Spanish actress Ana Obregón has been at the center of a major debate after revealing that she used her late son’s sperm to have a baby girl through a surrogate. Her son, Aless Lequio, passed away from cancer in 2020 at just 27 years old, and three years later Ana welcomed his daughter, whom she is now raising as her own.
She said: “The girl isn’t my daughter, she’s my granddaughter.” Ana explained that the child was conceived using a donor egg and Aless’s frozen sperm. The idea came from what she described as her son’s last wish, saying he had always wanted to become a father but never had the chance before his death.
Ana revealed that doctors advised storing Aless’s sperm before he began cancer treatment, and it was kept at a fertility clinic in New York. Because surrogacy is illegal in Spain, she turned to the United States, where the procedure was carried out legally. Later, she adopted the baby and named her Anita Sandra.
She told an interviewer: “This baby girl is not my daughter, but my granddaughter. She is Aless’s daughter, and when she grows up I will tell her that her father was a hero, so that she knows who she is and how proud she should be of him.” Ana added that she decided to go through with the process the same day her son died, saying it was a way to keep his dream alive.
Since Anita’s birth, the actress has shared updates about life with her granddaughter. “I even have a little ball pool where she makes me dive in,” she said. Ana described her home as full of toys and laughter again after years of grief. She admitted that she had been “dead for three years” after losing her son, but that Anita’s arrival had “resurrected” her.
She also reflected on how her fears have changed. “You think nothing happens here, and suddenly one day they tell you at 25 years old that you have an aggressive cancer. So I have many more fears with Ana, more than when I had Aless,” she said. The actress said her granddaughter reminds her of her son every day, calling her “just as intelligent as her dad.”
Not everyone has supported Ana’s decision. Some people online expressed understanding, saying they would have done the same to honor a child’s wish. Others called it unsettling and “slightly creepy.” Even Spain’s equality minister criticized surrogacy as “a form of violence against women.”
Ana responded to the backlash calmly. She said: “There are criticisms and judgments. People can be judged, but it’s impossible to live without empathy. I believe that when fathers and mothers put themselves in my shoes and in my soul, in my pain… As I say, I was the owner of my pain. Now, I am the owner of my revival.”
Despite the ongoing controversy, Ana seems at peace with her decision. Her granddaughter recently turned two, and Ana says the little girl has brought love and purpose back into her life. “She’s always asking me for hugs, but not for herself, for those around us. The other day the plumber came, and I ended up hugging him because she asked me to,” Ana said with a laugh.
