Playboy model Hope Smith has revealed that she is expecting identical twin girls via surrogate after opening up about her struggle to grow her family while battling an autoimmune disease.
The 34-year-old MUTHA skincare founder shared her incredible news over the weekend, writing four lengthy Instagram posts about why and she and her billionaire husband, Vista Equity Partners founder, chairman, and CEO Robert Smith, turned to IVF and surrogacy to grow their family after she battled an autoimmune disease.
Hope, who has sons Hendrix, four, and Legend, three, posted a photo of her stunned children holding up pink tutus to happily announce that she and Robert, 56, are expecting not one but two babies this January.
Surprise! Robert Smith, founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, and his wife Hope are expecting identical twin girls via surrogate in January
Coming soon! Hope, 34, shared a photo of their sons Hendrix, four, and Legend, three, dressed in pink stripped pajamas while holding up a sign announcing the joyous news
‘Miracles happen everyday [sic] and sometimes when you wish for one miracle, you get two. IDENTICAL TWIN GIRLS coming January 2020,’ she wrote.
Another snapshot from the heartwarming announcement shows Hendrix and Legend wearing pink and white striped pajamas while holding up a sign that says ‘Girls: 0 Boys: 2 Tie Coming Soon January 2020.’
In the first post she wrote on Saturday, Hope admitted that if felt like she has ‘been keeping a really big secret’ from her 243,000 Instagram followers.
She recalled how she had two pregnancies without using IVF. It took her 18 months to get pregnant with Hendrix, while she and Robert conceived Legend a month after they stopped using birth control.
‘Hendrix was only 7 months old when we found out we were pregnant with Legend,’ she wrote, noting that she had two home births and went on to become a doula.
‘So why did I do IVF? It’s not that I couldn’t get pregnant. I think I actually likely would have. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2018,’ she explained.
Too cute: In another photo, the boys can be seen holding up pink tutus while looking stunned
Start of it all: Hope shared the news over the weekend, writing four lengthy Instagram posts about why she and Robert, 56, turned to IVF and surrogacy to grow their family
Hope recalled feeling ‘extremely tired’ and suffering from a ‘brain fog that wouldn’t go away. She assumed she was just tired from being a new mom to two young boys, who were both under two at the time.
The model said that suffering from an autoimmune issue and being a new mom left her ‘mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted.’
After seeing doctors at John Hopkins for over a year, a physician from Mass General called her to say that he believed an infusion would put her autoimmune disease into remission.
‘The side effects of this infusion is that you can not and should not attempt to carry a pregnancy because of serious birth defects and death,’ she explained. ‘In March of 2018 I went for my first infusion of a drug that would deplete my B cells and keep my body from attacking myself but also keep me from carrying a third pregnancy.
‘I knew I had to be healthy for my boys and so I turned off the part of me that wanted a third baby’s and instead chose to treat the AI.’
Hope said her husband was nothing but supportive during what she called ‘the second scariest’ moment of her life.
Journey: After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, Hope underwent drug infusions that prevented her from carrying their third child. They later decided to try surrogacy
Months of medicine: The model said she and their surrogate had to go through rounds of IVF before transferring her and Robert’s embryo
The infusions ended up working just like the doctor had hoped; she said her blood work is now perfect, and she doesn’t take any drugs aside from her organic vitamins.
After going through the infusions, she brought up the idea of surrogacy to her husband, who was ‘fully supportive.’
They called an agency that came recommended by a doctor and went through ‘many rounds of interviews,’ blood work, and psychological screenings for both them and the surrogates.
‘We knew 10 minutes into the first call with our potential surrogate that this was the right family and woman to help us in this journey of bringing our baby into the world,’ she recalled.
‘I was worried about letting someone become close to us as I’m very protective and didn’t want to end up having an unhealthy relationship with someone who would be carrying our child,’ she admitted. ‘This process has been a breeze and I truly believe it’s because the match was perfect.’
After finding their surrogate, the woman had to start rounds of IVF to make her body think it was pregnant before implanting their embryo. Hope said both she and their surrogate had take medications for months as part of the lengthy process.
While she and Robert considered using two embryos, they opted to only implant one after their doctors told them that single pregnancies are typically healthier.
Success: In mid-May, Hope learned that her surrogate was pregnant with twins, even though they only transferred one embryo
Aww: Hope’s son Hendrix believes he manifested the twins because he wanted two babies, one for him and one for his little brother Legend
Hope purposely chose to have the embryo transfer done in May because her great grandmother’s last name was May and her birthday was in May.
She said she held hands with their surrogate as the embryo was implanted inside her, which was a ‘very uncomfortable experience’ for her.
‘I cried because this was an amazing day that I knew would lead to eventually meeting my child but also because I was incredibly touched that this woman came into my life and was giving our family a gift that compares to no other,’ the mom explained.
‘She was giving us life. Bringing a part of me and a part of my husband to life. To me she’s forever our angel.’
In mid-May, she said their surrogate was at an ultrasound appointment that she couldn’t make. They tried to FaceTime her, but they couldn’t get through.
Hope was cutting up a mango for Hendrix in the kitchen of their Malibu home when her surrogate texted her ‘Congrats x2 Mama.’
She had missed the videos and photos that were sent before and immediately called her to ask what she meant by her text.
‘She whispered softly and calmly “There’s two of them.” At that point I lost all control of my voice or the words that came out of my mouth,’ Hope said. ‘I was screaming “But- we put in one! Are you sure? There’s 2? What do you mean there’s two!?”‘
Hope’s eldest son heard the entire conversation, and he told her that believes that he helped manifest his unborn twin sisters.
Fate: The news was even more special because Hope’s mother has been telling her she would ‘be the one to have twins’ since she was a little girl
Finding fame: Hope was named the 2010 Playboy Playmate of the Year and later went on to compete on the Celebrity Apprentice in 2011
‘When I calmed down and said goodbye to our surrogate Hendrix looked up and said, “So those babies are my babies, they aren’t your babies. Remember Mommy? You said we are getting one baby and I told you I want two babies, one for me and one for Legend. So the babies are mine because I created them with my words.”‘
The news was even more special because Hope’s mother has been telling her she would ‘be the one to have twins’ since she was a little girl.
‘Part of me knew it too,’ she said.
Hope, whose maiden name is Dworaczyk, found fame as a Playboy model and was the Playmate of the Month in the April 2009 issue.
She was named the 2010 Playboy Playmate of the Year and later went on to compete on the Celebrity Apprentice in 2011.
Hope and Robert welcomed their first child, Hendrix, in December 2014 and wed seven months later in front of 250 guests at Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, Italy, on the Amalfi Coast.
In addition to their two sons and unborn twins, Robert has three children — Zoe, Eliana, and Max — with his first wife, Suzanne McFayden Smith.
Exciting time: Hope’s baby news comes just a few months after she launched her skincare brand for moms, MUTHA. She is pictured with Violet Grey founder Cassandra Grey last week
Looking back: Hope, pictured with her son Legend, conceptualized the brand her kitchen while trying to come up with a formula to prevent stretch marks during her first pregnancy
Hope’s joyous baby news comes just a few months after she launched her skincare brand for moms, MUTHA, which she conceptualized when she was pregnant with Hendrix in 2014.
The soon-to-be mother of four told DailyMail.com via email that she has had stretch marks since puberty and was looking to avoid them or at the very least minimize them during her first pregnancy.
Hope said she was advised to cover her stomach and chest with La Mer moisturizing cream twice a day and then wrap her La Mer-covered body in cellophane at night.
‘I ordered the huge tub of La Mer face crème and halfway through the night, ripped the cellophane off my body. It was so uncomfortable!’ she recalled. ‘I knew there had to be something luxury that was nourishing, but also natural.’
Because she couldn’t find the skincare product she wanted and needed, she made it herself in her kitchen using raw ingredients.
‘At the end of both pregnancies, I was stretch mark free and had improved the texture of my existing stretch marks,’ she said, explaining that she started to send it to friends and friends of friends by request.
Proud: Hope has given birth to two children, and proudly showed off her baby bump in a photo shoot while carrying one of her sons
Opening up: The soon-to-be mother-of-four launched skincare brand MUTHA a few months ago, after years of creating her own products to deal with stretch marks during pregnancy
Careful: She told DailyMail.com via email that she has had stretch marks since puberty and was looking to avoid them or at the very least minimize them during her first pregnancy
Get it while it’s hot! The brand launched with two products, a $95 body butter (left) and a $105 body oil (right)
MUTHA’s body butter, which retails for $95, is a mix of 100 per cent natural ingredients: shea, cocoa, and mango butters, vitamins, fatty acids, and pure seed extracts.
Meanwhile, the brand’s $104 body oil is packed with vitamins and 100 per cent botanical seeds, including rosehip.
Hope said she aspires to have MUTHA ‘become a source of good’ for women.
A percentage of her company’s sales is donated to the International Medical Corps to help women around the world deliver their children safely by educating nurses and midwives in places where maternal mortality rates during childbirth are the highest.
‘Becoming a mother made me appreciate that women are the most powerful beings on earth,’ Hope said. ‘We create humans and for years the world has tried to direct our focus to what pregnancy has done to your bodies instead of stopping and appreciating that we create life and our bodies are miraculous.’
And while her company is all about preventing stretch marks, she believes women should embrace the ones that they have.
‘Life is about gracefully accepting the new cycles of you, and if that means new stretch marks, that’s okay,’ she said. ‘The most beautiful people on the planet have stretch marks and so do the most brilliant. Change is constant, and should be met with acceptance.’