Millionaire gay fathers celebrate arrival of twins with christening ceremony

Gay couple Barrie, left, and Tony Drewitt-Barlow carry their new twins Jasper and Dallas after their christening at St. John the Baptist Church in Danbury, Essex.
A gay couple who made legal history when they fathered twins using a surrogate mother held a christening for their children today.
Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow were joined by more than 40 people at a service for their five-month-old twins Dallas and Jasper at St John the Baptist Church in Danbury, Essex.
Son Orlando, the third of their five children, was also christened at the service, which was attended by surrogate mother Rosalind Bellamy and the egg donor - 'up-and-coming Russian supermodel' Alexandra Cooper-Strash.

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow admitted he and his partner had 'angered church groups over the years'.
But he added: 'It is important for us to have the children all christened.
'As a Christian family we feel that it is important for our children to be given the opportunity to follow the teachings of the church and if they decide when they are older not to, then that is their choice.'
The twin boys were carried to the ceremony wearing ivory-white gowns.
Tony said: 'The church in Danbury helped me through all the problems I had experienced when I was diagnosed with throat cancer a couple of years ago, without that help and support, I don't think that I would be here today'.
The triple christening ceremony will feature in a C4 Cutting Edge documentary due to be aired on July 21.

It also aims to highlight the abuse and homophobia the family have to put up with from other families on a daily basis.
The Drewitt-Barlows, from Danbury, Essex, first hit the headlines in 1999 when they travelled to the U.S. and used donated eggs and a surrogate mother to become fathers to twins Aspen and Saffron, now ten.
Following a ruling by an American court, they became the first British children to be registered as having two fathers and no mother.

Family affair: Tony (left) and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow with twins Saffron and Aspen at the age of four and Orlando, pictured at five months
The couple used the same surrogate mother four years later when they went on to become fathers to Orlando, seven, who will also be christened at the service.
The couple, who live in a Grade II-listed home with their children, became multi-millionaires in 1998 when they sold their successful clinical research company.
But after the birth of their twins they were accused of creating 'designer' children and received death threats.
They fell out with the genetic mother of their children, Tracey McCune, who accused them of raising a bunch of spoilt brats.
She revealed the couple showered their brood with designer goods and told how Saffron wore Chanel No 5 perfume, diamonds and designer clothing.
The couple 'wed' in an extravagant civil ceremony in 2006 but later provoked anger by posting pictures of their children on a gay dating website.