Tyra Banks Shares First Photo Of Her 'Miracle Baby'

A few weeks ago, Tyra Banks made an adorable announcement on Instagram: that she and her partner Erik Asla welcomed a baby boy via surrogacy.

The announcement came as a surprise to fans who had no idea it was coming.

Yesterday, Banks shared the first photo of her child. Fittingly, it was Valentine’s day. The image is beautiful:

The couple had the baby via surrogate. Banks opened up about her fertility struggles in September on an episode of FAB Life. She said, “I’ve been wanting to say this for so long and did not plan to say this today, did not plan to even talk about this today. But I just feel like we are so hard on each other and judgmental of each other. A woman that is divorced three times is more normal than a woman who has not been married. And I’m so tired of seeing on my social media, ‘Why don’t you have kids?'”

“You don’t know. You don’t know what I’m going through,” she said, holding back tears. “You have no idea. When I was 23 years old I used to tell myself “In three years I’m going to have kids” then I turned 24, “In three years I’m going to have kids” — and then every single year I kept saying that. And then after a while it was like, okay now I want to and it’s not so easy.”

Now the 42-year-old is finally a mother. Anyone who’s been through fertility struggles knows just how difficult it is to wait, and wait, and wait for your “moment.” It doesn’t always happen when you think it will. But it makes it even sweeter when it finally does.

So a gentle reminder: stop asking women when they are going to have children. And if you’re struggling with infertility just know there are thousands and thousands of women silently standing in solidarity with you.

Congratulations, Tyra. Motherhood looks good on you.