A couple who say they 'co-parented' a hyperrealistic baby doll are heading to court in a bizarre custody battle.

The wife is asking judges in in Aparecida de Goiania, in the state Goias, Brazil, to enforce a joint custody agreement so they can both continue caring for the Reborn doll.

The astonishing legal battle emerged after Brazilian divorce lawyer Suzana Ferreira, who is representing the wife, revealed the case online.

She said in an Instagram post on 14th May: "She was part of a family and Baby Reborn is part of her family.

"The marriage did not work and the other party insists on living with the Baby Reborn for the emotional attachment he had to her."

The wife, says Ferreira, is also seeking maintenance payments for the clothing and grooming costs of the doll.

Bafflingly the wife, who has not been named, also wants judges to rule on who owns the doll's social media profile.

Ferreira explained: "The other party also wants to be an administrator, because Instagram is about making money, advertising, and it's growing a lot.

"So the Instagram profile should also be controlled by both parties. It is a digital asset today, a property asset, which is already yielding profit.

"The judiciary will receive these demands, which are real demands."

Reborn is notorious for its eerily realistic life-sized baby dolls crafted by sculptors and artists.

Prices can reach up to GBP 20,000 and the dolls are so realistic that they have triggered emergency responses from police after they were mistaken for abandoned infants.

The legal case emerged after a disturbing video of Brazilian influencer Carolina Rossi simulating the birth of a Reborn baby surfaced on social media.

The footage, first filmed in 2022, went viral only last month (April), after being rediscovered.

In the clip, Rossi, who has nearly 400,000 Instagram followers as 'Sweet Carol' is seen performing a mock Caesarean section on a doll.

Wearing a white lab-style coat and surgical gloves, she slices open a fake amniotic sac with a medical scalpel, releasing fluid as she coos over the spookily lifelike baby inside.

The doll featured a highly-detailed umbilical cord and a placenta to look as close as possible to a real baby's birth.

After draining the synthetic amniotic fluid, Rossi gently dries the baby girl doll and dresses it in a pink romper suit and headband.

She finishes the creepy performance by announcing: "Congratulations, mummy."