Florida surrogate fights to keep custody of triplets after Chinese 'dad' believed to be human trafficker can't get US visa to retrieve them

A Florida woman who carried triplets as a surrogate for a single man in China found herself in an international custody battle after the children’s father failed to arrive to collect them.

Kyla Simpson gave birth to three boys in November 2024 for Ted Zhou, a single man from China who had arranged the surrogacy. Zhou did not arrive after the birth, later explaining that he was still trying to obtain a US visa. 

Simpson agreed to take the children home while Zhou sorted out a plan to retrieve the children. She began caring after the babies, including breastfeeding them. As time passed, however, Simpson began growing suspicious of Zhou. She noticed that he had not given any of the children his last name and that payments he had promised for their care arrived late and only after she demanded them.

“My Spidey senses started going off,” Simpson told New York Magazine. “My soul felt uneasy.” 

On March 21, 2025, roughly five months after giving birth, Zhou emailed Simpson to tell her that he had sent people to collect the babies. A few nights later, two Chinese men arrived at Simpson’s home in a black SUV. According to New York Magazine, one of the men said “we know you have the boys” and claimed they had power of attorney. Zhou called Simpson dozens of times, messaging her  “if you don’t give my babies to us, we have to report to the police. And you will be arrested immediately.”

“Think about your daughter,” he threatened, referencing Simpson’s 5-year-old girl. “I don’t think you want to have her live without you for several years!”

Simpson grew suspicious that Zhou may be part of a trafficking ring that commissioned surrogate babies to be sold. She instead drove to the St. Augustine courthouse and contacted the FBI. She would go on to accuse Zhou of abandoning the babies and try to strip him of his parental rights so that she could file for adoption.

The situation became more complicated because of legal arrangements surrounding the surrogacy. Zhou had obtained a parentage order in California, where the embryos had been transferred, but the order was issued after the children were born. Simpson had also changed the birth certificates to list herself and her husband as parents, saying she needed to do so to obtain medical coverage for the babies.

In August of 2025, one of the children tragically died after becoming seriously ill. The two surviving boys have been put in a nanny house in Southern California as the legal battle continues unfolding, and concerns have been raised that the legal dispute will result in neither Zhou nor Simpson receiving custody.

The case comes as lawmakers have increased scrutiny of international surrogacy. New York Magazine noted that American women gestate thousands of babies each year for overseas parents, nearly half of whom live in China. 

“With cultural differences, a language barrier, and a patchwork of conflicting state laws, it can be hard to tell in a dispute who is a victim and who is a perpetrator, who has been scammed and who is the scammer. Now, as the two parties face each other in court, the ruling could threaten the status of thousands of parents and define the future of international surrogacy,” the outlet reported.