NEW YORK — Actress Sofia Vergara’s former fiance says in an op-ed that he sued the “Modern Family” star to protect their frozen embryos because he longs to become a parent and doesn’t want the “two lives” they created to “be destroyed or sit in a freezer until the end of time.”

Businessman Nick Loeb wrote Wednesday on NYTimes.com that as the child of divorced parents he yearned to have the kind of family depicted in artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings.

In happier times, Nick Loeb and actress Sofia Vergara froze embryos to plant in a surrogate mother.

He said when he was in his 20s, his girlfriend had an abortion and the decision was “entirely out of my hands.” Later, he married a woman with whom he tried to have children with the help of a fertility specialist. The marriage ended.

When he and Vergara became engaged, he said pushed for children,” but she insisted they use a surrogate. He said initially two fertilized embryos were created. The first one implanted didn’t take and the surrogate miscarried the second.

Two more embryos were created before their relationship ended. He said he was willing to take full parental responsibility if Vergara didn’t want to share custody, but she refused.

The two had signed a form stating that any embryos they created could only be brought to term if both of them agreed. Loeb said the form didn’t specifically say, as California law requires, what would happen to the embryos if they separated.

“A woman is entitled to bring a pregnancy to term even if the man objects,” he said. “Shouldn’t a man who is willing to take on all parental responsibilities be similarly entitled to bring his embryos to term even if the woman objects?”

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