Father Mick Reynolds mourns son Lockie before learning boy wasn't his after ... trends now
A grieving dad has been left shattered after learning the 20-year-old boy he had helped raise and paid $110,000 to financially support, wasn't his.
Mick Reynolds, 43, learnt the devastating truth two years after Lockie Hernaman died of an unexplained heart condition during footy training in the rural WA town of Harvey, south of Perth, in 2019.
Mr Reynolds' on-off again girlfriend Melissa Hernaman had first told him she was pregnant when he was 21.
'I gave her a chance to come clean right at the start,' he told A Current Affair.
'I said to her, 'is he even mine?' And then she said, 'yeah of course'.'
But a letter in December 2021 spelling out the results of a DNA test bluntly stated that Mr Reynolds was not Lockie's father.
Melissa Hernaman (right) told him she was pregnant when she was 21 and had their son, Lockie (left). Lockie died of an unexplained heart condition in 2019, prompting a DNA test
Mick Reynolds, 43, was listed as Lockie's dad on his birth certificate - and only learned after his death that he was not the father
Mr Reynolds lived with Lockie and the mother until the boy was seven. In the following years the former couple shared custody.
Mr Reynolds paid regular child support of $400 fortnightly until Lockie turned 18, amounting to $110,000.
Although Mr Reynolds admitted there were a 'few things that didn't add up' about Lockie, he didn't dwell on his doubts.
'When (my other son) Rory was born he was like a mini-me but Lochie didn't resemble me at all,' he said.
'I used to just put in the the back of mind thinking "she told me he belonged to me".'
About a year after Lockie died at football training on April 30, 2019, Mr Reynolds was asked to do DNA testing for the gene that may have caused Lockie's heart failure.
Ms Hernaman slammed the TV station's report, telling Daily Mail Australia the Channel
