted their confusion: “I consider myself open minded but that is very strange,” while a third confessed: “I’m confused and can’t get my head around this,”.
Yet, some defended the unique arrangement. “I would have 100% put this option on the table if my ex and I had got this far,” one person revealed.
“I wanted to be genetically related to the baby that she would carry from her egg. I think it’s beautiful that her and her brother have that relationship.”
Another user argued against the criticism, stating: “For all the people saying this is weird or odd, I am donor conceived and in my community this is actually considered to be the most ethical way of having a donor conceived child,”.
“They will always know the donor, they will know how many siblings they have, they will know his medical history and the non genetic mother will have a genetic connection to her own child (as the genetic aunt).
“What a beautiful gift to give to your sister,” another admirer chimed in.
The star of BBC’s Mary Queen Of Shops, along with Melanie Rickey, ended their relationship after 17 years. The couple has already offloaded their shared £5 million mansion in north London.
Fashion journalist Melanie birthed the duo’s son Horatio – conceived using sperm from Mary’s brother Lawrence – six years prior, and the pair upgraded their civil partnership to a full marriage in 2014.
In a statement clarifying their separation, the former couple stressed that no third party was involved. “After 17 years together we have decided to separate. There is no one else involved,” they declared.
“We have spent the last year consciously managing our separation in as good-heartedly, open, and mature a way as possible to ensure a smooth, amicable evolution for us.
“We remain a family, and are committed co-parents to three wonderful humans (plus Walter the dog! ) who are our priority. We remain good friends, and will share much together going forward.”
A mate of the couple told the Sun: “In the end they decided they were better off as wonderful friends.”
Mary began her relationship with Melanie in 2003. She had previously been wed to Graham Portas, with whom she shares two grown-up children.
Their marriage of 13 years ended that very same year. The television personality and former government consultant opened up about realising her authentic sexuality upon falling for her future spouse.
“It wasn’t a case of, ‘Ooh, I’ve been thinking about Linda Evangelista.’ So in one way, it was just about Melanie. But there was a sexual attraction. I do love women. What surprised me after was that so many women are fluid in this way. I’d meet them and they’d say, ‘I was married, now I’m with a woman’,” she added.
