Dancing With the Stars judge Arthur Gourounlian has spoken out about his wish to start a family with hubby Brian Dowling. The professional dancer and choreographer opened up to the RTÉ Guide, saying, “If we have children then I can say ‘thank you life, I love you.’ I’ve always wanted kids I want to build a family.”
“I have an amazing life but I want to be able to share it with children. I want to keep the legacy going, there’s not many Gourounlians in the world.”
He and his hubby of seven years, Brian, share the same feelings about starting a family. As Arthur explained, “we’re on the same page about having kids, we both want them – my dream is to have three boys but that’s probably asking too much; three boys with long hair, can you imagine?”
While they are in agreement about having children, reality star Brian revealed on the Good Glow podcast, that they were struggling with the process.
Telling host of the Good Glow podcast, Georgie Crawford he said; “I think in America anything is possible, so it was great when we were in America and we were looking at surrogacy and talking to people about surrogacy and we were on the adoption system there.”
“And then I was like, ‘Well the adoption system there isn’t necessarily where we’re going to go’. We were very much surrogacy.”
He continued, saying, “And then through Arthur’s history in his life, coming from Armenia and you know not really having anything and then having to seek asylum in Belgium and then the Salvation Army having to look after them.”
“He’s very much like, ‘Why are you paying all this money when you can adopt a child?’ And that’s where we’re at now. We haven’t necessarily ruled out surrogacy altogether, it’s just that this is the door we’re knocking on now.”
Brian then explained why they’re not finding the adoption process easy here in Ireland, “To be honest with you, we’ve been reaching out here in Ireland and I suppose with Covid – Covid is not making anything easy.
He continued saying, “But from the last conversation we had, I just wasn’t sure if the lady we spoke to, what their feelings were on same-sex adoption.
“Because she was like, ‘Mm Yeah, Oh’. And I just thought, ‘b***h please, you give me that phone right now and I will let her know who she’s talking to’.
“Just her whole tone changed. And he’s [Arthur] trying to get the phone away from me because he knows those conversations are recorded. And I’d be like, ‘Have you any idea?’”
Arthur and Brian were married in 2015 at the stunning Powerscourt Estate, Co. Wicklow. They moved to America while Arthur was working on The World’s Best alongside host, James Corden, and judges Drew Barrymore, Faith Hill and RuPaul.
But the pair have now returned to Ireland and settled in Brian’s native Kildare.
Words by Slaine McKenna
