He was a devoted father to his three sons. Unfortunately, though, this businessman would come to realize that his whole life was basically one big lie. Surprises come in all forms, and they might not always be welcoming. Sometimes, we might stumble upon mind-boggling, soul-stirring, eye-opening details about ourselves and our loved ones that leave us utterly confused and speechless.
Something similar happened to a man when an accidental discovery altered his reality and shattered his heart into a million pieces.
At 55 years old, Richard Mason was a successful businessman living in the UK. One of his biggest ventures was co-founding a popular website, MoneySupermarket.com, which many people use to compare prices while shopping.
Richard and his wife, Kate, met while they were both working at a bank. They fell in love, got married, and had three sons. Richard worked hard and lived a good life. He never could have expected everything to fall apart so quickly.
Richard and his wife Kate had three boys together: Will, and twins Ed and Joel. When Will was 23 years old and the twins were 19, Richard and Kate made the tough decision to separate.
While their marriage was no longer serving them, they both remained close to their boys and knew that they were doing what was best for the family. With all three of their sons over the age of 18, the couple officially divorced in early 2008.
While the couple mutually agreed to divorce, once the proceedings began, Kate kept pushing for Richard to pay more money. They had agreed in the financial settlement that Kate would receive a $5 million lump sum.
The $5 million Richard would be paying also included money for private school for all three of their sons. He didn’t understand why Kate wanted more money. He said that his ex-wife “hounded me for years… and tried to make me pay more.”
He found out he was not the father of his three kids what he did next will | news
There was also something she had been hiding from him for years.
Although the couple had been divorced since 2008, it wasn’t until 2016 that Richard learned that his ex-wife had been keeping a major secret from him for their entire marriage.
One day, the millionaire businessman woke up and unknowingly got ready for the doctor’s appointment that would change everything. He had no idea that in just a few hours he’d be left reeling and furious.
The appointment was meant to be a standard routine check-up with his doctor. Little did he know, though, that it wouldn’t be as standard as he expected it to be. After the doctor performed some tests, Richard wasn’t expecting to have his world turned upside down.
But disaster struck when the doctor revealed to Richard that he was suffering from cystic fibrosis. The sad news didn’t end there, though.
Cystic fibrosis is a disease that causes persistent lung infections, and, over time, damages the lungs and reduces their capacity. Eventually, breathing becomes progressively more difficult.
The disease is genetic. In fact, Richard’s sister had passed away from the same disease years ago. Richard was devastated, and then he began to panic. Did this mean that he had passed it on to his sons?
The doctor reassured him that it was impossible for him to pass the disease on to his children and Richard felt an immense sense of relief wash over him. But his relief was short-lived — he hadn’t waited for the doctor to finish.
The doctor then went on to explain that there was another specific reason for that.
More details of this heartbreaking story from AWM:
As it turned out, Richard’s wife had kept up an on-again-off-again affair with a former co-worker. Once he learned the truth about his family, Richard divorced his wife.
“You don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. It’s as if I’m living in ‘The Matrix.’” Mason revealed, “Someone says to you, ‘All that you know and everything you thought to be solid and true is not real, and never did exist. You are not a father, you are not able to have kids, your name will not continue.’”
Richard decided to sue his ex-wife, Kate Mason, for $5.8 million that she had been awarded during their 2008 divorce proceeding. He felt like she had cheated him out of his family life, and he wanted to get what was due to him back from her.
In addition to getting money from his wife, Richard also wanted to pursue an investigation into the paternity fraud she allegedly committed. How exactly he will pursue such an plan remains unclear, but he doesn’t plan on stopping and will do it just to make sure his wife suffers as much as he did by her infidelity.
Kate Mason agreed to settle with her ex-husband on the condition that she did not have to reveal the name of the children’s true biological father. She wanted to protect her lover from the wrath of Richard and the boys.
Richard’s lawyer told the Telegraph:
“I think it was the major reason for her settling. I was shocked and surprised that she had settled. I thought we were going to have a very acrimonious court battle. We were confident that we would get a court order whereby the ex-wife, the mother of the children, would have to name the father. She didn’t want to name the father – why, we don’t know – that is why she came to a financial settlement, and in the settlement, she did not have to name the father.”
Despite the shocking revelations and the reported disasters he survived, Richard said he wished to keep in touch with his sons and assure them of his love and affection.