A nurse who welcomed her 13th child at the age of 62 has been accused of surrogacy fraud in order to bring two more children into the world before turning 65, all without her husband's knowledge
11:47, 07 Nov 2025
A 62-year-old mum with 13 children has been accused of masterminding a fraudulent plot to bring even more children into the world - without her husband's consent.
MaryBeth Lewis is facing 30 criminal charges for allegedly forging her husband Bob Lewis' signature and impersonated him during a Zoom court hearing, all in a bid to secretly have two more children via surrogacy. She has pleaded not guilty on all accounts, but has admitted to the deceit in a sensational new interview. "This is bullcrap for what I did to get all these fricking felonies," she said.
The 68-year-old nurse first welcomed five girls, who are now in their 30s, before giving birth to twin girls just before her 50th birthday. She then welcomed another daughter with Bob three years later - and twin boys in 2012. By the time she'd reached the age of 55, MaryBeth had 10 children - but she still wanted to expand their family.
At this stage, the couple had run out of their own embryos, so they purchased donor sperm and donor eggs to create a new batch, Mail Online reports. She was impregnated with the donor embryos, which saw them welcome their 11th and 12th child at the age of 59. MaryBeth then gave birth to the couple's youngest child at the age of 62 via IVF, but was reportedly told by doctors that there would be a risk of going through another pregnancy.
It was then that MaryBeth's web of lies began, as she made it her mission to have more babies by allegedly orchestrating an elaborate surrogacy fraud. The 68-year-old told the New York Times that she tricked an IVF clinic into implanting a surrogate with embyos the couple had previously created using donor eggs and sperm. She tricked her husband in the process, who did not want to have any more children.
MaryBeth told the publication that she impersonated her husband during an online parentage order hearing by creating a different Zoom account under his name and logging into the call. She allegedly told the judge that her husband had to keep his Zoom account camera off as he was travelling in Japan at the time, and that she only spoke as Bob when confirming his identity with a "grunt".
She then found a surrogate to carry the two children, allegedly paying them a substantial sum of money. Furious Bob said he only found out about his wife's alleged scheme when the parentage order was sent to their New York home - other documents for the proposed surrogacy had been delivered to a post office instead of their home address.
In shock over his wife's betrayal, Bob reported her to the police, and an investigation into the family was launched. Bob is said to have later agreed to be part of the parentage order, but this followed a lengthy court process, which is ongoing.
The couple's 14th and 15th babies were born in November 2023. However, as the couple were caught up in the alleged fraud, their newborn twins were placed in foster care with a local couple.
After court hearings, the Lewises were named the legal parents of the twins on October 20. However, they are yet to gain custody of their little boy and girl, with their current foster family reportedly fighting to keep them in their care.
The alleged surrogacy fraud isn't the first time MaryBeth has been accused of blindsiding Bob. When getting pregnant with their 13th baby via IVF, MaryBeth allegedly underwent the implantation of the embryo, which was in the same batch as the surrogate's babies, in secret. "He originally signed for all this stuff," MaryBeth told the New York Times. "But he wasn't thrilled, let me put it that way."
The mum has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is set to appear in court on 7 November.