The lucky magazines selected were the Spanish language versions of People Magazine (presumably called 'Gente' - thanks, Babelfish) and Hello (Hola!) who were given first dibs on pictures of little Valentino and Matteo aged just four months. Ricky is positively glowing with the whole thing, though there's no mention of what happened to the surrogate mother who actually gave birth to the pair. Sorry, they were actually born under the term 'gestational surrogacy', which is a much more pleasant term than 'jam jar and turkey baster'. So how is Ricky coping with life as a single father?

"I don't have a nanny. I'm doing this on my own because I don't want to miss a moment. I have a personal assistant who helps me, someone who takes care of me while I'm taking care of them."

Hmm. Moving swiftly on, the subject of why Ricky chose to use a surrogate rather than the traditional way of having pleasant sex with a lady was briefly broached, before being ushered away into a nearby closet.

"Adoption was one option, but it's complicated and can take a long time. Surrogacy was an intriguing and faster option. I thought, 'I'm going to jump into this with no fear."

Well, I can think of one thing that Ricky is pretty scared of, and half the population has one hidden in their knickers.

by Ian McShane