Their relationship may have officially come to an end in 2014, but Sofia Vergara and her ex-fiancé Nick Loeb are still locked in a legal battle over the custody rights to their frozen embryos.
On January 27, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in Louisiana denied Loeb’s appeal, upholding the prior ruling that his lawsuit seeking to obtain custody of the frozen pre-embryos be dismissed. According to legal documents, the court also reversed a previous order that sealed all discovery in the case, thus releasing all supporting documents to the public. Vergara and Loeb became engaged in 2012, deciding to undergo IVF in order to freeze embryos for their future family the following year before ultimately calling off their relationship entirely in May 2014. After their breakup, Loeb attempted to gain full legal custody of their viable embryos, which is the case that was dismissed by the Lousiana Court of Appeal last month.
According to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal, the issue with Loeb’s case might have more to do with jurisdiction than substance. According to the documents, the court found that Loeb “is not domiciled in, does not maintain a residence in, and does not have the intent to be domiciled or a resident of any parish in the State of Louisiana.” It then went on to accuse Loeb’s legal team of “forum shopping” to find a court that would be sympathetic to his case. “Their behavior brings disrepute to and makes a mockery of the Louisiana legal system and the bar and is abhorrent,” the court stated.
In 2017, Vergara filed her own legal documents in California in response to her ex’s bid for custody, attempting to stop Loeb from being able to use the embryos without her express written permission, an issue that is still pending. The actor already has one adult son, Manolo, and has been married to actor Joe Manganiello since November 2015.
A representative for Vergara did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but an attorney for Loeb told People that they plan to continue pursuing the case: “We will be appealing to the Louisiana Supreme Court.”
Credit: Vanity Fair.
