Millionaire MoneySupermarket.com co-founder, Richard Mason has revealed that he discovered the three sons he had raised for 21 years were not his when he was diagonsed with cystic fibrosis and doctors told him he had been infertile since birth.
Mr Mason who was a devoted father, 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.
Richard Mason’s ex-wife has been ordered to pay him £250,000 following a legal case that has allowed her to keep the identity of the real father a secret.
Mr Mason believes that the same man fathered all three boys during an on/off 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 is the real father.
The 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.
Legal papers seen by Daily Mail on Sunday reveal that, when she became pregnant with the first child, Mrs Mason declared a sudden interest in Judaism and also insisted all three children were given Jewish middle names. She also refused to have them christened.
Mr Mason, from Rhos, North Wales, 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.
Mr Mason, 55, told Daily Mail on Sunday night that discovering the boys were not his own left his life in pieces.
‘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 you 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.”
Mr Mason, now remarried, said his ex-wife ‘tricked’ him into believing the boys were his, when at the very least there must have been some doubt in her mind – not least because she only became pregnant seven years into their marriage.
‘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.’
