Lily Collins is the latest celebrity to announce she has welcomed a child with a surrogate, joining a long list of stars who have opted to grow their families via gestational carrier. The actress, 35, announced the arrival of her daughter Tove Jane McDowell on Friday, revealing that the couple had used a surrogate - who Lily declared her 'endless gratitude' to. Lily and her husband Charlie McDowell managed to keep their surrogacy plans entirely under the radar until Tove was born earlier this week in Northern California.

Lily is the daughter of Genesis frontman and pop-rock icon Phil Collins and his ex-wife Jill Tavelman, while Charlie is the son of actors Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen, who divorced in 1990, and stepson of Mary's current husband, Ted Danson. The actress joins a substantial number of celebrity mothers who have welcomed a child this way, including Paris Hilton, Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson, Rebel Wilson and Ramona Agruma, and Elon Musk and Grimes.

Though we don't know the finer details of Lily's surrogacy arrangement, they have - in the past - come at a very steep price. Welcoming a child via surrogacy can cost hundreds of thousands for the average person, and celebrities likely have to fork out even more thanks to the 'special arrangements' that are needed to ensure their privacy. Stars will often go to great lengths to keep the details of their surrogacy hidden from the public, enlisting iron-clad NDAs and watertight arrangements that keep their carriers sworn to secrecy.

Collins shares the baby girl, named Tove Jane McDowell, with her husband, filmmaker Charlie McDowell; pictured together in February 2024 in London. The actress, 35, announced the arrival of her daughter Tove Jane McDowell on Friday, revealing that the couple had used a surrogate - who Lily declared her 'endless gratitude' to. On the other hand, expecting a celebrity baby certainly comes with its perks - and the surrogates are often treated to lavish gifts and glamorous accommodations from the stars, with some even providing them with their own private chefs, nutritionists, and personal trainers.

Gina-Marie Madow, ESQ Director of Legal Services at ConceiveAbilities, previously told DailyMail.com that celebrities using surrogacy and sharing their stories had helped 'normalise it' and 'inspire more women' to get involved in the process. As Lily joins a long list of mothers who have grown their families via surrogate, FEMAIL has lifted a lid on what it's really like to be a celebrity carrier.

The cost of surrogacy: Celebrities pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the carrier only makes a small percentage of that. It was reported in 2017 that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West paid their surrogate £36,000 ($45,000) when she welcomed their daughter, Chicago. In 2017, when news hit the web that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were using a surrogate to welcome another child, TMZ reported that the former couple had paid the woman carrying their daughter £36,000 ($45,000).

And while some felt it was a low number, considering the pair are worth millions of dollars, Stephanie Caballero, founder of Surrogacy Law Center in California, told The Cut at the time that £36,000 ($45,000) was a 'standard' profit for an 'experienced surrogate' - insisting that women carrying celebrity babies aren't allowed to be paid any more than surrogates for average people. Egg donation: £16,000 - £24,000.

Embryo creation: £24,000 - £30,000. Agency fee: £16,000 - £40,000. Legal fee: £5,000 - £12,000. Carrier compensation: £24,000 - £48,000. Insurance: £9,000 - £24,000. Average total: £80,000 - £160,000. Source: US News. 'You don't get more to carry a celebrity’s child,' she said. 'That is actually the going rate. 'She may be a second-time surrogate, usually a first-time surrogate [gets] about £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,000 to $35,000).'.

Extraordinary Conceptions also reported that the amount that the carrier is going to be paid is set long before they are matched with parents, and that 'paying a gestational carrier more money could also be viewed as coercion.'. Stephanie also pointed out that offering surrogates extra money to carry famous children can attract the wrong type of people, and that it's safer to keep all prices the same - celebrity or not.

'Here's the thing, if you pay a surrogate, let’s say, who’s giving birth for Kim and Kanye, £80,000 ($100,000), anybody would raise their hand and say, "Sure, six figures? I’ll carry your baby,"' she explained. 'You don't want somebody to come forward like that. You want a woman who has raised her hand and said, "This is something that I want to do. I have uneventful pregnancies, I love being pregnant. I want to help somebody and give them a baby."'.