According to the unfortunate man, Richard, his ex-wife, Kate, reportedly tricked him into believing he was the father of her three sons – for 21 years. According to Daily Mail, he learned Kate had lied about the paternity when doctors diagnosed him with cystic fibrosis and told him he had been infertile since birth. A court has ordered her to pay him $311,000 following an extraordinary legal case that has allowed her to keep the identity of the real father a secret.

DNA and other tests later confirmed beyond doubt that the businessman has no biological link to his wife’s eldest son, now 23, and 19-year-old twins. Richard 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 many years later, ten years on from their divorce, when he confronted her about the children’s paternity. It is not known if Kate’s former lover is aware he has three sons from the on-off relationship.

The case came to light when Richard 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 of his action, two of the boys have since broken off contact with him. Legal papers seen by The Mail on Sunday revealed that, when she became pregnant with the first child, Kate declared a sudden interest in Judaism and also insisted all three children were given Jewish middle names. She also refused to have them christened. Richard believes it is a clue to the identity of the real father, but he is tortured by not knowing who he is and has called on his ex-wife to admit the truth if only for the sake of her sons. 

“You don’t know what’s real and what isn’t – it’s as if I’m living in The Matrix,’ he said. ‘Someone says to you, “All that you know and everything you thought to be solid and true is not real, and never did exist. You are not a father, you are not able to have kids, your name will not continue. “I still see what the boys are doing on Facebook and it’s heart-wrenching because we saw the graduation of the eldest on there, but I wasn’t invited. “I walk past a toy store and it reminds me of buying Christmas presents for them and other family occasions. “And when friends post things on Facebook about their own families like their first grandchild or saying they’re proud of their boy for something, I just think, “My God, that’s all been taken away from me.”

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