Richard Mason found it hard to cope with his cystic fibrosis diagnosis. He was 55-years-old at the time and had three children with his ex-wife of over 20 years.
Once he found out he had cystic fibrosis, he began to suspect that his ex-wife was hiding something from him. His suspicions were confirmed once he began digging into her past. His ex-wife wasn't who he thought she was...
A Successful Man
Richard was living in the UK and was running a successful business. One of his biggest ventures was a popular website, MoneySupermarket.com, which many people use to compare prices at stores.
Richard met his ex-wife Kate while he was working at a bank and he instantly felt drawn to her. They got married and had three sons together: twins Joel and Ed and son Will.
Separated
When their eldest son Will turned 23, Richard and Kate decided to separate. Their marriage wasn't working anymore, but they remained close and continued doing what was best for their children.
However, after the pair officially separated in 2008, Kate began pressuring her ex-husband to pay more money.
Five Million Dollars
Richard and Kate had agreed in the financial settlement that she would receive a $5 million lump sum.
The five million he would be paying his ex-wife also included money for private schools for all three of their children. But Kate didn't think this was enough.
Not Enough
Kate wanted more money. "She hounded me for years… and tried to make me pay more," Richard recalls.
But little did he know, there was something Kate had been hiding from him for over 20 years.
Eight Years Later
Kate managed to hide her secret from Richard for eight more years after their divorce.
It wasn't until 2016 that Richard learned the hard-to-swallow truth about his ex-wife. To make matters worse, she never admitted her mistakes.
Cystic Fibrosis
When Richard went to the doctor for a routine check-up, he discovered that he had cystic fibrosis.
This disease causes frequent lung infections and may lead to decreased lung capacity and damaged lungs. It is a genetic disease, and Richard feared that he had passed it on to his children.
Infertile
As Richard sat on the chair, trying to process all the information he had just received from the doctor, he asked the doctor about his sons.
"When the discussion then turned to fertility, he said, 'Look, yourself and Emma (Richard's second wife), you know- you're gonna have difficulty having children because you are, as a man with cystic fibrosis, infertile," Richard recalls.
"Wrong Diagnosis"
Richard didn't believe his doctor at first. This must've been a mistake. "Well," he said, "you must have the diagnosis wrong because I've already got three boys."
Richard said in an interview, “I actually felt pleased to be able to tell him this because, in my mind, it proved his diagnosis was wrong.”
The Sad Truth
Unfortunately, Richard's diagnosis was correct. Richard's ex-wife had been lying to him all these years.
Richard's three sons, whom he loved with all his heart, weren't biologically his.
Liar
Richard began thinking of all of the times that his ex-wife could've been lying to him and sneaking off with another man.
Before his diagnosis, he had never noticed any red flags about his ex-wife or suspected that she could have been having an affair.
The Red Flags
But, now, looking back on it, Richard realized how easy it would be for his ex-wife to cheat on him. He often worked late nights, and so did Kate.
She often went on business trips, but Richard didn't think anything of it. Once, she stayed in London for a night during a "business trip" because her flight had been canceled, and there wasn't any other flight back home on the same day.
The Realization
Prior to being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, Richard had never considered that his sons weren't biologically his. However, he did notice that they looked nothing like him.
Kate also made a strange comment when she was pregnant with their first child.
Judaism
Kate and Richard had been married for seven years when she got pregnant with Will. It was then that his ex-wife decided she wanted her children to be Jewish.
Richard thought it was weird but didn't think much of it at the time. So, instead of teaching their sons Christianity, as they both had been taught, they taught them about Judaism and gave them Jewish middle last names.
Thinking
With so many thoughts racing through his mind, Richard began to think about who could be their sons' biological father. Could he be Jewish? Was this the reason she wanted her sons to be Jewish, too?
He figured that she was probably cheating on him with someone at her work.
A Coworker
Richard thought of one of her coworkers, who he thought his children resembled. He had always suspected that he had a crush on his ex-wife, but he didn't think the feeling was mutual.
He was Jewish, too. Could he be the biological father of their sons?
The Confrontation
Richard decided to send Kate an email, explaining that he had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and demanding that she tell him who their children's biological father was.
"I went to the Liverpool Chest Hospital today…" he began.
"Not The Father Of Any Children"
"...to finally receive my diagnosis that I have cystic fibrosis. In their experience, they have never had a male with CF who has fathered a child, let alone three. It is 98% certain that I am not the father of any children."
His ex-wife read the email but didn't reply to him.
Another Email
After Kate didn't reply to his first email, Richard sent her another.
"I was hoping that you could relieve me of further indignity by letting me know now if I am the father. I am happy to go along with your advice as to how best to tell the boys. But, if you force me to go through these extra tests, then I shall be telling them as I wish," he wrote. Would Kate respond this time?
"The Boys Are Yours"
Kate replied to his second email. She denied cheating on him and said that he was the biological father of their children.
"Of course, the boys are yours, no matter what the science might suggest," she wrote.
A Difficult Decision
After reading Kate's email, Richard didn't believe her. He decided to go through with the tests and tell his eldest son, Will, the truth.
Richard was 99 percent sure that he wasn't the father of the 23-year-old and couldn't keep lying to him. He also decided to tell his sons about his cystic fibrosis diagnosis.
"He Took It Calmly"
"I told him I'd just been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, which he took surprisingly calmly," he recalls his conversation with Will.
"And I said, 'Yes but one of the things that I've just been told is that it is extremely unlikely that someone with cystic fibrosis could father a child.'"
Hardest Sentence To Utter
"He said, 'I'm already ahead of you, Dad. You're saying you're probably not my father?'" Richard recalls his son telling him.
“It would have been the hardest sentence to utter, and he did it for me,” he said in his conversation with his son.
A Difficult Conversation
Will expressed that Richard would always be his father, no matter what.
It was one of the most difficult conversations Richard had ever had in his life. "It was very emotional, but I was also very angry," he recalls.
In Shock
For over 20 years, Richard believed that he was the father of their three sons.
He was extremely hurt and scared because his diagnosis meant that he might not have as much time left as he thought he did. After speaking with his father, Will told his mother about Richard's diagnosis. It was then that Kate finally admitted her affair.
Kate's Affair
Kate told Will that the affair started when she got married to his father and that his biological father was most likely not Richard.
So who was their father then?
The Truth
Kate told Will that she met another man while working at Barclays bank. She kept the affair a secret for over 20 years.
Although she admitted to having an affair with her coworker, she insisted that Richard was the boys' biological father. Still, Richard didn't believe her and decided to go through with the DNA tests.
Going Through With The Tests
With the help of Rogel Terrell, a paternity fraud expert, Richard did a few tests to check his fertility levels.
The tests results confirmed that he was infertile. Fearing the worst, Richard submitted a DNA test and got DNA samples from the twins.
The DNA Results
The twins agreed to take the DNA tests to see if Richard was their biological father, but Will didn't.
Sadly, the DNA tests showed that he wasn't their biological father. But what about Will?
Will's Words
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s my Dad, and that’s that,” Will told Rogel Terrell.
Richard thought about suing Kate, and his case would have been stronger if he had his eldest son's DNA sample, but Will refused to participate in it. "My eldest son told me, 'Dad, if you sue Mum, I will never speak to you again.'" Richard recalls. Would he go through with the lawsuit?
In Touch
Richard went ahead and filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife. His eldest son hasn't spoken to him since. Although he is no longer in touch with Will, the twins, Joel and Ed are on good terms with him.
"Dad, as I explained from the beginning, you would not be a dad to me regardless of all of this," they wrote to him.
He Won
"Of course, I'll stay in touch, that will never change… I'm always here for you, too, and you will always be Dad. Love you," Richard responded.
Richard won the paternal fraud lawsuit against his ex-wife, and the court ordered her to pay over $300,000. He is currently undergoing treatment for his disease and is feeling much better.