Francesca Farago always knew she wanted to be a mom. “I never questioned it,” she says. “I never was like, ‘Oh, do I want kids?’ I thought 24/7 about becoming a mom.”
Farago, who is best known for her appearances on Netflix reality shows Too Hot to Handle and The Perfect Match, met her now-fiancé, Jesse Sullivan, during a Pride livestream in 2021 where she interviewed three TikTok trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community. “I thought he was super cute,” Farago says. “We weren’t allowed to socialize. It was very strict, but we definitely were looking at each other the whole time. Right when the live finished, I slid into his DMs.”
Farago and Sullivan, a trans content creator with more than 3 million TikTok followers, immediately clicked, and by their fifth date, they were already talking about having kids. “Very early, we knew we met someone that was going to be in our life forever,” Farago says. Farago and Sullivan—who is already a parent to one child, Arlo, from a previous relationship—agreed on three things: They would do IVF, they would use a sperm donor, and their children would know who their sperm donor was. “My dad was adopted, and he really struggled with not knowing who his parents were, so I didn’t want my kids to search for the unknown,” Farago says. “Basically, Jesse said he knew someone we could use.”
.Photographer: Michael Buckner. Creative Direction: Sasha Purdy.
Though Farago and Sullivan had begun talking about starting a family early in their relationship, it wasn’t until later—after they got engaged and were in the middle of renovating their first house—that they officially began their pregnancy journey. “We were struggling with wedding planning. We weren’t enjoying the process. We were really stressed out with the home renovation, so we just looked at each other and said, ‘Should we start freezing our eggs?’” Farago says. “And we decided right then and there.”
When I was growing up, there was no representation of couples and families like me and Jesse.
The couple found a clinic that week, and two weeks later, Sullivan started his round of egg retrieval. “We didn’t have time to think about it, but we knew, because he’s on testosterone, we wanted to get his eggs out as quickly as possible,” Farago says. Once Sullivan healed, Farago went in for her retrieval a month later. The process tested both of their bodies, especially Sullivan’s. “The egg retrieval was really hard because you’re on a lot of female hormones,” Farago says. “So that was really difficult not just on our relationship, but on each of us physically.”
.Photographer: Michael Buckner. Creative Direction: Sasha Purdy.
Both the egg retrievals were successful, and soon after, Farago and Sullivan froze their eggs and turned them into embryos with their sperm donor. They immediately started the embryo transfer to Farago’s uterus, but they encountered an obstacle when Farago was diagnosed with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. “It’s basically when your ovaries get to the size of grapefruits and are overstimulated, so it’s unsafe for you to put an embryo in,” she says.
The couple decided to pause their journey until closer to the new year. After Christmas, they decided to start trying and had a failed embryo transfer. “That was the hardest part of everything, because we were thinking, ‘We’re going to have a daughter. We’re going to give birth in October.’ And then it didn’t work,” Farago says. But they didn’t have time to get discouraged.
.Photographer: Michael Buckner. Creative Direction: Sasha Purdy.
Immediately, Farago and Sullivan went into a second transfer. Everything was against them: Farago didn’t have the proper blood flow, and her uterus wasn’t susceptible. But then the unexpected happened. Four days after her second transfer, Farago tested again and got a strong positive line indicating she was, in fact, pregnant. “I started crying,” says Farago, who is due in the fall and was 15 weeks pregnant at the time of her StyleCaster interview. “I couldn’t fathom that it was actually true.”
But that wasn’t the only good news. Because of how dark the positive pregnancy line was, Farago and Sullivan had an immediate feeling they were pregnant with twins. Their suspicions were confirmed when they went in for their first ultrasound and the doctor noticed two sacks. “Jesse was losing his mind,” she says.
Gay parents exist, male gay parents exist, female gay parents exist, non-binary parents exist.
Farago and Sullivan announced their pregnancy on Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, 2024, a conscious choice on both their parts. “We were going to wait to announce, and then we realized the day and looked at each other,” Farago says. “Even though it was early, we thought how great it would be to also have Trans Visibility Day in our announcement so that it could bring awareness to the trans community. It was a no-brainer.”
.Photographer: Michael Buckner. Creative Direction: Sasha Purdy.
Aside from intense morning sickness in her first trimester and a small health scare with her cervix, Farago’s pregnancy has been smooth. What hasn’t been as easy is the hate toward Farago and Sullivan as a nontraditional family. “I’ve gotten hate my whole career, especially on reality TV. But it was a different realm with Jesse. The hate was so intense toward Jesse literally living, breathing, and being a human,” she says. “It’s crazy people can sit there and say such hateful things towards a dad and a family when we’re just literally living and being normal.”
The hate was the main reason Farago and Sullivan haven’t publicly discussed whose eggs they used in their pregnancy. “Jesse definitely gets like, ‘Oh, who’s the real dad? You’re not the dad. Your child needs to have a real father,’” Farago says. “People say stuff like that without realizing that gay parents exist, male gay parents exist, female gay parents exist, nonbinary parents exist. People fail to realize this whole group of society exists and can raise beautiful children who are so wanted. It doesn’t matter their biology. What matters is they’re going to be loved and taken care of.”
.Photographer: Michael Buckner. Creative Direction: Sasha Purdy.
Still, while Farago and Sullivan have their critics, they have more love than hate, especially from the trans community. “A lot of young trans people reach out constantly and say, ‘I had no idea I could find a family. I thought, because of who I am, no one would love me. You give me hope,’” Farago says. “When I was growing up, there was no representation of couples and families like me and Jesse. Even though a lot of people hate us, we’re doing more positive than negative by showing we’re a normal family, and other queer families can have babies too.”
While Farago and Sullivan are still a few months from their due date, they’ve already chosen two baby names for their twins (they’re currently calling them Peaches and Garfinkle until they’re born). But don’t expect them to reveal the names anytime soon. The couple learned their lesson after Farago’s viral TikTok video in May about baby names they loved but didn’t use—such as Afternoon, Stone, and October—which many fans stitched and made fun of. “Someone was like, ‘What about Chlamydia, nicknamed Lydia?’ It’s not funny anymore,” Farago says. “You guys need to stop. Leave me alone. I know the names are out there for a lot of people, but they weren’t like Doorknob or Showerhead.”
.Photographer: Michael Buckner. Creative Direction: Sasha Purdy.
As for the actual baby names, Farago revealed that one of the twins’ names was on their list for two years. The other name was found through the help of a baby name consultant—one of four Farago and Sullivan hired before finding the right moniker for their second twin. “Both of the names represent our relationship in a way,” Farago says. “They’re definitely out-there, but they have a lot of special meaning. I don’t know how the public will react. I mean, everyone came around to North West, right?”
It doesn’t matter their biology. What matters is they’re going to be loved and taken care of.
The babies have also put a pause on Farago and Sullivan’s wedding planning, which they intend to start again once the twins arrive and settle in. Though they don’t have a date yet, Farago and Sullivan, who got engaged in May 2023, plan to marry in Europe with their twins acting as the flower babies. “They’re definitely going to be up there with us, with maybe my sister holding one and my brother holding the other with Arlo,” Farago says.
.Photographer: Michael Buckner. Creative Direction: Sasha Purdy.
Farago’s baby bubble has also protected her from outside noise. The day of her StyleCaster shoot was also the premiere of The Perfect Match season 2, which featured two of her reality TV exes. Safe to say, Farago isn’t watching. “It’s coming up on my TikTok, and I scroll right away. I’m like, ‘Don’t go in my algorithm,’” she says. “I don’t like those people. I don’t want to hear about them. I don’t care. Everyone’s personalities will speak for themselves.”
As Farago approaches the halfway mark of her pregnancy, she acknowledges her and Sullivan’s journey hasn’t been perfect. But after her lifelong dream of becoming a mother, she’s finally ready for that future to come true. “It’s still mindblowing that this is happening. We had an ultrasound yesterday and we saw hands, feet, spinal cords, brains, livers, and spleens,” Farago says. “Two babies are going to be here in the fall. This is real.”
Photographer: Michael BucknerCreative Direction: Sasha PurdyProduction Assistant: Roya BacklundMakeup: Chris Georges
