
This story is just….wow.
A devoted father has revealed he discovered the three sons he had raised for more than 20 years were not his when doctors told him he had been infertile since birth.
Now Richard Mason’s ex-wife has been ordered to pay him £250,000 following an extraordinary legal case that has allowed her to keep the identity of the real father a secret.
Devastated Mr Mason never doubted he was the boys’ biological dad until two years ago when he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis – an inherited disease which prevents male sufferers from fathering children naturally.
DNA and other tests later confirmed beyond doubt that the businessman has no biological link to his eldest, now 23, and his 19-year-old twins, throwing his life – and his relationship with them – into turmoil.
Mr Mason believes that the same man fathered all three boys during an intermittent four-year affair his wife Kate, 54, embarked on in the late 1990s.
But she only confessed to the adultery in 2016, ten years on from their divorce, when he confronted her about the children’s paternity.
It is not known if Mrs Mason’s former lover is aware he has three sons from the on-off relationship.
The heart-wrenching case came to light when Mr Mason launched a legal bid to claw back some of the £4 million his wife received in their divorce settlement, as well as suing her for paternity fraud. As a result, two of the boys have since broken off contact with him.
…‘After the divorce, she constantly hounded me for more maintenance even though I always complied with the Child Support Agency demands,’ he said.
‘Meanwhile, the biological father has never paid a penny as far as I know.’
…The divorce was finalised in early 2008 and, in the financial settlement a year later, Kate’s £4 million lump sum included the boys’ private school fees in advance.
Richard complied with Child Support Agency (later the Child Maintenance Service) assessments for maintenance, which amounted to nearly £3,000 a month in the early years following their divorce.
But according to him, that was never enough for Kate.
‘She hounded me for years, employing consultants to investigate my financial affairs and tried to make me pay more,’ he said, his surprisingly youthful features contorted with suppressed rage. ‘Meanwhile, as far as I know, the biological father of the boys has never paid a penny for their upkeep.’
I can’t even imagine how horrible it must be to be dying and to find out that all your sons were the product of an affair that your heartless, lying wife had. Then to top it off, after she skinned you alive in a divorce settlement, you only get a tiny fraction of the money back and 2 of the 3 kids you raised don’t want to talk to you any more.
Also, don’t you love the idea that she gets millions because she was married to a guy smart enough to found a successful Internet website while he gets less than 10% of the money back because she was banging some guy on the side. Especially since she took his money anyway even though she knew those weren’t his kids.
This sort of thing is exactly why I don’t think ANY MAN should be legally considered the father of a child until the woman has taken a paternity test. If that had happened in this case, she would have the one kid; he would have found out it wasn’t his; they would have gotten divorced earlier and she probably wouldn’t have gotten the big divorce settlement that she didn’t deserve. Tell me what the bad outcome is there or is it that we’ve got to protect women, even when they’re being evil?
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