Like many fathers, Ian Mucklejohn frequently finds himself exasperated by his three teenage boys. ‘I really hadn’t factored in sibling rivalry, and frankly it’s exhausting,’ he says, one eyebrow raised. ‘They don’t do sharing.’

It’s a lament many parents would recognise, and when you throw in the fact that Ian’s sons are triplets, you can certainly understand why he has his work cut out.

There is another thing, though, that sets their affluent middle-class household apart — and it is something that came about not by accident but by design.

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Ian Mucklejohn pictured with his sons Ian, Lars and Piers, and Bruma the cat - 15 years after his children were born by a surrogate mother

In 2001, Ian, a businessman and heterosexual bachelor, then 54, made history when he became the first single man in the UK to have children using a surrogate mother.

His sons, Lars, Piers and Ian, were conceived after their father tentatively typed the ‘S-word’ into an internet search engine — an act that would, two years and £50,000 later, finally lead to him becoming a father-of-three.

Not everyone approved, with some concerned at the notion of ‘mail-order babies’. Others saw Ian as selfish in knowingly bringing children into the world without a mother.

Indeed, you could be forgiven for wondering how it would all turn out.

Yet here we are, 15 years on, and those tiny babies are now on the verge of manhood. Their father has never married, and female friends aside — among them Esther Rantzen, who is Lars’s godmother — there has never been a significant female figure in their lives.

Unusual? Possibly — although not according to Ian.

‘We are a perfectly normal single-parent family. That’s the view I have taken all along,’ he insists.

Ian Mucklejohn, then 54, pictured with his sons who were conceived after Ian found a surrogate mother and egg donor

‘We would all like to live in an ideal world, but that’s not possible. All of us fall short in some way as human beings, but most of us are trying to do our best.

‘A mother is a wonderful thing but my view is that love is all you need to raise a family: whether it comes from one or two is irrelevant. I feel I have more than enough love.’

The Mucklejohn household definitely seems a contented one, notwithstanding those teenage arguments.

Ian is a wealthy man courtesy of his successful language school, and the walls of his family home in Newbury, Berkshire, are lined with modern art.

But there is also a vast ping-pong table and model cars, while the boys’ bedrooms are the usual messy maelstrom of football memorabilia and computers.

The triplets were born after Ian chose engineering student Melissa Valdovines, then 27, to be the egg donor

Ian and his three children as they all arrive for the triplet's christenings at St Nicholas Church, in Newbury, Berkshire

When I arrive, Piers is talking through news coverage of the referendum in the kitchen, nature-loving Ian is in the study examining footage from a camera he has set up to record wildlife, and Lars is playing computer games in his bedroom.

‘They like to do their own thing at the moment but I do insist we eat dinner together,’ says their father.

What is notably absent is the chaos that forms the backdrop to most households with teenagers — but then that concept is anathema to the meticulously ordered Ian.

A much-loved only child, his life changed in an instant at the age of eight, when his civil servant father, John, suffered serious injuries in a car accident. Ian says his father was transformed from a jovial man to a ‘querulous and aggressive’ one.

‘My life changed with that knock on the door from the police. I knew I would have to rely on myself and I grew up very suddenly that day. Everything that has happened since stems from that.’

Ambitious and determined, by 28 he had set up his own business and saved enough to build his own home — the house he still lives in to this day.

The businessman paid £50,000 to be a father-of-three in 2001, when he made history by becoming the first single man in the UK to have children using a surrogate mother

He moved his parents in so that he could, in effect, become his father’s carer as his health deteriorated.

‘I couldn’t put him in a home,’ he says. ‘I could never have lived with myself.’

He attributes this as to why he missed out on the more conventional path of marriage and family. ‘Even though it wasn’t my father’s fault, I felt a degree of shame about his behaviour and I didn’t wish to saddle anyone else with him,’ he says now. ‘He was very difficult.’

The death of his beloved mother Renee in 1999, however, forced him to take a long, hard look at his life.

‘I saw the future in an instant,’ he says. ‘My father was in relatively robust health physically, and I thought in the end, when he does go, I am going to end up completely alone.

‘I could see the resentment that would be there. I realised that I wanted a family of my own.’

The realisation led to him joining a dating site, only for him to quickly abandon it. ‘I felt it would be fraudulent and unfair. One needs time to develop relationships, and at 52 I felt that I didn’t have that time; that it would be dishonest.’

It is nonetheless, you may think, quite a leap from there to surrogacy, but Ian insists not. ‘It seemed perfectly logical.’

Ian said: 'I have always talked about their birth mother and how they came to be and so there has never been any drama'

After some internet research, in early 2000 he travelled to a clinic in Beverly Hills, but discovered the agency catered for gay couples only.

‘I remember asking whether it mattered as I thought they were in the business of creating families. But there we are. They did at least point me in another direction.’

The meeting led to a former surrogate who now acted as a broker, and who in turn introduced him to 27-year-old Tina Price, a mother-of-two who agreed to act as a surrogate for him.

‘She had written a bit about herself and her rationale for doing it was lovely,’ Ian recalls.

‘She said nothing she had done in her life had been special, and this was her chance to do something that made a difference. When we met, I could see she was a lovely lady who was doing it for all the right reasons.’

Ian said working from home meant it was easier to raise the boys alone

The egg donor selection proved equally simple: Ian chose Melissa Valdovines, a 27-year-old civil engineering student.

‘I was presented with a selection of photos in a portfolio and I didn’t go beyond the first one,’ he says. ‘Melissa was not only beautiful, but her profile showed she was witty, kind and intelligent — all the qualities you would hope for in your children.’

And so, decision made, in July 2000 four of Melissa’s eggs were fertilised with Ian’s sperm and placed in Tina Price’s womb.

The process, which cost around £50,000 in total, worked first time — ‘beginner’s luck’ as Ian puts it — and three of the eggs took hold, a fact Ian learned when Tina phoned to tell him she was ‘very pregnant’.

‘Of course, I was only planning for one baby, but the possibility of three was wonderful. At the same time, I knew it was risky so I didn’t want to get my hopes up.’

He remained in contact with Tina until, in February 2001, the call came through telling him that he was a father to three boys. ‘I was pretty shocked,’ he says. ‘Thrilled but shocked.’

Meeting the babies would have to wait, however: Ian did not fly to the U.S. for another five weeks.

‘Of course I wanted to see them but I had to be pragmatic. My father was particularly difficult at that time and it was hard to find respite care.

‘I knew the babies would be in special care at first, so I flew over when it was the right time for me to bring them back and I could leave my father for the shortest possible time.’

The arrival of the Mucklejohn trio into the UK was not without its legal issues. Technically U.S. citizens, courtesy of their birth mother, the boys were admitted on a temporary visa and only got full UK passports two years later.

Even today, Ian’s legal status as their parent remains precarious. ‘Technically I have no rights. I have just assumed them,’ he says.

For all the medical and bureaucratic backdrop to the birth, Ian insists that bonding with his babies was never an issue. ‘It was immediate and automatic,’ he says.

‘I have always loved them unconditionally. To be honest I had a harder time bonding with the nanny.’

The family met Melissa Valdovinos - the biological mother of the boys - with the group bonding by playing games

The latter was appointed only at the behest of his solicitor, who warned him that the authorities would expect a female presence in the house.

‘In fact that simply hasn’t proved to be the case. The authorities haven’t shown any interest in my family situation,’ he says.

In any case, by the time the boys had turned two Ian had dispensed with the nanny to become a stay-at-home dad, juggling running his business with nappy changes and visits to the park.

‘It helped that I was able to work from home,’ he says. ‘Otherwise I wouldn’t have made the decision to become a surrogate dad.’

It certainly seems that the boys’ rumbustious early years unfolded with remarkably little drama.

‘I’ve done endless playgrounds, zoo visits; I’ve stood on touchlines, all that stuff — it’s all part of it,’ he says.

‘Of course there are moments when you get cross or frustrated but that’s being a parent. The amazing thing about raising children is that things endlessly change.’

If anything his main irritations seem to have been external. ‘I enrolled them at the state primary school but I just couldn’t get on with the rules there.

‘They weren’t allowed to play football as somebody might lose. They weren’t allowed to touch each other in case it was unnatural. I started to feel very ill at ease, so I took them out of there and sent them to a private school.’

A decade later, two of the boys are now at the exclusive £18,000-a-year Abingdon School, while one — Ian will not say which — goes to the local comprehensive, as he is a little less academic. Certainly they have evolved into distinct personalities.

‘Ian is very tactile, an animal lover who is happiest outdoors. He is probably the most thoughtful,’ says their father.

‘Lars is very much a teenage boy, the only one who has any interest in clothes and music and hairstyles, that sort of thing. Piers is witty and incisive, and very charming.’ All of them have been aware of their unusual path into the world from an early age.

Triplets Piers, Lars and Ian Mucklejohn - who are now 15 years old - dressed in fancy dress in 2006

At the time of the birth, Ian was told by a solicitor to have a nanny to help look after the boys (pictured) after saying the authorities would expect a female presence in the house

‘There was no grand unveiling, I have always talked about their birth mother and how they came to be and so there has never been any drama.’ They have also met both their ‘mothers’ — the first time in 2006 when Ian took the boys to America, a visit that was reciprocated by Melissa in 2011.

‘It was perfectly easy on both occasions, although the first time round they didn’t know exactly what was going on as they were only five.

‘When Melissa came, the boys knew who she was and they played games together and had a fun afternoon,’ says Ian.

Sadly, Tina passed away from a stroke at the age of 45 earlier this year.

‘Obviously it was sad, but the boys do not have a biological link to her. They asked me how they should feel, and I didn’t really know how to answer that.’

In fact, none of the boys seem anxious to bring a feminising influence to the family — which is perhaps just as well given that Ian insists he is ‘too exhausted’ for romance anyway.

Ian Mucklejohn meeting Melissa Valdovinos, the biological mother of his triplets Iain, Lars and Piers

‘Quite the opposite, they would actually be absolutely horrified,’ he says. ‘Ultimately they are exposed to lots of nice mums at their friends’ houses, which is lovely, but they don’t seem to feel the lack of one here.’

It’s a viewpoint echoed by Piers and Lars, now gathered in one of their football-memorabilia strewn bedrooms.

‘The way the household works is similar to any other,’ Lars insists. ‘A new mum would just mean more parenting, in terms of numbers, but not much more than that.’

‘We’re just used to the way things are,’ adds Piers. ‘So it would be quite a big thing for a woman to come in here now.’

Neither has ever had any negative feedback about their unusual circumstances. ‘Some people at school don’t really understand it, but they don’t have a problem with it,’ says Piers.

‘I actually think it was quite brave of my Dad to do what he did, as it was obviously quite complicated.’

Down in the study, Ian feels the same way as his brothers. ‘Our situation doesn’t feel strange to me as I’ve never known what it was like to have a mum.