The National Enquirer has a new story with an attention-grabbing title that’s technically accurate, but is a little less shocking when you hear the details.

Clay Aiken is currently expecting a baby with his producer and friend, a woman in her late 40s named Jaymes Foster. Foster was artificially inseminated with the 29 year-old singer’s sperm, and he plans to help raise the baby, although their relationship is strictly platonic.

Aiken does not answer questions about his sexual orientation, but has hinted that he is gay and is just not going to talk about it.

According to The Enquirer, the pregnancy with his “best friend,” Foster, came after he tried to adopt a child through regular channels and after he made a failed attempt to give a million dollars to another pregnant friend about a year and a half ago, in exchange for her baby. The other friend was in a tough spot, because she was married and having an affair with another married man when she got pregnant by him, and Clay truly thought he was helping her. The father of the baby was insulted by Clay’s offer, and has since divorced his wife to raise his baby with the other woman.

[Clay Aiken] made the sensational money offer in late 2006, a close friend exclusively told The Enquirer.

The drama began when a woman who was friends with Clay discovered she was pregnant after having an affair. “The woman was a platonic but close friends of Aiken’s,” said the friend.

“She was having an affair with the husband of another of Clayton’s close women friends – and he got her prgnant.”

The sincer… was upset to see two of his female friends facing off in a potentially embarrassing scandal, according to the source. The husband told his wife about his infidelity and resulting pregnancy, “and she did not take it well,” revealed the source. Then the man stunned his wife by disclosing Aiken’s shocking $1 million baby offer.

The entertainer had good intentions, hoping his offer would be the perfect solution to a difficult problem – but it blew up in his face when the husband took offense, divulged the source.

“Clayton thought he was getting the man out of a hole, but the man was insulted. He turned him down flat. He divorced his wife and now lives with the woman he impregnated – and the two are great parents to their baby.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, June 16, 2008]

The Enquirer also has more background behind Clay’s friendship with his producer and their decision to have a child together. They say that Foster is “like a big sister” to Clay, and that he stays at her place in LA while he’s there, and that she often visits him in Raleigh, North Carolina at his home. Clay is “desperate to be a dad,” according to an insider, and Foster recently went through a bad divorce, but “always wanted to have kids.”

It’s strange to hear of a 29 year-old guy who wants to be a dad so badly that he’s willing to pay a friend for her illegitimate baby. Men can have babies at any age, but Clay must realize that in his situation it’s harder for him to settle down and have a child. He seems to have found a solution with his good friend, and they’ll probably be devoted parents to this little one as it’s something they’ve both yearned and tried for in the past.

Clay Aiken is shown promoting his new CD ‘On My Way Here’ at Virgin Megastore in Times Square on 5/6/08, thanks to WENN.