Tyra Banks is currently the new host of America’s Got Talent and fans are very familiar with her, after her hosting America’s Next Top Model for many years. She is a model, a mogul and an entrepreneur, but she is also now a mother and a girlfriend.
Banks and boyfriend Erik Asla welcomed their baby boy via surrogate in 2016 and announced baby York’s arrival via Instagram, writing:
The best present we worked and prayed so hard for is finally here. He’s got my fingers and big eyes and his daddy Erik’s mouth and chin. As we thank the angel of a woman that carried our miracle baby boy for us, we pray for everyone who struggles to reach this joyous milestone. York Banks Asla, welcome to the world.
In previous years, she opened up to In Touch Weekly about battling infertility and going through the process of IVF. She also had told People that:
When I turned 40, the one thing I was not happy about is that I did not have kids. I’m like, ‘Damn, the clock is ticking!’ Since I was 24, I used to say every year, ‘I will have kids in three years.’ I kept saying it over and over again … When you’re like, ‘OK, I’m just going to do it,’ then it’s not so easy as you get older.
So, who is the man by Banks’ side through all of this? Her boyfriend and baby’s father is a Norwegian man named Erik Asla, who works as a photographer. And, apparently, Asla helps out Banks when it comes to balancing work and parenthood. Banks explained to People:
My secret to balance is to focus on one thing at a time. I used to be the most amazing multitasker, doing three things at once. Not anymore, now that I have my son. I think that’s Mother Nature’s way of saying this life you created takes all of your brain power. Now I’m like, ‘Mommy’s going on a conference call,’ and I give him to his dad.
Banks also went on to say:
My son, as he gets older, he’s getting a lot more clingy so he wants to be held a lot more and be close to Mommy a lot more, so I have to do things fast … I want to teach him that he doesn’t need to go after chicks that are just cookie-cutter. I want him to understand that beauty has so many different shapes and sizes and colors and features. I hope that he can appreciate beauty like his mom does, like I do — that I see beauty in things that the world doesn’t necessarily tell us are beautiful.
Erik Asla and Banks have reportedly been dating since 2013 and he already had two daughters from a previous relationship. According to Entertainment Tonight, the couple met on the set of Norway’s Next Top Model, where Asla was working as a photographer. Asla has shot for many big magazines, from German Vogue to Glamour, to Allure.