Since 2015, Sofia Vergara has been wrapped up in the legal proceedings of her ex-fiancé, Nick Loeb. In a new bizarre development, Loeb’s legal team is trying to prevent Vergara from taking the stand. Here’s what we know about Loeb’s latest lawsuit.
Loeb Filed Multiple Lawsuits Against Vergara
Sofia Vergara met Nick Loeb in 2010 and the pair got engaged in 2012. During their time together, the couple made efforts to conceive a child. Through ART Reproductive Services LLC, the couple attempted in-vitro fertilization. The couple’s efforts to conceive via surrogate were ultimately futile. However, the former couple still has two embryos stored at the facility. Since their split in 2014, the couple has disagreed over who has a right to the embryos.
What’s since ensued is a bizarre custody battle of sorts. It’s also a staggering example of how the pro-life perspective plays into modern fertility science. In 2015, Loeb filed a lawsuit to stop Vergara from destroying the embryos. After it came out in court that two of Loeb’s ex-girlfriends had undergone abortions, Vergara’s legal team demanded their identities so they could probe the women’s motivations for undergoing the procedures. Loeb dropped the suit instead of giving up his exes’ names.
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Then, in 2016, Loeb sued Vergara for the right to do as he pleases with the embryos. To make it even stranger, he filed the lawsuit on behalf of the unimplanted embryos themselves. This was made possible by a law in Louisiana that allows someone to file a lawsuit on behalf of an embryo or unborn child. Filing through the southern state, Loeb sued Vergara on behalf of “Emma and Isabella,” names he gave the frozen embryos, for depriving them of a chance to be born.
It was a bizarre appropriation of the pro-life state’s “right-to-life” laws allowing men to sue women they impregnated for seeking abortions. However, a Louisiana judge dismissed the case, insisting the state had no jurisdiction over the embryos, which were conceived in and resided in California.
Nick Loeb Sues The Fertility Clinic
In his latest legal filing, Loeb is suing ART Reproductive Services LLC, the fertility clinic itself. The grounds? Well, Loeb’s legal team asserts that the clinic violated California’s Health & Safety Code by neglecting to file an agreement between Vergara and Loeb dictating what would happen to their embryos if they were to separate or if they failed to pay the clinic’s storage fees.
The issue here is that Vergara and Loeb did have a 2013 agreement dictating that neither Vergara nor Loeb could use the embryos without the written consent of the other. In 2021, Loeb claimed he was under duress when he signed the agreement and that it should be rendered void. He also alleged that he and Vergara had a separate, enforceable verbal agreement that he could implant the embryos in a surrogate if they were to separate.
Unsurprisingly, the judge dismissed Loeb’s motion due to a lack of evidence. However, Loeb is now going after the clinic for not drafting its own official medical agreement over the fate of the embryos in the event of Loeb and Vergara’s separation. Of course, the couple’s already-existing legal agreement over the same matter makes the efficacy of Loeb’s motion a bit questionable.
Loeb’s Legal Team Tries To Silence Vergara
Now, Loeb’s legal team is trying to stop the clinic from calling on Vergara to testify. The clinic’s attorneys have listed Vergara as a witness in their case, expecting her to testify that she and Loeb did in fact discuss what would happen to the embryos in the event of their separation.
Loeb’s legal team interjects that Vergara’s testimony on this matter would be irrelevant because their personal agreement was not filed through the clinic. Therefore, Loeb asserts that the clinic still breached the state’s Health & Safety Code. His lawyers also insist that Vergara would bias the jury.
“Ms. Vergara is a highly loved and well-known celebrity who has 26.8 million-plus followers on Instagram,” Loeb’s legal team states in their court papers. The lawyers also attest that Vergara’s testimony would no doubt showcase her “anger, hatred. and dislike” for him and would “taint him in the eyes of the jury with a star power that he could not mitigate.”
It’s unclear in which direction this particular case is skewed. Unlike Loeb’s other legal filings, the outcome of this lawsuit will not give him permission to implant his and Vergara’s embryos in a surrogate. Instead, the filing seeks financial compensation for harm caused by the clinic’s alleged negligence. No matter how it plays out, it’s sure to incite controversy on both sides. Loeb’s legal drama has already been precedent-setting, so we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on where the case goes from here.