The Greatest Gift

Would you be a surrogate mum for your best friend? For Sophie Braggins, there was never any doubt she should carry a baby for friend Toni Street. The pair open up to NEXT about their emotional journey, the reaction of loved ones, and why trust has been key

- Sophie Neville

Twice in their 23-year friendship, Sophie Braggins has felt powerless to help her best friend Toni Street. The worst time, in 2002, was after Toni’s 14-year-old brother Stephen lost his life in a devastating farm accident. The second, just a few years ago, when the broadcasting star was left fighting for her life after being struck down by a rare autoimmune disease.

“Bad things have happened in Toni’s life,” explains the businesswoman and mum-of-two, who is acting as a surrogate for Toni and her husband Matt France. “So the way I see it, carrying Toni’s baby is actually just a very simple way for me to help. It wasn’t a hard decision at all.”

But for many of us, the idea of being pregnant with someone else’s baby, or relying on someone else to carry your own, is hard to understand. So when one of our best known TV personalities announced in February she was expecting her third child via the unconventional method, it suddenly opened up new conversations. Indeed, until now, surrogacy headlines stemmed largely from Hollywood.

While 34-year-old Toni, whose health battle had left her unable to carry another baby, was overwhelmed by the public’s positive reaction to her surprise news, it also left people with many questions. Just who was this woman who’d come to the broadcaster’s rescue? What would compel someone to make such an incredible offer? And how did it all come about?

Their remarkable story really begins back in 1996, when the girls first met at Highlands Intermediate in New Plymouth. They formed an unbreakable friendship, which over the past two decades has weathered tragedies, weddings, babies and everything in between. They’re even known as Aunty Tones and Aunty Willow (an old nickname given to Sophie, now 34, back in her school days) to each other’s children.