“Shocking Diagnosis Forces Wealthy Father of Three to Confront Hidden Family Secrets”
Men With Cystic Fibrosis Are Infertile
Then, the doctor delivered the news that Richard wasn’t expecting at all. Richard recalls the life-changing conversation, “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.'”
At that point, Richard thought that he might have received an incorrect diagnosis of having cystic fibrosis. After all, he had three healthy sons.
The Diagnosis Must Be Wrong
Richard vocalized his thought to his doctor. “Well,” he said, “you must have the diagnosis wrong because I’ve already got three boys.” Clearly, he would need to do more testing, right?
He recalls 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 doctor’s eyes grew wide and he and Richard knew what he was going to say next.
The Diagnosis Was Correct. His Ex-Wife Had Been Lying.
Through the doctor’s silence, Richard realized what he was going to say. The cystic fibrosis diagnosis was correct. It was Richard’s ex-wife who was lying. It felt like his entire world was crashing down.
Not only had Richard received terrible news concerning his health, but the 55-year-old also learned on the same day that his three sons weren’t biologically his. For all this time, Kate had been lying to Richard. But now he knew the truth.
He Began Putting Things Together
Learning this while sitting at the doctor’s office, realizations flashed through Richard’s head. He began thinking of all of the times that Kate could have been lying to him, and sneaking off with another man.
He thought back to times that should have been a red flag. But Richard had pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, trusting that his wife was telling him the truth. How could she do this?
Had He Ignored The Red Flags?
Before his cystic fibrosis diagnosis, Richard had never considered that his ex-wife could have been having an affair during their marriage. Now, looking back on it, it was entirely possible that this was all going on under his nose.
Richard was a hard-working, successful businessman, often working late nights. So he didn’t think anything of it when Kate would occasionally have a work-related matter come up. Like that time Kate stayed in London for a night during a “work trip” after she said that her flight had been canceled.
People Didn’t Think The Twins Looked Like Him
Before that day at the doctor’s office, Richard had never considered that his boys wouldn’t be his own. Now that he was being told he was infertile, thoughts started raising through his head. He remembered people commenting on how much the twins looked like his ex-wife Kate when they were born, but not like Richard.
At the time, he brushed off the comments. But now, they seemed to be louder than ever.
Out Of Nowhere, Kate Wanted The Kids To Be Jewish
When Kate became pregnant with the couple’s first child, they had been married for seven years. During that time, Kate never mentioned wanting to teach their future kids Judaism, so Richard found it surprising that she brought it up when she was pregnant with Will.
Instead of teaching the kids Christianity and getting them baptized, as both Richard and Kate had been, she instead met with a Rabbi and taught the kids about Judaism. They also ended up giving all three of their children Jewish middle names.
He Began Thinking Of Who The Boys Looked Like
So many thoughts were running through Richard’s head as he began putting the pieces of the past together. Then he began thinking about who the boys looked like, other than Kate.
He recognized they shared similarities to someone that he knew, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Was he really certain that Kate had been having an affair with another man all this time? Richard knew that he had to get to the bottom of it.
He Suspected Who It Was
One he had a minute to process everything, he narrowed it down to who he believed his ex-wife was having an affair with during their marriage. The first clue was that she was probably cheating on him while she was away on her business trips.
That meant that she could be cheating with someone at her work. Richard thought of one man, a co-worker of Kate’s, who he thought the boys resembled. Then, the last piece of the puzzle came together when he remembered that the man was Jewish.
