In early 2010, MaryBeth Lewis and her husband, Bob Lewis, drew local attention in Elma, N.Y., when they welcomed their eighth child — another girl, joining her seven older sisters.
“That first child was the biggest change. After that they kind of fell into place,” MaryBeth told The East Aurora Advertiser at the time, joking, “You’re fixing food for one, you can fix food for another.”
Back then, she insisted she was done: “I have my hands full with these munchkins.”
But her family continued to expand. As detailed in a New York Times profile, MaryBeth’s path to motherhood ultimately led to the felony charges she now faces in connection with twins she calls her 14th and 15th children.
Those twins, a boy and a girl, were born using donor embryos and a surrogate hired by MaryBeth, now 68.
A nurse by training, MaryBeth and her husband, a retired FedEx pilot, turned to in vitro fertilization after their first five children. According to the Times, they used a combination of their own embryos and donor eggs and sperm for each subsequent child, with MaryBeth carrying the pregnancies herself.
After the birth of her eighth daughter in 2010, she delivered twin sons in 2012. In 2016, at age 59, she welcomed another set of twins — her 11th and 12th children — and later had her 13th child at 62.
“My children were my love, my blessings,” she told the Times.
The most recent pregnancy, in 2023, was the first and only one involving both donor embryos and a surrogate — and it’s this pregnancy that triggered the legal crisis now unfolding.
According to the Times, MaryBeth “tricked” her IVF clinic, her husband and the presiding judge in Steuben County. She forged Bob’s signature on the surrogacy agreement, apparently violating state law, which requires consent from both parents.
MaryBeth says Bob initially supported the plan — a claim he disputes — but acknowledges he later made it clear he did not want more than 13 children. She proceeded anyway, saying she could not bring herself to destroy the remaining embryos.
The procedure was successful, but MaryBeth kept the surrogate’s pregnancy secret from her husband for months, the Times reported.
In September 2023, during a court hearing held via Zoom to obtain a parentage order, MaryBeth allegedly impersonated Bob. The Times reports that she logged in using a separate account under his name, kept the camera off, and, when the judge addressed him, “grunted in assent.”
Days later, Bob discovered the truth when he saw the parentage order arrive in the mail. Furious, he contacted the attorney MaryBeth had hired, who then reached out to the judge.
That moment set off what has become two years of emotionally draining and expensive legal battles in both family and criminal court, according to the Times.
MaryBeth has admitted, “I did not feel good with what I did,” but she has also challenged the charges and the efforts to strip her of custody.
In 2023, she was indicted on multiple charges, including second-degree forgery, first-degree criminal impersonation, second-degree perjury and, most seriously, second-degree attempted kidnapping.
County officials have also sought to block both MaryBeth and Bob from gaining custody of the twins. The children have been placed with foster parents.
“We can’t just have crimes committed with relation to the creation of life and then have them get exactly what they wanted under that criminal conduct,” an attorney for the county’s Department of Social Services argued at one hearing, according to the Times.
The paper reported that MaryBeth rejected two plea deals in order to continue fighting for custody — a fight now supported by her husband and by the surrogate who carried the twins.
Some of her children have been upset by her decision to keep having kids, but many have stood by her, the Times reported.
“She’s not perfect, but none of us are,” one daughter said. “She really, truly is a wonderful mom and human being.”
MaryBeth spoke extensively with the paper about her enduring desire to be a mother, her decisions around the surrogacy, and her belief that the system is unfairly targeting her.
“It’s just terrible what they have done to myself, Bob and our kids,” she said after an October hearing on custody.
The case remains unresolved. A new judge has ruled that the Lewises are the legal parents of the twins, but their foster parents are appealing that decision, the Times reported.
“We sincerely hope your reporting will champion justice, uphold integrity and advocate for the protection of two very precious children,” the foster father wrote, according to the Times.
Attorneys on all sides agree on at least one thing: the case is extraordinary.
“We looked at it first and said, ‘Is this for real?’ It is such an off-the-wall collection of allegations,” Steuben County District Attorney Brooks T. Baker told the Times.
One of MaryBeth’s attorneys, Sarah E. Wesley, expressed similar disbelief: “I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was one of those jaw-on-the-desk things,” she said. (MaryBeth’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment; the district attorney was not available.)
The twins at the center of the case have largely been kept out of the public eye. MaryBeth has said she plans to change their names if she wins custody.
Their foster mother told the Times that the children love bedtime stories like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and will curl up with her to read before sleep.
They turned 2 earlier this month.
