Chimamanda Adichie explains why she disclosed that her twins were born through surrogate mother

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 47, has broken her silence on her decision to have her twins born by a surrogate mother. The award-winning author, who has earned huge respect as one of the best female novelists of Africa, recently had twins.

Many social media users debated over the Nigerian’s ability to give birth at that age, especially to twins. Adichie, in an interview with Chude Jideonwo on WithChude, cleared the air and revealed the secret about her boys.

“Why did I say that I had my twins via a surrogate? Well, because it’s true,” Chimamanda said.

“There are certain things that you cannot hide, and you cannot hide the existence of two perfect beings. People just went off with this thing about me, ‘She’s 47 and she had babies,’ and I don’t like to lie about things that can be consequential for other people. I felt as though there’d be other women who would then be pressured and be told, ‘Look, she’s 47 and she has twins; what about you?

“My boys are so precious to me,” she says. “And I hated that anything about them would become politicised – so on the one hand I thought ‘I wish I hadn’t talked about it’, but on the other hand there is no way I am going to lie” about the process of birthing them.

“I am hoping that if anything good comes out of this, it would be that more women are less ashamed of talking about reaching motherhood through non-traditional means. Because our society is so judgmental, and I don’t think that is good for anybody.

“But, you know, my daughter and my babies are the greatest gift I’ve been given, so ZERO REGRETS.”

The novelist, who is known for the novel Purple Hibiscus and the short story Zikora, in 2024 happily announced that she had twins with her husband via a surrogate mother.