A court has rejected Nick Loeb's final objections in his long-running dispute with Sofia Vergara over frozen embryos.
Nick Loeb and Sofia Vergara
The 45-year-old businessman and Sofia, 48, underwent vitro fertilisation treatment in 2013 - a year before they ended their engagement - and since then, they've been locked in a dispute over the frozen pre-embryos.
The 'Modern Family' actress filed legal documents in California in 2017 in the hope that she could block Nick from using the pre-embryos without her written consent.
A judge recently ruled in the favour of the TV star, observing that they previously signed an agreement that meant they both needed to give their consent before they could be used.
Nick subsequently objected to the ruling, but a judge in Los Angeles has now thrown out his case.
According to the legal documents seen by People, any action by Nick "to cause the implantation of the Embryos in a surrogate, or by other means of gestation, constitutes a violation of the Form Directive".
Nick has previously claimed that he signed the original agreement under "duress".
But the judge insisted that the "Form Directive is not void or voidable based on Defendant Loeb's duress defence as to its execution".
The court also dismissed the claim that Nick and Sofia - who has an adult son named Manolo from a previous relationship and is married to Joe Manganiello - had a verbal agreement that would allow him to use the embryos.
Meanwhile, Nick previously accused a judge of being "influenced by Hollywood" when making the ruling on their case.
Last month, he said in a statement: "[The judge] was clearly influenced by Hollywood, which is a pattern I expose in my upcoming film 'Roe v. Wade'.
"It's sad that Sofia, a devout Catholic, would intentionally create babies just to kill them."
Tagged in Sofia Vergara Joe Manganiello Nick Loeb