British 'First Gay Dad,' Partner, Now Expecting Triplets

A British man who was celebrated in the 1990s as one of that nation's "first gay dads" is now awaiting the arrival of new offspring - and this time it's triplets!

But the triple-duty demands of his new fatherhood won't wear as badly on 50-year-old Barrie Drewitt-Barlow as badly as they might have, given that his current partner, Scott Hutchison, is a man of only 25. The couple is expecting their new children thanks to surrogacy, reports UK newspaper The Daily Mail, which also noted that Drewitt-Barlow and Hutchison had opted for gender selection of their children to ensure they would have daughters.

As reported at EDGE late last year, Drewitt-Barlow and his longtime husband Tony are no longer together. They became famous in 1999 for being the first same-sex couple in Britain to gain legal status as co-parents to their firstborn children, a set of twins. Drewitt-Barlow and Tony had five children in all.

Though the two are no longer together, they still share the same house - a Florida mansion worth just under $8 million. Their children live in the same home with them, as does Hutchison - who, before he partnered with Drewitt-Barlow, was the boyfriend of Drewitt-Barlow and Tony's daughter.

Though their family may look complicated to outsiders, Drewitt-Barlow seemed perfectly at home - and perfectly over the moon - with the news, telling UK newspaper The Sun that, "'We are happy, we want to co-parent our kids and that's all that matters. If people don't get it, that's their problem, not ours."

Drewitt-Barlow said that Tony was "excited too, although it does underline that our marriage really is over after all these years, so it is very bittersweet.

'But we are all going to remain living under the same roof," Drewitt-Barlow added. "Tony is Dad, I'm Daddy and while at the moment Scott is stepdad, soon he's going to be Daddy Two," with the arrival of the triplets.