Doctor Tells Man He’s Infertile, Then Realizes Why His Three Sons Look So Familiar

A Shocked Father 

When the doctor shared the news with them, the father was so shocked that he was at a loss for words. His children were the most important thing in his life. He would never have thought that they weren’t his.

But the doctor’s news only raised more questions for the father. He wondered about who his children really were. This revelation also made him question why their mother had kept this secret from him for so long.

Richard Mason And His Success

Richard Mason had worked tirelessly for the life he had always desired. He created a website called MoneySupermarket.com which became a huge success and made him a millionaire in the United Kingdom.

He had not only become a successful business owner, but he had also met the woman he believed was meant for him. This was what he had thought in the past.

Secrets Behind  The Perfect Family

Richard and Kate got married and soon began building a family. They ended up having three children whom they cherished. Despite how happy and perfect their family life seemed, secret issues got in the way, just like with every other family.

However, these hidden problems would eventually destroy Richard’s perfect world that we worked so hard for.

Deterioration Of Their Relationship

As Richard and Kate’s relationship progressed, they realized they were not as good a fit for each other as they initially believed. It became clear to them that they were not compatible. Unfortunately, this led to the downfall of their relationship.

In 2008, they sat their sons, Will, and twins Ed and Joel, down to tell them that their parents would be getting a divorce. It wasn’t an easy conversation, but they felt it was the best decision for everyone.

A Father’s Love 

Richard had no regrets about marrying Kate even though life had led him here. He cherished his time with her and adored the three sons she had given him and whom they had raised together.

He was committed to his role as a father. He thought it would take titans to drag him away from his commitments and responsibilities. He had no idea that life-shattering news from the doctor would do just the same.

The Divorce Turns Sour

The divorce process had started out amicably, but everything changed as soon as legal representation was brought in and the matter of finances was brought up. After many legal meetings, Kate was granted a large sum of money from Richard’s assets, but that wasn’t all.

She was assured that he would pay for their children’s education at private schools. However, this did not mean that the matter was over.

Balancing Finances And Family

Richard, now remarried, had stated that Kate kept pressuring him for more money. But he was primarily focused on the well-being of his children. As long as his children’s needs were met, he would let the legal professionals handle the rest.

But there was some crucial information that Kate knew that she had not shared with him. He had no idea how much it would change his perspective on the situation.

A Decade Later

After a period of time, the relationship between Richard and Kate calmed. Despite the fact that the divorce continues to be a source of pain for him, he believed that there would no longer be arguments between them.

But he would receive a routine medical check-up almost a decade after the divorce, changing his perception of the situation forever.

An Unexpected Revelation

Richard never anticipated what he would hear that day when he entered the physician’s clinic. He would hear something that would profoundly affect him.

He had no idea that the doctor would tell him something that would rekindle the conflicts between him and Kate, despite how long ago they had resolved them. It was something he never imagined he would hear.

Life Altering Diagnosis

In his mind, Richard thought that his doctor would tell him that he needed to make a lifestyle change to improve his health, but what he received was far worse. He learned that he had cystic fibrosis, an incurable disease that would alter his life forever.

But the doctor had more news for Richard. He was still shaken from his diagnosis when he heard the next shocking statement. He couldn’t help the tears that formed in his eyes.

Life-Changing

Receiving the news that he would have to live with a debilitating disease had knocked Richard for a loop. For a few minutes, all he could do was stare at the floor, trying to come to terms with the news.

Cystic Fibrosis causes regular lung infections and gets worse over time, reducing the patient’s capacity to breathe. How was he going to tell his new wife? But that wasn’t all.

His Sister

Richard’s sister had succumbed to the genetic disease several years earlier, so the worried father’s mind quickly flashed to the danger his children could be in of inheriting the condition.

But the next piece of news the doctor had to reveal would set his mind at ease about that – before opening up another can of worms.

Small Relief

Much to Richard’s relief, the doctor assured him there was no way he could have passed the disease on to his sons.

But the reason why that was the case would be more devastating to Richard than the diagnosis itself. Understanding this would be hard for him to swallow, the doctor took a deep breath before explaining why genetic transference of the disease simply couldn’t have happened.

Ray Of Hope

Having cystic fibrosis meant that Richard was infertile. When the doctor mentioned that particular detail to him, Richard’s head started spinning. How could that be possible?

This would be very difficult news for anyone to hear, but for the father of three, he couldn’t quite understand how this could be. He had three children, for crying out loud!

What If…?

Richard suddenly realized that this could be a misdiagnosis. How could he have a disease that meant he never would have been able to have children if he’d fathered three sons? 

But the doctor dashed his fleeting hope with a sympathetic shake of the head. Then, he suggested something that instantly froze Richard’s blood inside his veins.

It Can’t Be

The doctor gently told Richard that he should arrange to have a conversation with his ex-wife. Richard just sat there in the doctor’s office completely stunned. Was the doctor really suggesting what he thought?

Then, suddenly, Richard played his entire life with Kate back in his mind. Sure, their relationship was rocky, but could she really have lied to him about something as serious as this? Richard felt sick.

Red Flags

As a successful internet millionaire, Richard had often worked late nights while he was building his fortune. Countless times, he would stay at the office until 4am, despite his wife’s complaints.

It was something that he and Kate would regularly clash over, despite the fact that she too had a thriving career and put in a lot of overtime.

That Night In London

But as he walked home dejected from the doctor’s office, he couldn’t get the thought off that night when Kate called him from a hotel in London to say her flight had been delayed. 

And that just led to setting off several other alarm bells that he should have spotted sooner. Now he understood a lot of things.

Her Eyes

When the twins were born, friends and family would often comment about how they “had her eyes.” But no one ever said they looked like Richard. 

In fact, Richard had always thought the children looked like someone, but he could never quite put his finger on who it was. And that wasn’t all there was to it.

A Weird Phase

Then there was the other curious phase that Kate went through when their first son, Will, was born. Back then, Richard observed a bunch of strange things that should have made him think twice about the type of person he was really married to.

He hadn’t thought about it in years, but in light of recent events, he couldn’t think about anything else.

Keep The Faith

Both Richard and Kate were raised as Christians, so it came as quite a shock when she said, all of a sudden, that she wanted to convert to Judaism. 

And it didn’t stop there. She even wanted to give all three of their sons Jewish middle names. Never in a million years could Richard have seen that coming.

Spiritual Awakening

At the time, he just put it down to a bit of spiritual soul searching during a difficult pregnancy. He thought it was kind of unusual, but he didn’t suspect anything. But now, right after the doctor’s revelation, everything made much more sense.

One thing particularly revealed itself in a new light. Now, his mind was cast back to those regular visits with the rabbi.

The Other Man

At this point, Richard had convinced himself that Kate had been seeing another man behind his back and that the man in question was really the boys’ father. 

His blood was boiling. But before he could confront Kate about his suspicions, he realized there was something he hadn’t considered that might mean he had it all wrong.

One In A Million

Twins occur in natural pregnancies at a rate of around 1 in every 250 births. If the chances of Richard somehow managing to father children despite his disease were low, the odds of them being twins was astronomical.

Unfortunately for Richard, that could only mean one thing. Now, his world was coming down in shambles.

A Possibility

But couples who are having difficulty conceiving and resort to using fertility treatments find the likelihood of having twins increases greatly. 

Had IVF treatment helped them have children when it should have been impossible? But as he thought about the twins, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew who it was they looked like.

Who Is he?

Richard loved his sons, but the fact that they looked nothing like him had always hurt. And now with a genuine reason to believe they weren’t his kids at all, it was absolute agony. 

But until that moment, he had never been able to put his finger on who it was the two twins did look like. 

Racing Thoughts

But just before he sat down to fire off an email to Kate demanding the truth, he thought about the twins again. Weren’t they proof enough that somehow he had been able to have children, despite what the doctor said? 

Wouldn’t life be easier if he just left it alone? Probably, if only he could get that guy she was spending time with out of his head.

The Man In Question

Richard was always busy with his business – even when Kate was pregnant – so he didn’t pay an awful lot of attention to what was going on with her career, and even less to the colleagues she was spending time with. 

But there was this one guy she always seemed to be chatting to whenever he picked her up from her office.

Under The Radar

There was so much going on in their lives with the company bringing in millions and completely changing their lifestyles that a lot of things could have gone under Richard’s radar. 

Could she have really been leading a double life with this guy? When they were together, Richard had never suspected Kate’s loyalty. But now, his whole life seemed like a lie. He had to do something about it.

Confrontation

Richard angrily typed a message to Kate, demanding an explanation. “Hi, I went to the Liverpool Chest Hospital today… to finally receive my diagnosis that I have cystic fibrosis,” he started.

Then, he dropped the bomb: “In their experience, they have never had a male with CF who has fathered a child, let alone three.”

No Response

“So long story short, it seems like it is 98% certain that I am not the father of any children,” he added. He left it there and checked his inbox a couple of days later.

Kate had read the message, but she wasn’t replying. Seeing that being civil wasn’t getting him answers, Richard decided that it was time to take a harder approach.

Asking For Answers

“I was hoping that you could relieve me of [the] further indignity [of more tests] by letting me know now if I am the father,” Richard wrote. 

“I am happy to go along with your advice as to how best tell the boys. But, if you force me to go through these extra tests then I shall be telling them as I wish.” Kate, cornered, sent her reply within minutes this time.

Bad Dream

“Of course the boys are yours, no matter what the science might suggest,” she wrote. Richard’s heart swelled. 

Everything he’d been worrying about since he visited the doctor faded away like a bad dream. But what exactly did she mean by that? How could that be compatible with what the doctor had just told him?

Doubts

But still the doubts bubbled back up to the surface. Richard felt he had to get it off his chest. So he decided to do something else about it.

He approached his eldest son, who was a university student at the time, and told him about his diagnosis and what he thought it might mean.

Tough Talk

“I told him I’d just been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, which he took surprisingly calmly,” Richard explained.

“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.’ He said, ‘I’m already ahead of you, Dad. You’re saying you’re probably not my father?’”

Emotional And Angry

Richard, heartbroken at the thought that he wasn’t his son’s biological father, recalls that “it would have been the hardest sentence to utter, and he did it for me.” 

Richard told his eldest son that “of course, he was still his dad, obviously,” but that he didn’t think that he had conceived him. “It was very emotional but I was also very angry,” Richard said. He had been dealt a double-blow that day. So, what was he going to do about it?

No Legacy

Richard believes that your children define who you are. So, not only had he been diagnosed with a dreaded disease, but he now knew that he didn’t actually have any children.

His legacy would stop with him, and that thought was almost too hard for him to bear. Then, two days later, Kate got back in touch.

The Ugly Truth

It turns out that Kate had been confronted by her eldest son. She called Richard and confessed everything to him.

She admitted that she had been seeing another man during their 20-year marriage, and to add insult to injury, Richard had even met him in passing. As it turned out, the man in question worked at Barclays Bank.

Clandestine Meetings

She and the man would meet at a hotel in London while she was traveling for work as a union official. But she had still insisted that Richard was their children’s father. 

He had no choice but to get an expert’s opinion. He knew the last 20 years of his life had been a complete lie and he simply had to know the truth.

Taking Matters Into His Own Hands

Richard decided to seek out advice from paternity fraud expert, Roger Terrell. After he underwent numerous tests, it was confirmed that Richard was indeed incapable of fathering children.

The next step was to obtain DNA samples from his sons. The DNA test results proved that the twins weren’t his, but to complicate matters further, his eldest son refused to provide a sample.

Still His ‘Dad’

Richard’s eldest son stated, “As far as I’m concerned, he’s my dad and that’s that.” But Richard still had all the proof he needed to launch a legal case against Kate. 

In December 2016, he began proceedings at Birmingham County Court. But Richard’s oldest son had another message for the man he knew as his father. 

Consequences

And the teenager remained true to his word. Of course, this caused Richard immense heartache. “The ripple effect of Kate’s lies has been massive,” he declared later on.

But the reaction from the twins as the case progressed was quite different. Other kids might have reacted to that type of news by being irate or frustrated; but not Richard’s.

Message Of Support

The twins still regard Richard as their dad, even though they know that he is not their biological father. One of the twins even sent Richard an overwhelming message as a show of support.

The message read, “Dad, as I explained from the beginning, you would never not be dad to me regardless of all this. 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 x.”

Hollow Victory

When Kate’s unbelievable lies were exposed in court, Richard won his case and Kate was ordered to pay him over $300,000. 

Kate agreed to settle, but on one condition: the man who is the real father of her sons must remain anonymous. But it was a hollow victory for Richard. And he has a message for the boys’ real father, too. 

Come Forward

Richard stated that he “would like the biological father to read this article and come forward.” He believes that the boys have a right to know who their father is.

“Not least for the boys’ sake because they will want to know who their real father is, even if hopefully they will always think of me as their dad,” he added.

 In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.