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Jessel Taank Reveals the 6-Figure Cost for Her to Get a Surrogate: "Worse Things You Could Do”
Jessel also explained how much she pays to keep her frozen embryos in a special zip code.
Jessel Taank of The Real Housewives of New York City is sparing no expense should she and hubby decide to try and have more children.
The mother of toddler twins, Kai and Rio, might be contemplating another chance at motherhood, based on what she shared with fellow Housewives Sai De Silva and Ubah Hassan in a preview of Season 15, Episode 4. The revelation came when the trio went to an Amagansett farmer’s market in the Hamptons, and Sai egged Jessel on for a game of "How Much Sh-t Is!"
For a dozen store-bought eggs, Jessel guessed they were $11 when, in fact, they were $8, which had her thinking about eggs of her own.
“Do you know how much my eggs are?” she asked Sai. “I’m paying a thousand dollars a month for my frozen embryos right now. I, like, can’t with eggs… It’s ridiculous.”
But that’s not all.
Jessel Taank on Cost of Surrogate
It bears noting that the $1,000 fee applies to all six or seven embryos, which has Jessel and her husband, Pavit Randhawa, paying “a sh-t ton of money,” she explained.
The hefty price tag might have something to do with the location, as Jessel said they were stored on Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive.
“It’s the 90210 zip code!” Jessel maintained.
On top of storing her frozen embryos, the cost of enlisting a surrogate — should she choose that option — would come with an even heftier price tag: One to the tune of $250,000.
“That sounds crazy,” said Sai. “You just blew my mind.”
But Jessel said using a surrogate would be something she’d “love” to do this time around.
Sai didn’t hesitate to offer herself as a possible surrogate to carry Jessel and Pavit’s baby, as seen in the recent clip. She joked that Jessel could give her the six-figure sum, going so far as to say she’d carry two children for her friend, adding she was “really invested.”
Ubah had a good laugh as the light-hearted conversation continued.
“There are definitely worse things you can do for $250,000,” Sai told producers. “I can carry one of Jessel’s kids.”
Jessel, however, wasn’t as keen on the idea, she said in her confessional.
“If Sai was my surrogate, I would have to take a backseat, and she would run the show,” she suspected. “I am not about to do that.”
Jessel’s infertility struggles
Jessel has been open about her “brutal” journey with infertility and I.V.F. (in vitro fertilization) treatments before Kai and Rio were eventually conceived.
In October 2023, Jessel told the Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen host Andy Cohen at the RHONY Season 14 reunion that she had yet to convince her husband they should bring a daughter into their family.
“I really have to work on him,” she told Andy. “He’s so against it. I think that we’re right now just trying to find our footing. There’s a lot going on.”
She tried again in this season’s premiere, suggesting they could have the next Beyoncé or Elon Musk. It was a hard no for Pavit, but he eventually came around to saying, “We’ll see.”
Jessel isn’t the only Housewife considering pregnancy, either. Ubah said she and her beau, Oliver Dachsel, could start trying in November or December.
Returning Housewife Brynn Whitfield has been candid about freezing her own eggs since last season and, earlier this month, she told E! News that viewers would see more of her motherhood journey in Season 15
Watch The Real Housewives of New York City, airing Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo and streaming the next day on Peacock.
