Tan France and Rob France with their son. (Instagram/@TanFrance)
Tan France is officially a daddy, with the Queer Eye star announcing that he and his husband Rob France have welcomed their first son, Ismail.
The 38-year-old revealed in an Instagram post on Monday (2 August) that he and Rob had just brought their son home from the hospital after he was born prematurely.
“Give our son a warm welcome,” Tan France asked his 3.8 million followers in the caption.
“Ismail France, born July 10th. He came seven weeks early, so he’s been in the NICU [newborn intensive care unit] for the past three weeks.
“But, today, we finally got to bring him home. We love him so, so much. Like, fully obsessed.”
The fashion designer and stylist added: “Our surrogate is doing so great, post labour, and we couldn’t be more grateful for the greatest gift in our lives.”
France first broke the news that the couple were expecting in April when he uploaded a photograph of himself cradling an ultrasound picture of his future son over his belly.
Tan France says ‘no words could describe’ seeing his son for the first time
In a Bulletin blog post titled “Call Me Daddy”, Tan France explained how he missed his son’s birth as he was in Britain, where he’d travelled following a “babymoon” with his husband.
He woke up on 10 July to “a bunch of missed calls from Rob”.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he wrote. “I cried so hard at the thought of not being there for our son’s first moments.
“I cried because I knew Rob was alone and that he needed my emotional support. I cried because I was so jealous that he was there with Ismail, and I wasn’t.”
France made a frantic dash back to the US to meet his son, but his route was riddled by delays.
“Two days had now passed and I’d still not met my own son,” he wrote. “My heart couldn’t handle the pain I was feeling.
“Thank gosh at least his dad was with him. If he were completely alone, I would have lost my damn mind.”
France said that his mind was racing as he saw Ismail in the hospital covered in tubes during a FaceTime call with Rob. So when he finally touched ground in the US and was united with him, it was a relief to know he was fine.
“I have no words to describe how I felt when I first saw him, held him, kissed him,” he said. “I was just so relieved that he was OK.
“Now, most of those tubes are gone and he looks so good. Beautiful and strong.”
He also thanked the couple’s surrogate for being a “warrior”.
“She gave birth to him in a matter of minutes, and after a night’s stay, she said she was feeling totally fine and went back to normal life,” he wrote.
“She gave us the greatest gift, and the most immense joy, one could ever give another person.”