Surrogate mum locked in legal battle after man in China never came to pick his kids up
A surrogate mother has found herself in a legal dispute after the Chinese man she carried triplets for failed to come to the US to collect them.
Kyla Simpson gave birth to Isaac, Solomon and Christopher in November 2024 after agreeing to be a surrogate for Ted Zhou, a single man living in China.
The plan was that Zhou would travel to Florida, collect his sons and take them home. However, he never made it.
Five months after the boys were born, two men turned up at Simpson’s apartment in a black SUV, claiming they had been sent to collect the children, The Cut reports.
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"We know you have the boys," one reportedly told her. "We have power of attorney."
Simpson wasn’t home at the time, but her husband, Lincoln, was with the triplets and quickly shut them in a bedroom before calling her.
Simpson had already become suspicious of Zhou, who had struggled to get the paperwork and visa needed to bring his children to China.
Zhou, meanwhile, insisted he was desperate to get his sons home. He had been waiting for a visa interview and said he couldn’t travel to the US without the correct documents.
Simpson had initially agreed to care for the boys until Zhou could collect them. In those early months, she breastfed them, changed their nappies and spent hours holding them.
The babies had arrived early at just 31 weeks, with the smallest weighing a little over three pounds. Christopher and Solomon had health problems that required ongoing treatment, while Isaac was anaemic.
The staff at the hospital apparently even referred to Simpson as 'Mama'.
"I’m just the surrogate," she told them.
"Look at you - you’re here," they replied. "You’re their mama now."
As the weeks turned into months, Simpson became convinced that she needed to protect the boys herself.
Zhou was becoming increasingly desperate on the other side of the world. He had already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the surrogacy, including medical, legal and agency fees, and was running out of money.
He eventually hired a man known as 'Uncle Kent' to arrange for the children to be collected, who reportedly told him via the outlet: "This is not a big problem. I do this kind of thing often."
He then sent men to Simpson’s home who then left without the boys.
Simpson later contacted the FBI and began pursuing custody and adoption of the children, believing Zhou could be connected to an alleged baby-trafficking operation.
Zhou denied such claims and maintained that he simply wanted his sons back.
The dispute took an even darker turn in August 2025, when Christopher died after becoming seriously ill with a respiratory infection, news which devastated Zhou.
By then, he had gone months without seeing his sons and had never met them in person.
He also discovered that Uncle Kent, who had continued promising to recover the children, had allegedly been lying to him, as it was found that a parentage order the man sent him turned out to be fake.
The legal battle eventually reached Florida courts.
Simpson argued that she had become the only mother the boys had ever known and had sacrificed her finances, work and family life to care for them.
Meanwhile, Zhou’s lawyers argued that he was their legal father and that a California parentage order naming him as their parent should be recognised in Florida.
In June 2026, a judge ruled in Zhou’s favour and ordered that he have legal and physical custody of Isaac and Solomon, resulting in the boys being removed from Simpson’s care.
She appealed, while Florida’s attorney general also intervened, arguing that the case raised much bigger questions about surrogacy and parental rights across state lines.
Isaac and Solomon currently remain in California in a nanny home while the legal fight continues with Zhou video-calling them almost every day from China.
"I don’t really believe in love anymore," he said. Then he reconsidered. "That’s not true: I think the love from the parents to the children is immortal. It’s forever."
The case is expected to continue for months, with the possibility that neither Simpson nor Zhou ultimately gets custody of the surviving boys.
Topics: Parenting, Crime, World News, Real Life
Rhiannon Ingle