Fashion designer Gabbana once asked a female friend to carry a baby for him – before his current row criticizing ‘non-traditional’ families.

Legendary fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana – who are gay themselves – made the controversial comments in an interview this week, when they said in part: “We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one.

“No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.”

Sir Elton John – who has sons Zachary and Elijah with his husband David Furnish – told the pair: ”How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic’… your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again.”

However, despite speaking out against gay adoptions, it has emerged that designer Stefano Gabbana once spoke about his desire to adopt.

In 2006, Stefano Gabbana told Vanity Fair that he had asked a female friend to carry his child via artificial insemination, saying: “My dream is to have a baby, not to adopt one because I am not up to it and I don’t feel strong enough.

“I want my own child, a biological child, the fruit of my sperm, conceived through artificial insemination because it wouldn’t make sense for me to make love to a woman I don’t love.

“A week ago I asked a dear friend of mine, who is twelve years younger than me, if she would help. I asked her, ‘Would you like to be the mother of my child?’

“She was left a bit shocked and the following day telephoned and said she was still shocked, but thought it was a great idea.”

Mr Dolce had said in 2005: “In life I have had everything it is possible to have but I have the small handicap of being gay so having a child is not possible for me. I could adopt or get one from abroad but I’m paralysed by the fear that the child could feel exploited.”