Joel Mason (pictured) was raised by Richard Mason, founder of price comparison website MoneySuperMarket, for two decades before discovering tycoon wasn't his real father
One of three boys tricked into believing a multi-millionaire businessman was their real father has broken his silence to reveal how his mother hid the truth from them for two decades.
Joel Mason was raised by Richard Mason, founder of the price comparison website MoneySuperMarket, until the tycoon learned the truth when doctors told him he had been infertile since birth and couldn't be the boys' father.
Now as Mr Mason's ex-wife Kate is ordered to pay him £250,000 following an extraordinary legal case that has allowed her to keep the identity of the real father a secret, his son Joel says he has no desire to find out who his biological dad is.
Speaking for the first time in a heart-breaking interview, Joel, 19, told MailOnline: 'I've not fallen out with Mum over this. We're all OK. She had just had an unhappy marriage and she wanted kids. And here we are. I never knew until a couple of years ago that Richard wasn't my real dad.'
Joel admitted to having a difficult relationship with Mr Mason, who he hasn't spoken to for three years, but says he will always consider the businessman his real dad.
'I don't know if I'd call it estranged,' Joel said. 'I wouldn't know what word to use. But I haven't been speaking to him for a number of years because of his behaviour. He's a very manipulative man, not the kind of person you want to be with. I started noticing this when I was 15.
'But he's still my dad and I'm not going to look for my real one. I doubt he [his biological father] even knows we exist. But Richard now wants him to be in our lives and to make contact.'
Devastated Mr Mason never doubted he was the boys' biological dad until two years ago when he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis - an inherited disease which prevents male sufferers from fathering children naturally.
Richard Mason, pictured with his ex-wife and three sons (left to right Ed, Willem and Joel, circled), raised the boys for 23 years believing they were his until doctors told him he's infertile
The businessman said that his world fell apart when he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in 2016 and was told he couldn't be the boys' father. His wife Kate later admitted a four-year affair
Mr Mason, 55, pictured with his third wife Emma at their home in north Wales, says he wants the boys' real father to come forward to put to be the lie the family has been living for years
DNA and other tests later confirmed beyond doubt that the businessman has no biological link to the eldest boy, Willem, now 23, Joel or his twin brother Ed, 19, throwing his life - and his relationship with them - into turmoil.
Mr Mason believes that the same man fathered all three boys during an intermittent four-year affair his wife Kate, 54, embarked on in the late 1990s.
Joel said his mother eventually confessed the adultery in 2016, ten years on from their divorce, when Mr Mason confronted her about the children's paternity.
Joel, who bares an uncanny resemblance to Mr Mason, told of his shock when he and his brothers found out the man who raised them wasn't their natural father - and at first struggled to believe it.
He said: 'When Richard was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis he asked us to do blood tests.
'Myself and my twin Ed agreed, but our elder brother Willem refused. At the time I was in the sixth form at school and I thought it was something he was doing just to get money from my mum.
After divorcing Mr Mason, his ex-wife moved on to a new relationship with Martin Smith (pictured) who is not the boys' (pictured) biological father, until the couple recently separated
Joel said he and his twin brother Ed (right) agreed to a DNA to prove that Mr Mason wasn't their father but their elder brother Willem (left) refused. None of the brothers want their biological father to come forward, says Joel
'At first we questioned it because Richard refused to do a DNA test in front of us or in the court so we thought he was just saying it and had messed with the data.
'But later we tested our DNA against that of Richard's brother, our uncle. We were not blood related to him which meant Richard couldn't be our real dad. That was conclusive, it was the proof we needed.
'It didn't hurt me
