Shaun thought he'd have to raise his son alone, and then a village stepped up

Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

Since he was young, Melbourne man Shaun Resnik had dreamed of becoming a dad, but said as a gay man he found it hard to meet a partner who also wanted to have children.

So, as he neared 40, he decided to forgo meeting "Mr Right" and pursue parenthood on his own.

He welcomed his son Eli in 2022 and made history as the first single man in Victoria to be given the go-ahead by officials to become a father under the state's surrogacy laws.

More than two years later, there's a village helping him raise Eli, with both Eli's egg donor and surrogate remaining in the picture.

We look at Eli's unique family patchwork and how alternative families blossom.