UK: 'She’s not my daughter – I want my money back'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The test result was there in black and white but even so, James did not want to believe it: “Based on the genetic testing results ... the alleged father is excluded as the biological father of the child. The probability of paternity is 0%.” In other words, his beloved 17-year-old daughter Ella wasn’t his after all.

It was something James had suspected but the reality was crushing — he commissioned a second DNA test, with a different laboratory, hoping there might have been a mistake. That test, too, confirmed he could not be Ella’s father.

“It was devastating,” he says. “People say to me ‘she’s still your daughter’ but it’s not the same. I said to Ella myself when I got the results, ‘This won’t change anything,’ but it does, of course it does.”

The DNA test was carried out last November, just over a year after James finalised his divorce from Ella’s mother, Helen. As part of the divorce settlement, he agreed to give up his share in the family home in Surrey. “I did it because I didn’t want my daughter’s life to be disrupted, I didn’t want her to have to move home because I wanted a divorce,” he says.

Now, not surprisingly, he feels angry, bitter and betrayed and intends to return to court to ask that the agreement be overturned. If he succeeds, it will be a first. “I love Ella and none of this is her fault,” he says. “I would not ask for a penny I’ve spent on her school fees or on maintenance for her but I feel strongly that there’s a principle here.'