Vergara is currently engaged in a legal battle with her ex-fiancé Nick Loeb over the two female embryos, which they created through IVF in 2013, during their relationship, and remain frozen at a Beverly Hills clinic.

The world’s highest paid actress and  Mr Loeb, a multi-millionaire businessman, separated in May 2014 after a four-year relationship.

Eighteen months later and it seems the case is no closer to a resolution. The latest lawsuit reportedly asks that the frozen embryos be given to Mr Loeb so that they can live and receive the trust fund set up for them.

I t led to a long legal battle, and shows just how many issues can arise around sensitive subjects such as egg freezing. It forces couples to consider what will happen if one of them dies, they split up, or they lose their mental ability.

Alice Mann, founder of ‘ Egged On ’ blog, says it can be an incredibly unromantic process:

“It’s weird how romance, or declarations of true love and commitment in the 21st century could be about giving your partner rights over your frozen eggs, or frozen sperm, in the event of your death, but I guess that’s kind of the brave new world that we’ve ended up in.

“There are lots of things that any woman freezing her eggs – or any couple freezing embryos – need to think about – from an emotional and ethical perspective. I think it’s just common sense to consider all eventualities.”

She explained that Vergara’s case was a good example of how complicated things can get with this fledgling process:

“Though it is strange that Loeb, who, let’s be honest, doesn’t have the same time restrictions as a woman – reportedly wants to preserve embryos so that he can eventually have his ex’s children. That just strikes me as very odd. If he wants kids in the future, he could, one assumes, have them either with a new partner, or if he’s on his own with a donor egg from someone he’s not in a relationship with.”

F or Mann, the whole process was very different.

She was single when she froze her eggs and had two choices – either to freeze them on their own, or have them fertilised by an anonymous donor and frozen as embryos.

“Either way, I was the only one who had a “right” to those eggs or embryos, and I had to sign a lot of paperwork that specified what would happen to them if I died, or decided not to use them,” she says.

“In the end I chose just to freeze eggs, not embryos.

“I suppose if I were in a serious relationship, then I might consider adjusting the paperwork so that my partner had rights over those eggs if I died.”

Legally, fewer issues do arise from a woman freezing her eggs alone, or with an anonymous donor – doing it with a partner is where consent can become more complicated. As Vergara and Loeb have probably, by now, realised.