TONI, LACHIE & SOPHIE 'The gratitude & love will never go away'

Toni Street and her best friend Sophie Braggins share with writer Sophie Neville the impact of surrogacy five years on and why telling their special boy the truth is hard.

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Every now and then at Toni Street's Auckland home, the broadcasting star and her children clamber into the attic to treat themselves to a walk down memory lane. Stored away in the roof space are her children's keepsake boxes; three treasure troves stuffed to the brim with mementos and memories from Juliette, 10, Mackenzie, eight, and four-year-old Lachie's little lives. There are the magazine stories introducing them as tiny babies to the world, Plunket books with tantalising snippets of their first weeks and months, family photos, kindergarten artworks, school certificates and their first locks of hair.

At first glance, the wooden boxes hold similar things, yet it's Lachie's hospital bracelet that gives the first hint of the unique way he came into the world. "Baby of Sophie" reads the name band, which was placed around his ankle just moments after he was born at North Shore Hospital on August 9, 2018. Toni and her husband Matt France's much longed-for son, Lachlan Stephen France, was made possible only by the incredible generosity of her best friend Sophie Braggins, who acted as a surrogate for the beloved TV and radio star after health problems ruled out another pregnancy.

And as the women come together with little Lachie for our photo shoot to mark five years since that life-changing experience, it's clear their friendship is tighter than ever. A 30-year bond is special regardless, but when it involves a gift as extraordinary as a child, it creates a tie like no other. While life has gone on for both families since that remarkable day when Sophie gave birth to Toni and Matt's baby boy, it's marking milestones like these when emotions again come to the surface.