About a year and a half ago, Neil Patrick Harris and his partner, David Burtka, welcomed baby twins (a boy and a girl) via surrogate, and David is also the father to another set of boy-girl twins (now aged 12 years) with a film-producer ex. So it’s safe to say that David really loves babies, right? Well David loves babies a lot, so much so that he’s trying to get Neil to go in for another one to give their twins a sibling. In response, Neil’s all, “Whoa, slow down!” — and friends say that the disagreement is so severe that Neil and Patrick might end up calling off their wedding:
The baby blues have hit Neil Patrick Harris and his gay partner David Burtka — and they’re dragging their feet on wedding plans, sources say.
The “How I Met Your Mother” star, 39, isn’t ready to give the couple’s young twins a sibling, but David is, and friends fear it could end their relationship.
“Neil loves being a dad to baby Gideon and his sister Harper, but he doesn’t want to re-create ‘The Brady Bunch,'” a friend told The Enquirer.
“He’s so busy with his acting career and other work that it would be circuit overload for him to add another child to the mix — and this has upset David.”
Neil, who came out of the closet in 2006, has been with 37-year-old David, an actor and celebrity chef, for eight years. They became dads when a surrogate delivered the twins in October 2010, and last year the pair announced plans to marry. But they haven’t moved forward with their wedding, and sources say the main sticking point is the size of their family.
“David believes that with all the good fortune they’ve had, they should share it with a large family,” said another source.
“But Neil was nervous as could be becoming a dad to twins. He can’t imagine going through that again.”
In a recent interview, the former “Doogie Howser, M.D.” star admitted he “didn’t love” his first months as a dad. “I struggled with it a lot,” Neil said, adding he’d often “pass off” the twins to David and tackle other household chores instead.
“They have a pretty good system now with the twins, but Neil can’t imagine adding another baby to the equation,” said the friend. “David, on the other hand, doesn’t see why they wouldn’t want to. If they can’t resolve this, it could be the end of them as a couple.
[From Enquirer, print edition, July 15, 2012]
If this is true, I find it bizarre that David, who is already the father of four kids, wants another one so soon. Surely he can be satisfied with the kids that he has already instead of straining his relationship and then ending up with another broken home. Here’s a few photos of Harper and Gideon with their nanny before a flight out of LAX back in February of last year. These kiddos are toddlers now, so they’ve got to be a handful. Why not wait at least another year or two before adding to the crew?
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet
I don’t believe a word of it. They’ll stay together 🙂 At least, I hope so!
Baby’s look cute. But what’s up with all those Harpers in Hollywood..
I don’t get it either – it is not a pretty name – I think many Canadians will not be giving this name to their offspring due to Canadas creepy corrupt David Miscavige look alike Prime Minister of the same name.
NPH and DB have stated they are fans of To Kill a Mockingbird and Harper’s name is inspired by Harper Lee.
As for the separation “rumor”, they’ve both dismissed it via their twitter accounts …
I love, love, love these two. If it is true I can kinda of see we’re Neil’s coming from. He was really open about the fact that he didn’t bond instantly with their babies. I really hope this is just a BS story cause I love David & think he does a super job on E & I don’t have enough words to describe how much I love NPH.
Oh wow I think he does a horrendous job on E and suspect he wouldn’t be on the show if he wasn’t NPH’s significant other. I cringe every time he is on.
Love me some NPH tho!
I love David on E. I think he does an amazing job. He is the reason that I watch E News every day.
Adorable, adorable babies. I gotta believe Neil’s bonded with them by now. But I don’t blame him one bit about putting the brakes on more kids right now. It’s smart to recognize and listen to what your gut tells you about your own limitations.
It’s why I only have two kids when I always imagined having 3 or 4, and still love the idea of a bigger family. But I seriously think I might have gone crazy with more than two and that would not be healthy for anyone.
NPH’s career is so hot, I totally understand why he wants to wait until he has a little more time to spend with another new baby.
I do not have kids but I know when I do, i do not want it be more than one. My fiance on the other hand would like two. I am afraid that any more than that, and i will be stretched to the limit. I like babies and kids in general, just never had the “dream” of becoming a mom *shrugs*
There is a good blog called Scary Mommy Confessions that may interest you – about real mothers not the ones like Gwyneth who wakes up singing like the little mermaid and poos out roses.
http://www.scarymommy.com/confessions/
Thankks MBR! I am already in love with the site! lol
OMG, that blog is painfully honest. It goes to show you that marriage and kids aren’t all rainbows and gum drops like some would have you believe. I always knew I never wanted that life, this just solidified my decision.
Not trying to sway you one way or another on a very personal decision but in a weird way, I find two easier than one. Before our second was born, my daughter wanted me to be her playmate 24/7. It made me crazy. Now that she has a sibling, they play together all day and I get a lot more alone time. It’s not what I expected but it’s great.
Oh I am waiting for those days! Younger one is just becoming old enough to get around on her own and take an interest in Older’s toys and activities. Oh, I can’t wait for the day when I can make dinner or do the laundry in peace!
Unless the difference in children’s ages are too far apart. Older kids don’t exactly want to get stuck playing house with a younger sibling.
never looked at it from this angle but you have a point
How sweet. The nanny is kissing baby head on last picture. They are lucky babies.
I know, right? Although it doesn’t take long to get attached to a snuggly baby, even if it isn’t your own.
Run Neil, Run!!
David is so smarmy.
I don’t believe it.. They are so cute together, cute babies too!
I doubt it. They seem pretty solid and on the same page.
Strange story. I don’t see why this would break them up, considering their twins are still in the baby/toddler phase, ie. a handful! IF the kids were like, 4-5 and starting school then I could see it. Maybe they could try adopting a slightly older child to expand their family? Or David’s *other* twins could spend a few weekends with them. It makes me suspicious that David wants a “band-aid” baby to fix their relationship.
Of course, this entire thing could be bullspit. That is what I really hope. There seems to be some sort of odd dislike/suspicious in the media of David, the stay-at-home, gay father who is less rich and famous. Like, how dare he play the role of many, many, many Hollywood wives?
First, David is only father to the children he has with NPH. The other children is his ex, not Davids.
Second, they discussed whether they would have more children at Oprah’s next chapter.
I call this article bullshit. Love NPH and David together and individually.
Yes, I saw that too and I call this as b.s. as well.
Yeah, the situation with David’s partners first kids was a little sketchy, because at one point, NPH referenced doing kid duty with them, but after a while, it was clear that the ex-partner had taken over sole parenting duties and David’s status had been more uncle than dad. (I’m going to risk a flame war and say that this is one reason why gay marriage needs to happen now: so the kids aren’t in limbo like that after a divorce/break-up.)
This story reads like complete fiction. NPH said something that a LOT of parents of twins say (especially the one in the working-parent role?) and someone spun out a trouble-in-paradise story from there. I don’t buy it.
David has never had any legal rights for his ex kids, which was planned long before David came into the picture.
That woulkd mean he has nothing he could say, his ex has always decided when, where, how long David could see his ex kids. The good news is that today they are friends and have regular contact. But they keep them out of the limelight. Moreover, such cases are always complicated, especially when you have no rights at all.
+1 Ellen.
What’s with all the twins via surrogate? Is that because of fertility treatment? Is that common? Seems very unlikely if it’s not, unless twins run in someone’s family.
Having mulitples is usually increased by in vitro processed. Look at Jon and Kate. They had twins first and then when they would “have one more”…they ended up with 6 more.
Sextuplets were not born as a result IVF but rather as a result of Ici – you can’t control a number of eggs which will get fertilized. IVF is much more conservative because they retrieve eggs, then fertilize them, then may implant as many as needed (usually 3.) a good practice is instead of putting them back is to freeze them, and send to a genetical analysis. It brings success level to 80 pct vs regular 33 pct. One of the theories is that when genetically damaged embrion stops developping, it kills healthy embryos.
Usually, surrogates are implanted with multiple embryos. This gives much better odds that at least one egg will implant. My friend was a surrogate and she had six embryos implanted, I believe. They wound up with twins.
Ha ha, I was going to point out that as MEN they are incapable of having babies, hence the need for a surrogate.
But then (duh) I realized your comment was about the prevalence of twins and yes – it is due to the hormones used in IVF stuff.
@hunter dont feel bad I had to re-read it twice too LOL
Well, they definitely did IVF or other fertility treatment. And I don’t want to sound insensitive but who is a bio-dad? Was it sperm mix and nobody knows? Was it one of each? Or is only one of them the bio-dad? Because it might also explain the current tension – like Neil is a bio and David wants to be, too…
Neil is the biological dad to one kid and David to the other kid.
Oh, one of each. Interesting. Well, I can’t blame David for wanting another kid, and Neil for panicking – twins are very complicated to care for… And I bet they have tons of embryos frozen, so David might hate to destroy them. It’s heart breaking. I tend to think girl is David’s…
That’s really interesting from a biological point of view- does that mean that two embryos (one of each of the men’s sperm + donor egg) or more were implanted and twins resulted? So assuming they used the same egg donor, half-sibling twins grew in the womb together? Maybe I’m stating the obvious, but it IS fascinating…
This may sound stupid, but I hope they don’t know which baby is theirs biologicallly. I hope it wouldn’t matter to them.
Well, technically the termin is embryo transfer, not implantation. ’cause embryos may implant or not. But yes, it’s a regular practice for gay parenthood – one of each. It’s even more fascinating for women – they can be both egg donors and they cross carry their partner’s child. Amazing.
my head just exploded with all this info…science and biology are amazing!
I really hope this story is not true 🙁
My mom always told me not to rob my oldest of his babyhood by having another too soon. She also told me not to have two in diapers.
David needs to slow down and consider his good fortune in having 4 healthy kids, and enjoy his toddlers.
This may not be entirely untrue as far as the disagreement …Have any of you seen the Oprah: Next Chapter with both David and Neil? Oprah asked them whether they would have more children and it seemed that both David and Neil were at odds about this specific issues. David seemed eager, talking about how maternal he is and how it fulfilled him to have children…whereas Neil admitted to struggling with fatherhood initially. Neil is career driven and probably feels that two wee-babies is more than enough. And I can certainly agree. Maybe david is concerned about age?
Shouldn’t David be “paternal” and not “maternal”.
Nope, maternal is right. Oprah asked them what their roles were as parents, and David said he was more maternal, while NPH was more paternal.
NPH NPH has debunks this story on Twitter.
“the NE article is bunk. D and I are awesometown. No wedding plans because it’s not legal yet. All is good in our world”
Babies? Which one of them has the uterus?
You’re a fool. At least try being a little more intelligent about your “insults”. I’d say the the female baby most likely has the uterus.
” friends say that the disagreement is so severe that Neil and Patrick might end up calling off their wedding:”
I don’t know how you guys do the bold letters, but ‘Neil and Patrick’ made me chuckle
This is utter b.s as confirmed by David Burtka on Twitter;
“David Burtka @Davidburtka
http://www.celebitchy.com/238114/neil_patrick_harris_his_partner_might_call_off_the_wedding_over_more_babies/ is this true david? Total lies! Do not believe what you read in bitchy tabloids. Neil and I are still going strong.”
I hope it’s not true. And did the article have to refer to Neil as the “Doogie Howser M.D. star”? Really? He hasn’t done anything since then??
Jordan its not true when I saw it i knew it wasnt true and Neil and David both tweeted about it and confirmed its a rumor and its not true
Why rush into more kids? It’s not like your biological clock is running and it’s now or never. You’re guys. As long as you’ve got enough cash to pay for a young surrogate, you’ve got forever.
I just read that sperm from guys over 35 has a higher probability of resulting in babies with down syndrome or other birth defects. It seems it’s not just the age of the woman that matters.
Those babies are probably more attached to their nanny then to Neil. I think he is wise to put on the brakes. Weighing ‘wants’ against the real needs of infants.
Then you obviously know nothing about them as a couple. Those kids are super attached to both Neil and David and they are well loved and very well taken care of.
And you know all this how exactly?
They are so cute together I hope this is a BS story ;p
This story is a complete fabrication.
“Total lies! Do not believe what you read in bitchy tabloids. Neil and I are still going strong.” – David Burtka via Twitter.
“The NE article is bunk. D and I are awesometown. No wedding plans because it’s not legal yet. All is good in our world.” – NPH via Twitter
This is complete BS, but I was expecting an “article” like this after they talked so openly with Oprah about David wanting more kids and Neil not so much right now…
And those older twins are not David’s kids, they are his ex-boyfriends’s kids.
NPH = ONE SMUG PRICK.
“Total lies! Do not believe what you read in bitchy tabloids. Neil and I are still going strong.” <<from the man himself xx
They have a beautiful family, I hope this story is not true.
This is obviously not 100% accurate. It lost me at “came out of the closet in 2006”. First of all -bitch- NPH CLEARLY stated that he was never in the closet, he was always openly gay ang content with it. There were just rumors that he was trying to hide it so TO PROVE HE WASN’T HIDING ANYTHING OR CLOSETED, he said he was and is a very content gay man. Second, Neil would never destroy this relationship he’s obviously invested do much time and love into. They may hold off the wedding, but not the love.