MUMBAI: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has announced the arrival of his new baby boy born to a surrogate mother, and denied rumours of an illegal pre-natal gender test.

In a statement released late Tuesday, Khan said he and his wife Gauri had kept quiet on the matter owing to their “emotional strife” after the child, named Abram, was born several months premature.

“Just to put the record straight there was no sex determination for our child,” said Khan, 47, adding that the baby was born before such suspicions arose in the media.

Mumbai officials said last week they had received confirmation from a city hospital that a baby boy was born on May 27 to the Khans. Rumours surfaced in June that the Khans were expecting a boy, raising speculation they had carried out a sex test. Such a test is illegal in India, to try to prevent parents aborting female foetuses. On seeing the reports, the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association wrote to health officials demanding an investigation. Khan, one of Bollywood's biggest crowd-pullers, already has two teenage children, a girl and a boy. The star of “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” (“The Braveheart will get the Bride”) and “My Name Is Khan” confirmed his new child was born by surrogacy, an arrangement in which a woman carries the child of another couple. “The entire process is bound by strict confidentiality. We would appeal to all, to allow us to cherish this private moment as a family,” Khan said. Back in 2011 fellow Bollywood megastar Aamir Khan and his wife also had a baby boy using a surrogate mother. Shah Rukh Khan topped the first Forbes India Celebrity 100 list earlier this year with annual estimated earnings of $37.7 million. rob/adp/sm

Entertainment-India-film-Bollywood-people-Khan
AFP 100727 GMT JUL 13