JAN MOIR: Women who take more care picking a sofa than a father for their children

Irresponsible: Sperm donor Kenzie Kilpatrick

Kenzie Kilpatrick has been hailed as a hero in some circles. A saviour. A begetter of children, a keeper of dreams. Over the past year, the gay 26-year-old has fathered ten children by nine women.

Most of them are lesbians who wanted to be mothers, but obviously encountered an understandable difficulty in the conception department. Kenzie was happy to oblige, to do the needful.

He gave his sperm free of charge to women he met through Facebook, bless him. He wanted to help these total strangers fulfil their dream of being mothers, to bequeath upon them the gift of parenthood, no strings attached. The deal was that if they did not demand money for the child’s upkeep, he would not demand access. Easy peasy. An arrangement less complicated than adopting a gerbil or renting a Boris bike.

So all parties signed a contract he ‘got off the internet’ and that was that. For this selfless gift of life, all he wanted were overnight expenses and perhaps the feeling that he had put a little good back into a world that had gone bad for him. And now, somewhere out in the badlands of the Midlands, he has started a little Kenzie dynasty.

Hero? Not from where I am sitting. In fact, I’d say he is a complete idiot, and an irresponsible one at that. He might like to convince himself he is only a donor but he is a father ten times over, with ten little people directly related to him growing up in the world. This is something he has publicly admitted to and — I would argue — is morally responsible for, even if his name is not on the birth certificate.

The mothers are little better. In fact, in many respects they are worse.

Ladies, if you were in the market for a sperm donor, wouldn’t you try a little bit harder than rushing into an arrangement with the first bloke you came across on the internet?

Kenzie might indeed be a lovely person, but with the best will in the world, an unemployed former carer who suffers from depression is hardly at the top of anyone’s sperm-donor shopping list. Yes, a woman could go to a nightclub, meet a psychopath and become pregnant within hours — and some do — but can’t they at least try for the best start in life for their baby? This is all so casually callous and selfish. Little thought is given to the future welfare of the child or the consequences of these actions.

All that matters is the instant gratification of their own desires and a kiddy at all costs — a stance that many will find ethically reprehensible.

For these are babies we are talking about; children, little people, human beings. Not a commodity to be ordered online, like a new sofa or a book from Amazon. Actually, you would have to take more care selecting a sofa. Will it be comfortable, would it fit into your home, will everyone be happy with it? Instead, we have wham, bam, thank you, strange man.

One can see why women leapt at this offer. The fertility industry has become commercialised with would-be mothers having to pay thousands of pounds to obtain sperm through official clinics. Yet regulated sperm banks offer protection for all involved. They ensure that donors and mothers don’t have criminal convictions or health problems, for a start. Or that no donors are fathering too many children, with all the genetic problems that could bring further down the line.

Surely if you are not conscientious enough to take these basic precautions before having a baby with a complete stranger, you’re not responsible enough to be a parent. And if you can’t afford the fees, then how can you afford a baby?

Worst of all in this sad scenario is that once more, the role of the father in the family unit has been marginalised and diminished. Difficulties in his own upbringing means Kenzie Kilpatrick does not believe a father is a necessary ingredient in a happy family. His own dad walked out when he was five, leaving his mother to bring him up on her own. ‘My mum has been fab. Women just do a better job — they’ve got it in their blood,’ he said.

Good for her — but how utterly selfish of Kenzie Kilpatrick.

Not all women are good like his mother, not all men are bad like his father.

Yet just because he has no father of his own to speak of, he has condemned another ten children to the same fate.

They will grow up never knowing their father or their siblings — and the chances are they will endure much anger and sadness at being denied this family dimension and feel a vacuum at the centre of their lives.

You don’t have to have watched the heart-wrenching episodes of ITV’s Long Lost Family every week to know about the pain of the search for identity and the crack in the soul that comes from not knowing where you come from and who made you.

No one has thought this through — do you know why? Because they are thinking only about themselves.

Gisele's such a berk in a burka

Just another day in Paris, where supermodel Gisele Bundchen and her younger sister hid under burkas for a trip to a plastic surgery clinic.

Duh! The city is furious with the dopey beauties, who wore open sandals under their burkas — and did so during the holy month of Ramadan. Covering the face has been banned in the French capital, but needs must.

The women went to the Internationale Clinique de Parc Monceau to get some work done on their busts and eyes.

One can see why Gisele (right) craved the cloak of anonymity. She has, in the past, voiced her disapproval of cosmetic procedures — how embarrassing if it turned out she was a secret devotee of the dark art of beauty after all.

Still, the cultural insensitivity was breathtaking. Perhaps they should have followed the lead of three teenagers at a festival in Wick this week, and blacked up as golliwogs instead.

Paul Bacon makes a good living as an Elton John impersonator. The Ultimate Elton performer has even become friends with Elton’s estranged mother, Sheila Farebrother. They got to know each other when she hired him to appear at her birthday party, in the absence of a son who has not spoken to her for seven years. Now she is to attend Bacon’s debut show in London’s West End. I don’t know if Elton is embarrassed by the antics of his lonely mum — but he should be. 

Ladies, never let a foxy nanny look after your henhouse

Ben Affleck with nanny Christine Ouzounian

Sleeping with the nanny? It is not just the ultimate breach of trust, it’s so tacky.

Now Hollywood actor Ben Affleck is the latest said to have followed in the footsteps of Jude Law and Arnold Schwarzenegger — by tiptoeing down the forbidden path from nursery to nanny’s room.

Affleck has denied that he is dating 28-year-old nanny Christine Ouzounian, who bears a starting resemblance to wife Jennifer Garner. The couple, who have three children, split up last month after ten years of marriage.

Sad if true, but in the meantime — isn’t is madness to hire a hot nanny? Even if you do live in California and happen to be an A-list sort of person who must be surrounded by 500 thread-count luxury, sun, gorgeousness and beauty at all times?

If I were married to a handsome Hollywood film star — and, readers, that is a very big ‘if’ — I’d be scouring the agencies for nannies who looked like a cross between Mrs Doubtfire and Gollum. Not one who could model for Victoria’s Secret in her spare time. What wife needs a fox in her henhouse?

But the signs were always there in Affleck’s dating history. His one-time squeeze, Gwyneth Paltrow, once said that Ben’s dream girl was a stripper or ‘anyone that serves cold beer in a bikini’.

Never mind the migrants and the weather, what really is a ‘disaster’ for this country is the Duchess of Cambridge’s grey hair. So says crimper Nicky Clarke. Nicky, I’ll tell you what really is a disaster. And that’s a 57-year-old man still walking about with a Kajagoogoo hairstyle on his head.

Nicky points out that men can look distinguished and handsome with greying hair, whereas women just look like Grandpa Munster.

He has a point. The reason why older women look so amazing today has nothing to do with Botox or feminism, but everything to do with that little magic box of Clairol or Revlon. A roots revolution.

Cats that got the cream

She rode elephants in India, petted koalas in Australia and stroked a leopard in Thailand. What did these poor animals do to deserve the attentions of British holidaymaker Cheryl Brooks?

And speaking of dumb creatures, what about us taxpayers? After all, we paid for the 45-year-old grandmother to travel the world with her civil partner, Margaret. And we won’t get a penny back.

Brooks is a benefits cheat who falsely claimed for £36,000 of taxpayers’ money, including housing benefits, council tax benefits and employment support allowance.

She dishonestly obtained this cash, but in a Manchester court this week a judge gave her a suspended sentence and ordered her to pay just over £2,000 in costs.

Why was she not jailed and ordered to repay the money? After all, this is not scrounging, it is theft. 

Taxpayers paid for Cheryl Brooks, right, to travel the world with her civil partner, Margaret