A 68-year-old New York woman is in a custody battle for her 14th and 15th children, who were born in 2023.
MaryBeth Lewis gave birth to her 13th child at the age of 62. Her husband Bob did not want to have any more children, but she is accused of forging his signature to have two more kids who are now in foster care because of a legal battle, People reported.
MaryBeth had her eighth child in 2010 and made headlines. She told The East Aurora Advertiser at the time, “That first child was the biggest change. After that, they kind of fell into place,” People Magazine reported.
The couple had no plans to have any more children, but the family continued to grow, and she gave birth to twin sons in 2012, then another pair of twins in 2016, her 11th and 12th children, at the age of 59.
She also had another child. According to The New York Times, while the first five pregnancies were natural, all of the later ones were through in vitro fertilisation, where they used a mix of their own embryos as well as donor eggs and sperm. She carried all the babies herself, and used a surrogate for the 14th and 15th kids. However, only this time, she kept her husband in the dark.
In 2023, she tricked the IVF clinic into believing that her husband was on board with the procedure, and later even pretended to be her husband during an online hearing of their case in Steuben County.
MaryBeth forged Bob’s signature on their surrogacy agreement, a likely violation of state law, since such a procedure requires the consent of both parents. Bob did not want any more children, but MaryBeth claims he was initially fine with it. However, she decided to have the babies through surrogacy. The pregnancy took, and she hid it from her husband.
During a Zoom hearing in 2023 to obtain the parentage order, she impersonated her husband by keeping the camera off. NYT reported, "She logged on with a separate account for Bob and kept the camera turned off. When the judge addressed him, MaryBeth says she grunted in assent." But he came across the parentage order in the mail days later and was furious. He then spoke to the attorney his wife had hired, who approached a judge. MaryBeth is now entangled in legal proceedings.
In 2023, she was indicted for forgery in the second degree, criminal impersonation in the first degree, perjury in the second degree and attempted kidnapping in the second degree.
She is also involved in a custody battle for the boy and the girl. The paper reported that MaryBeth declined two plea offers in order to continue her fight for custody, and her husband is now on her side. The matter is still pending, and according to the publication, "a new judge has ruled that they are the legal parents of the two young children, but now their foster parents are appealing."
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