Paternity Fraud: Is It Legal to Lie About A Baby’s Daddy?

By: Laura Meyers

If you aren’t the daddy, is it your baby?

In March, a businessman in Britain sued his ex-wife, a similarly successful businesswoman, because she has fraudulently convinced him that his “son” was of his own DNA. Turns out, she had used a sperm donation from her former boyfriend to conceive the child during a time of “trouble” within her and the man’s marriage.

From birth, the man was convinced the child was his. (Obviously. Who thinks to DNA test your wife’s baby?) But, these hoes ain’t loyal.

The ex-boyfriend later told the court, “Her main objective was to have a baby but she wanted me to be the father.”

The Telegraph reports:

It was not until 2011, after the couple were divorced and X made an application for more contact with the boy, that she finally revealed he was not the father.

When a DNA sample confirmed what she said, she forbade him any contact with the boy with his “ex-son”. Even the desperate snatched meetings on the doorstep when turned up to give birthday or Christmas presents were stopped.

“I wanted my former wife and her former boyfriend to realise the consequences of their deceitful actions, practised over almost six years,” the man said.

“It has deeply affected me and my family but importantly their own son – and my ex-son – which is absolutely appalling.

“This year-long litigation has been incredibly difficult and stressful and I have sometimes felt ‘I think I’m trapped in the wrong film’.

“Not only did my ex-wife commit this deceit but she misled her own child too.”

Significantly he also paid out more than £80,000 in maintenance to his former wife after they separated and eventually divorced, believing that he was providing for his son

This kind of practice continues to grow as the trailblazing accounts of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) fraud.

In the end, the man was awarded nearly £100,000 in damages and costs while his former wife was dismissed as an “untruthful witness,” and all money paid toward child care and support could not be returned.

Studies suggest that somewhere between two and 10 per cent of men have fallen victim to paternity fraud.

Another study stated that “Higher rates of infidelity are seen among pairs who are not married. Furthermore, time spent apart in marriages or long-term relationships (for example, through occupational travel) is also associated with higher levels of infidelity.”

If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it.

Another piece of advice is to just generally steer clear of greedy, baby-crazed gold diggers.

And the doctors won’t help a bro out, either.

One American study reveals that 95 of genetic counsellors (professionals who advise on the results of tests for hereditary conditions and are typically the first to know that the father isn’t the father) would not tell a man that the child wasn’t his. Cool.

Also, around 95 per cent of genetic counsellors are female, so I’ll let you draw any further conclusions for yourself.

Be careful, boys. Jerry Springer may have been up to something all along.