If you thought Sir Elton John and David Furnish’s son Zachary was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, then spare a thought for Digby du Pont.
He’s travelled the world, met celebrities and has a wardrobe of more than 300 made-to-measure suits. Not bad for a plastic doll.
His ‘parents’, New York gay couple Mark Kirby and A J Sapolnick, claim they turned down an offer to baptise him by the Bishop of London because Digby is Jewish.
“We found Digby in a Paris flea market in 1990 and we both had an immediate connection with him,’ Mr Kirby told the Daily Mail.
“We haggled over his price and paid £4 for him. He was a total mess, covered in mouldy dew and was not wearing any clothes. We brought him back to our room and cleaned him up and it was there that our family began.”
The couple told the newspaper that they were looking to adopt a child when they stumbled across Digby, but decided that it would be better to have a child that would not interfere with their social lives.
“Around that time we had a lot of friends that were beginning to have children and this was interfering with our social life. They couldn’t go anywhere because of their children and they would bore you with photographs,” Mr Sapolnick told the newspaper.
“So I said to Mark that we should have ourselves a baby who wouldn’t interfere with our social lives. So that was when we decided to have a doll baby.”
The newspaper’s website shows photographs of Digby’s travels around the world, including him posing with a Vietnamese opium pipe and outside the Taj Mahal. In most of the photographs, Digby is wearing miniature versions of the matching clothes his ‘fathers’ are wearing.
‘We consider Digby to be a vinyl person, not a doll,” said Mr Kirby. “When we travel abroad Digby usually gets a seat on the plane, although I must add that we don’t pay for a separate one for him.
“We put him on a spare seat if there is one and Digby usually manages to get his own seat.”
“Once in Egypt a border guard wanted to take his head off and we simply wouldn’t allow it,” he told the newspaper.
“We would never allow him to be taken apart, it would be traumatic and also too difficult to be put him back together.
“He has traveled so much that he has his own passport. Passport control in some countries stamp it when they have a sense of humour.”
Digby owns a wardrobe of 300 different outfits including pin-stripe suits, safari outfits and white silk suits.
The doll will celebrate his 21st ‘birthday’ on the 21st April, celebrated annually by the couple and their friends. In 2003, he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah.
Mr Kirby told the newspaper: “Once on an Indian cruise from Chennai to Mumbai Richard Chartes, the Bishop of London become so enamoured with Digby that he wanted to baptise him.
“We told him that Digby had no interest in this because he was Jewish.”
The doll’s reputation has grown to the extent that some of the world’s finest restaurants make preparations for his arrival. The management of the exclusive Cipriani restaurant in Venice have a special chair for Digby to sit on and a glass of milk for him to ‘drink’ so that he is not left out.
The couple say they recently ate out with Digby at an exclusive New York restaurant with Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.
Mr Kirby said that he often receives emails and messages from people who have bumped into his partner and Digby during their travels: “Digby has affected many people all across the world. Digby and us is a story that we are happy to tell.”
Blog Archive
-
▼
2011
(523)
-
▼
April
(116)
- Oklahoma Gets Official State Gospel Song
- Quote Of The Day - Peter Sprigg
- NOM Signs Up For Diaz Rally
- Tony Perkins: Gay Activists Are Terrorists
- HomoQuotable -Jimmy LaSalvia
- Spike in searches causes Google to suggest “James ...
- Remembering the Admiral Duncan bombing 12 years on
- Interview: Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard, the man with t...
- Atlanta Braves coach accused of anti-gay slurs
- New Mexico school bans all clubs after gay-straigh...
- Gay US politician abandons plan for gay marriage t...
- US Marines begin training to accept gay soldiers
- Anger over Tennessee’s ‘don’t say gay’ bill
- Elton John’s mother speaks about rift
- Gay man beaten in homophobic south London attack
- San Francisco’s legendary gay bookshop to close
- Moscow gay pride parade now uncertain
- Last known gay holocaust survivor to receive Franc...
- Pakistan allows trans men and women their own gend...
- Horses killed in Midwestern barn fire in apparent ...
- Cary Grant’s daughter claims her father ‘enjoyed b...
- Maddow: Gay Anchors Should Come Out
- GOP Praises Paul Clement, Disses King & Spalding O...
- Prop 8 Proponents Move To Vacate Judge Vaughn Walk...
- Levi Johnston Readies Palin Tell-All
- Tony Perkins On King & Spalding
- Marriage Protest At Buckingham Palace
- PhoboQuotable - William Gheen
- MARYLAND: Hundreds Attend Rally Against Anti-Trans...
- Andrew Sullivan On King & Spaulding
- Gay former governor of New Jersey has bid for ordi...
- Rapper receives death threats over ‘I’m Gay’ album...
- Lesbian newsreader says gay men and women have a ‘...
- HomoQuotable - Greg Quinlan
- FLORIDA: Anti-Gay Group Launches MTV Boycott Over ...
- GOP Sen. John Ensign To Resign
- NEW YORK: Sen. Ruben Diaz To Stage Massive Anti-Ga...
- Updated: Lesbian couple sue Brighton hotel
- Man, 18, arrested over east London anti-gay stickers
- Thousands could leave Church of Scotland over gay ...
- Tennessee Senate panel approves school gay ban bill
- Interview: Peter Tatchell on a lifetime of campaig...
- Gay marriage rally at Buckingham Palace
- Antony Cotton ‘proud’ of Corrie gay parents story
- Theatre review: The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg
- Kate Middleton ‘a lesbian icon’
- 15 charges for US student in gay suicide case
- Father ‘killed lesbian daughter’s girlfriend and h...
- Gay HIV study to look at daily prevention pill
- Jewish LGBT group celebrates Passover with inclusi...
- Another US poll finds majority support for gay mar...
- Malaysia’s gay cure camp sparks anger
- Four of five main Scottish parties promise action ...
- US student charged for lying about anti-gay attack
- Derren Brown reveals he went to ‘gay cure’ church
- London transgender conference cancelled after tran...
- Prince William and Kate Middleton urged to support...
- Malaysia sends 66 boys to gay cure camp
- Hungary approves new ‘anti-gay’ constitution
- Evan Rachel Wood comes out as bisexual
- Irish trans woman wins £30,000 for discrimination
- Facebook apologises for removing gay kiss photo
- Gay stable-boy sexually harassed female manager
- Stonewall Cymru holds hustings for Welsh Assembly ...
- Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy composes royal weddi...
- Scottish Green Party leader tells of MSPs’ anti-ga...
- Gay men vote Nick Clegg ‘sexiest party leader’
- Facebook removes gay kiss photo for ‘being sexuall...
- Facebook removes gay kiss photo for ‘being sexuall...
- Brighton Pride announces ticket price concessions
- US study: Gay teen suicide risk higher in conserva...
- Basketball star Kobe Bryant fined $100,000 for ant...
- Photo Of The Day - Pink Thundersticks
- Frothy Mix To Glenn Beck: States Should Be Allowed...
- Hundreds protest outside John Snow pub that kicked...
- Bill could make gay history compulsory in Californ...
- Gay dads celebrate 21 years with plastic baby
- Soho pub closes to avoid gay kissing protest
- Rev Jesse Jackson denies harassing gay employee
- Drinker claims gay kissing couple were ‘over the top’
- Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe calls Britain ‘gay...
- HomoQuotable - Andrew Sullivan
- Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg Claims Pere...
- Kobe Bryant To Appeal "Faggot" Fine
- Quote Of The Day - Ben Cohen
- FLORIDA: Teabaggers To Host Trump
- The Verizon Guy Comes Out
- HIV charities surprised at gay blood ban reports
- Boy George: ‘Most gay men just want to fit in now’
- Gay soldier raises £4,000 for Stonewall
- Glee and Modern Family tie at GLAAD Media Awards
- EastEnders to have first gay civil partnership
- Lady Gaga tackles homophobic fan
- European parliament calls for special protection o...
- Gay blood donation ban to be lifted but only for m...
- Safe sex message for Attitude’s ‘naked issue’
- Academic who blamed fall of Roman Empire on gays u...
- Nepal’s gay MP: ‘Gandhi’s sexuality doesn’t matter’
- Newly-out gay MPs attend Stonewall Equality Dinner
- Gay man attacked at London cruising spot
-
▼
April
(116)