Businessman Nick Loeb and actress Sofia Vergara got engaged in 2012, but broke up last year. They’re locked in a battle over frozen embryos they created when they were together. Photo: Jason Merritt Source: Getty Images

The American businessman filed a civil complaint against the Modern Family actress in August 2014 to try to protect two frozen embryos the pair created when they were together.

Vergara and Loeb dated on-and-off between 2010 and 2014. They called off their engagement in May last year.

The pair agreed to try IVF and a surrogate to have children. They signed a form stating any embryos created through the process could be brought to term only with both parties’ consent.

“The form did not specify — as California law requires — what would happen if we separated. I am asking to have it voided,” Loeb wrote in The NY Times.

The 39-year-old says he has dreamed of being as parent “for as long as I can remember.”

Loeb’s parents divorced when he was just a year old and his mother disappeared from his life. “This made me yearn for the type of family based on the images one might see in a Norman Rockwell painting,” he writes.

He was unable to conceive a child in his previous relationships.

“When I was in my 20s, I had a girlfriend who had an abortion, and the decision was entirely out of my hands. Ever since, I have dreamed about a boy at the age he would be now.”

Loeb was previously married to Swedish model Anna Pettersson and they tried to have children with the help of a fertility specialist, but were unsuccessful. “My dreams of a family were shattered,” he writes.

Loeb met Vergara in 2010 as her career was taking off.

“I didn’t want to pressure her, as I wanted her to fulfil her dreams and reap the rewards of her hard work. But about six months into our relationship, I was in a terrible car accident. My pelvis was fractured in five places. For six months, I couldn’t walk on my own. I saw how life could change in the blink of an eye.”

Sofia Vergara is now engaged to True Blood hunk Joe Manganiello. Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez. Source: Getty Images

The couple got engaged in 2012 and Loeb pushed for children, while Vergara insisted they use a surrogate. They created two female embryos.

“I was so excited once the lives were created that I began to suggest names we could call our girls. The first embryo we implanted didn’t take. The second time, the surrogate miscarried, and I felt crushed.

“A year later, we tried again, creating two more embryos, both female. But as we began to discuss other potential surrogates, it became clear once more that parenthood was much less urgent for her than it was for me. We had been together for over four years. As I was coming on 40, I gave her an ultimatum. When she refused, we split up.

Loeb has offered to “pay for all expenses to carry our girls to term and raise them” and is prepared to take on full parenting responsibilities. But Vergara wants to keep the embryos frozen indefinitely.

“In my view, keeping them frozen forever is tantamount to killing them,” Loeb writes.

“Many have asked me: Why not just move on and have a family of your own? I have every intention of doing so. But that doesn’t mean I should let the two lives I have already created be destroyed or sit in a freezer until the end of time.

“When we create embryos for the purpose of life, should we not define them as life, rather than as property?

“A woman is entitled to bring a pregnancy to term even if the man objects. 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? These are issues that, unlike abortion, have nothing to do with the rights over one’s own body, and everything to do with a parent’s right to protect the life of his or her unborn child.

“I take the responsibility and obligation of being a parent very seriously. This is not just about saving lives; it is also about being pro-parent.”

Read Nick Loeb’s full piece in The New York Times.

Have you experienced a similar conflict in a former relationship? Email rebecca.sullivan@news.com.au