He was brought up in Manchester by his parents Veronica and Barry Drewitt. He knew that he was gay from a young age and mixed with other young gay men around Canal Street in Manchester. He trained as a nurse and became a qualified as a social worker.
In 1987, Tony Barlow stopped at a petrol filling station to ask for directions, and here he met Barrie. A year later Barrie and Tony became a couple, and moved in together in Bicknacre near Chelmsford in Essex. They tried to adopt a child in England but were turned down by Social Services. They became wealthy and this broadened their opportunities to acquire children.
They investigated surrogacy in England but decided to go to the United States which they thought to be more sympathetic to gay couples. In 1998 they contacted a surrogacy agency in the USA and they attempted to have babies by one surrogate mother but the pregnancy failed. They set up an agency to help gay, lesbian, and single people to become parents.
Their surrogate mother was Rosalind Bellamy. The conception was achieved using donated eggs from Tracie McCune and sperm from the gay couple. Twenty-three eggs were obtained from Tracie McCune. Eggs were fertilised in turn by both of the gay men and then transferred in batches to Rosalind Bellamy. It was arranged that one of the men was the biological father of the girl, and the other man was the biological father of the boy. When Rosalind Bellamy became pregnant they knew which was the biological father of each child.
In 1999 Aspen and Saffron were born in Modesto, California. The birth was four weeks early by caesarean section. The original birth certificate contained the name of the surrogate mother and the biological father. However, the registrar sealed it in an envelope and replaced it with a certificate naming the two men as the fathers, with no mention of a mother.
After the birth a doubt arose about whether the British Home Office would allow the children to live in Britain. After some legal wrangling the two gay men arrived at Heathrow on 27th. December 1999. However the children were given 28 days to stay, pending a decision from the Home Office. On 25th. January 2000 the Home Office announced that the children could stay in Britain.
On 14th. May, 2000 the ITV South East news reported that further scandal had been caused that day by the christening of the two four-month-old twins. The newspapers were full of the story the next day. The christening took place at their local church, the 13th-century St John's, in Danebury, Essex. On 31st. May Barrie Drewitt and Tony Barlow announced that they were planning to arrange to have a third child. The newspapers all covered the story the next day with The Sun making it a front-page banner headline. On 27th. June 2000 ITV showed the programme The Gay Dads which outlined the story upto the christening. Press reports on 19th. July 2000 stated that the couple had confirmed that more children were on the way.
