Toni's Balancing Act - My Lovely Life With Little Lachie

Her surrogacy journey has been a dream so far

- Sophie Neville

With his long limbs, olive skin and gorgeous dark eyelashes, little Lachie France is the apple of his family’s eye. Now six months old, he’s the miracle baby that broadcast star Toni Street and her husband Matt France welcomed via surrogacy. And while he’ll one day learn his amazing story, for now, this smiling, cooing bundle of joy is blissfully unaware of the incredible impact he’s had on those around him.

“Some days, I actually forget that it wasn’t me who carried him,” tells Toni as she settles into the make-up chair at our Woman’s Day photo shoot at her home on Auckland’s North Shore.

“Even though I was expecting it to feel different, I can say 100% that my love for him and our bond feels exactly the same as what I have with my other children. It’s been perfect from the start.”

But not a day goes by that Toni and Matt, both 35, don’t think about their friend Sophie Braggins, a businesswoman and mum-of-two who selflessly carried Lachie to term after doctors deemed another pregnancy too risky for the broadcaster. She’s a huge part of their lives, regularly flying to Auckland from her New Plymouth home to see the baby boy who grew inside her, and the two families share an unbreakable bond.

“I love seeing Sophie and Lachie together,” says Toni. “It’s an incredibly special thing.”

On the day of our shoot, Toni has been up since 4.30am for the Hits radio breakfast show and the hours before her alarm went off were hardly restful – her daughters Juliette and Mackenzie were battling croup and coughed half the night. But as ever, the mum-of-three is determined the show must go on and she’s thrilled to have the chance to show off her little Lachie, who last graced these pages as a tiny newborn back in August.