'Normal Family' Author On Uncovering 35 Siblings

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Chrysta Bilton's mother was a lesbian who asked a man she'd just met to be her sperm donor. It was only much later that Bilton learned the same man had donated sperm to countless other women. Bilton tells the story of uncovering her 35 siblings and her unusual childhood in her memoir Normal Family.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new HBO reality series The Rehearsal, where participants practice real-life scenarios.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from the New Bower Family Foundation, supporting
0:04.7	WHY Wise Fresh Air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation.
0:11.5	This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.
0:14.3	For many years, Christa built her father was known to the many other people he
0:18.9	fathered as sperm donor 150 from the California Cryo Bank.
0:24.2	It was one of the very early sperm banks founded in 1977.
0:27.8	However, Christa and her sister, Caitlin, knew him as Jeffrey, their father, although he was seldom around.
0:35.4	Christa was the first offspring of his donated sperm.
0:38.8	Her mother, Deborah, is a lesbian who was determined to have children.
0:42.6	At that time in the early 1980s, many sperm banks didn't even accept lesbians.
0:48.4	She actually chose Jeffrey to father her children after seeing him at a salon.
0:53.4	She convinced him to help her through a sperm bank.
0:56.0	He reluctantly agreed.
0:57.9	When she failed to get pregnant, they tried with a turkey-based ear at Deborah's home and were successful.
1:03.8	Deborah made Jeffrey promise to never donate sperm to another woman.
1:07.9	But donating sperm is how he ended up making a living for almost a decade.
1:12.7	He was able to keep that a secret from Christa, her sister, Caitlin, who he also fathered,
1:17.3	and their mother, Deborah, until 2007, when a New York Times article was headlined,
1:22.6	sperm donor father ends his anonymity.
1:26.8	That anonymous donor who came out was Jeffrey.
1:30.7	It's estimated he fathered somewhere between a few dozen and over a hundred children.
1:36.0	Christa built his new memoir as titled,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.