What do you make of this DM story

[Stepmum3]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6561079/Millionaire-reveals-moment-doctor-told-father-three-adored-boys.html#comments-6561079

Basically a man finds out after 21 years he couldn’t of possibly fathered his three boys he knew as sons due to being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Then sued his Ex wife for the CSA and walked away with 250k. He had paid her 4 million and maintenance following their divorce. Two of the boys no longer talk to him 1 saying if you sue mum I won’t talk to you again.

I get the anger and hurt caused by this however the value of the boys he placed at 250k. What will the money bring back I feel nothing. A real sad story and upsetting for all involved. Although, I do think the wife is a bit of a cunt.

A bit? Understatement.

Well I’ve certainly never heard of someone being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis that late in life. The average life span is about 37, then you’d need a lung transplant.

He looks the picture of health into his fifties

The bit I found amazing was that he didn't know he had cf until he was an adult!

Yeah I always thought that it was diagnosed when a baby/child. However, he had a test when he was younger and they came back negative.

I just read some American journal thing and apparently you could have a mild mutation that got diagnosed in adulthood. But it would likely be early adulthood as you’d still suffer some pretty crappy symptoms...

It's very sad and he is entitled to be angry but if he wanted a relationship with his sons I don't think suing his ex wife was the right thing to do. For him it was about justice but to his sons it must have looked like he resented what they cost. And now that he is upset at the estrangement how does he think giving interviews to the papers along with pictures of them will help?

I think infidelity is horribly horribly common. It used to be normal to be faithful - now it seems to be normal to be unfaithful. I wonder whether he was faithful to her for all those years?

Interestingly these test your DNA at home kits are uncovering old infidelity long long kept quiet

I was like wtf how do you get to your 50's and not know you had CF? Few people with CF even live to then let alone not get diagnosed. Especially if you have it so badly that it leaves you infertile.

I was much to distracted by that to take in the rest.

Surely the ex-W must have done it on purpose, when she realised she wasn't getting pregnant from the DH? She should have said something, and agreed it with DH to have AID. That would have prevented all this angst and bitterness.

Are you suggesting he is lying about the CF freeAnneBoleyn? The hospital where he was diagnosed are experts in CF. It’s where my family members were treated. How are you expecting someone with CF & probably serious lung damage as a result to look?

I don't think you can compare the possibility that he might have been unfaithful with the wife pretending the children were his for decades. Two separate issues imo, a sad story all round though with no winners.

I got tested for CF a couple of years ago and I'm 41.
There are different types and new ones being found which can be diagnosed later in life.

People aren't more unfaithful now than in the past. Before paternity tests there would have been an awful lot of men raising children that weren't biologically theirs.

Lordamighty

I don't think anybody is suggesting that, just those of us acutely familiar with the disorder finding it amazing that you could go that long without knowing.

I do have a lot of symptoms though and brittle asthma though mine behaves weirdly which is why they tested for CF.
I didn't get ill at all until I was 32 and although I'm seriously unwell I could quite easily look the picture of health in a photo.

He sounds like a bit of a twat to be honest. OK, it's a terrible situation all round, but I don't think he's done himself any favours with the approach he's taken. If I'd raised three children, they'd be my kids no matter what and I would do anything it took to still be part of their lives.

Something didn't true - that his 3 sons 'dropped' him so easily, that he'd rewritten history about how awful his marriage/wife had been, mand the CF diagnosis - especially with his family history of it. But whether that's the DM's writing of the tale or his telling of it - who can tell.

knittedjest I will probably just ignore this thread from now on because the throwaway comments about CF are really annoying me. I have had 2 young family members die from this disease & referring to someone who has just had this devastating diagnosis as “the picture of health” is frankly ignorant & disgusting.

He's a millionaire, and apparently founded "compare the market" so he didn't need the £250K that he won back from the ExW. It was a bit petty and resulted in 2 of the boys not wanting anything to do with him. Such a sad story.

I think it’s highgly unlikely that despite the DM and Richard not naming the children involved it won’t be too hard to work out given he’s the owner of moneysupermarket.com

I think his first wife behaved appallingly and if getting financial recompense makes him feel better, well so be it.

But the real loss here is his relationship with children he’s loved unconditionally for 21 years. I think his reaction is what’s really broken that bond and for that I feel sorry for the 3 boys, who were also innocent victims in this.

Finally, and I may be reading this way off it seems like he will be disinheriting the children too.

Of course I’m not suggesting he’s lying. I was surprised, that’s all, that something severe enough to leave him totally unable of fathering children could have gone undetected for that length of time.

A very small, cynical part of me wonders if he did, in fact, know about it long before he sued his wife for the fact that the boys were not biologically his, in bitterness over the amount she received in the divorce settlement.

So a man is tricked into raising 3 children that aren't his, and apparently he shouldn't mind because he raised them so he's the dad?

He got no choice in all of this, he thought the kids were his! So what if he went after the ex wife for some money back. It's whag he deserves. She only got that high of the settlement due to the 3 bloody kids!

Nobody said he shouldn't mind. He has every right to be furious of course, but then he needs to accept he has made the choice to take legal action and publicise the story over preserving the relationship with the boys he has raised and views as his children. He has decided that she needs to 'pay' even if that causes pain to his children who are being sent the message he resents what they cost.

I read this and what I found most staggering was that after 21 years of being their father he could so quickly turn to they aren't mine.
Sure biologically they aren't, but he raised them, looked after them, believed they were his unquestionably. I find it awful that he was able after so many years as their father to just turn that off, for want of a better phrase and go after the ex for money. He's not short of cash clearly and it seems he's put money before his relationships. Those boys knew no other father, how devastating for them to find out and then for their Dad to ditch them in favour of a refund from their mother!