Dad gets engaged to daughter's ex-boyfriend while on a family holiday. Photo / Instagram
Dad gets engaged to daughter's ex-boyfriend while on a family holiday. Photo / Instagram
One of Britain's "first gay dads" has proposed to his daughter's ex-boyfriend while on a family holiday.
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow and his ex-partner Tony Drewitt-Barlow hit the headlines in 1999 as the first gay men in the UK to father twins born through surrogacy.
Now, more than 20 years on, Barrie has split from Tony and is has got engaged to their 20-year-old daughter Saffron's ex-boyfriend Scott Hutchinson, 25.
Saffron, who has a twin brother named Aspen, had previously dated bisexual Scott before he fell for her dad.
Barrie, 50, shared romantic details from the proposal on Instagram, showing he'd decked out a boat with red rose petals and candles before popping the question while on holiday in Croatia.
"Guess what happened last night," he captioned the clip, which also showed off a large diamond ring and a bottle of champagne on ice.
Scott Hutchison previously dated Barrie's daughter Saffron. Photo / Instagram
And it seems Saffron was a part of the celebrations, with Barrie later sharing photos of him and Scott, and him and Saffron together.
The unlikely couple – who share a 25-year-age gap – live with Barrie's ex, Tony, in the same house, previously dubbing the living arrangements as a "very modern family".
They are also expecting a baby together via surrogate, a little girl due in late October. They had previously revealed they were having triplets but a scan later revealed there was just one baby.
Since the engagement, Scott has taken to social media to share his love for his older partner, writing: "I'll love this man til the day I die".
Saffron has previously given their unusual romance her blessing, saying "as long as they're happy, I'm not bothered".
"Scott is one of my best mates and I am happy that he and daddy can finally feel comfortable enough to talk about their relationship," Saffron wrote in an Instagram post in December last year.
She went on to claim she had always known her ex-boyfriend was gay and their relationship was to "help him keep his secret by pretending to be his girlfriend".
Barrie, 50, shared his daughter's post from her private account on his own, with the caption: "Love my baby girl so much x this should shut a few of those tw*ts up!"
Barrie said that while Tony is his "true love," they grew apart in recent years and were sleeping in separate bedrooms. That fact, together with Tony's deteriorating health following a 2006 cancer diagnosis, led them to drift "into a platonic relationship".
Saffron said she and her siblings are totally accepting of their dad's new relationship with Scott, who helps to care for ailing Tony.
"My parents are my best friends and although 'officially' they are not together like that any more they remain the best of friends and care for each other better than any other parents I know," she wrote.
"My brothers, dad and I are extremely happy for Scott and daddy who cares day and night for my sick dad."
Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow were England's first same-sex couple to be named on a birth certificate as parents.
The pair, originally from Manchester but now live in Florida, US, are worth a combined $73 million from various business ventures including a global research company.
After their surrogacy experience with Safron and Aspen they set up their own surrogacy agency in 2000 and later went on to have son Orlando in 2003 and twins Jasper and Dallas in 2010.
Tony and Barrie don't know who is the father of which child – and some have different egg donors – meaning potentially they are not biologically linked to the kids.
Scott and Barrie have decided they don't want to know which one of them is the biological father of their unborn daughter.
"All of our biological connections are about to get even more complicated but we just regard ourselves as a very modern family," Barrie told The Sun previously.
