Westlife’s Mark Feehily campaigning hard to get Ireland’s surrogacy laws ‘up with the times’-Charlotte Manning-Entertainment – Metro

Westlife star Mark Feehily has opened up on his 3-year-long surrogacy journey with partner Cailean O’Neill, and how he’s campaigning to help laws ‘catch up’ in Ireland. 

Mark, 42, has recently been touring with Westlife, with the band having just come off the back of their largest ever shows at Wembley Arena. 

The star has lots more coming up to keep him busy, including looking after his toddler Layla, 2.

He and fiancé Cailean welcomed their first daughter Layla via surrogacy in October 2019, and Mark has now spoken about the work he is doing to modernise surrogacy laws in Ireland. 

Chatting to Christine Lampard on Lorraine, the vocalist revealed it took around three years before they were able to find success with a surrogate. 

The host asked him: ‘I know you’re fighting for a change on different laws, it’s an intense thing to get to and very intricate but I know you’re doing your work there. 

Mark explained how he is campaigning for better surrogacy laws in Ireland (Picture: ITV)

Mark gave a positive update, sharing: ‘Absolutely, there’s some very exciting feedback coming from Ireland at the moment. 

‘I have been involved, I’m just one of many people involved, in this amazing campaign to change the legislation on laws surrounding surrogacy and families and the parental guardianship laws.’

Currently, there is no legislation on surrogacy in Ireland in regards to surrogacy, this means the parentage issues are more complicated as well as result in a potentially expensive process.

He went on to add why the work being done is so important, commenting: ‘The laws are catching up with the times. We’ve all been working hard towards this goal 

‘The feedback that has been coming through has been positive and the politicians have been telling us some very exciting stuff right now.’

Mark has been a member of Westlife for over 20 years (Picture: PA)

During the same chat, he also noted how ‘privileged’ he is to have been able to use the method of surrogacy in order to have a child, as it is ‘not affordable’ to most.

He continued: ‘Surrogacy is expensive so in many ways I feel quite privileged, there’s a lot of people out there that would like to do surrogacy but it’s not the most affordable thing. 

‘It would be good for it to be more accessible.’

He first gave a glimpse of his daughter during the band’s video for My Blood in 2019, which shows Mark joined by his bandmates – Shane Filan, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne.

Now, Layla is nearly three years old and unsurprisingly loves singing, just like her dad. 

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‘She’s at a brilliant age, she’s hilarious, very strong-minded and loves singing, so who knows!’ he teased to Christine. 

It is believed Mark and Cailean have been together since 2013, and became engaged in 2019 when Mark popped the question on a romantic break in the Maldives.

Lorraine airs weekdays from 9am on ITV. 

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