My Ex Falsified a Paternity Test and Now I’m Trapped for the Rest of My Life

A man, 30, came to Reddit and told he’s been left heartbroken. He learned that the child he has been looking after for 11 years isn’t his biological son. He explained how his ex-girlfriend forged his paternity test results.

Believing he’d fathered the child, he stuck around and cared for the youngster to the best of his abilities, providing the child with love, and attention and the mother with money. Now, he is seeking justice against his ex-girlfriend — but says he has «completely lost faith in the legal system» because of everything he has been through.

A desperate man took to Reddit with his heart-wrenching story.

A man started his post, saying, «I’m 30 years old. When I was 18 my girlfriend became pregnant. She told me that she had cheated on me around this same time.»

The man, however, was able to live through his partner’s infidelity, but he did have a condition for her regarding the future baby. He says, «I told her it’s okay. We will have the baby, then do a paternity test and go from there.»

But his girlfriend turned to be a cunning person. The man revealed, «She contrived a false paternity test using the real father’s DNA and put my information on the test. I fathered that child for 11 years before catching her cheating. During this time, I had asked her to confess because I had caught her red-handed, and she lied straight to my face.»

The man was able to find out the truth.

The man continues his story, saying, «At this time I decided to redo the paternity test (because at this point my son is starting to really not look like me and has more and more features of the man that my ex cheated on me with). This is when I found out that the boy was not mine.»

He expressed his deep concerns and regrets about the whole situation. He confessed, «This has obviously stolen so many years of my life and created a huge issue for the boy as well. She used a contrived test to convince me I was the father and showed this test to tons of people.»

The man appeared in a really tough situation now.

The OP now wants justice, and he wants to take legal actions towards his ex. But things turned out to be even more complicated than he imagined.

He revealed, «I have proof of both tests, but prosecutors in my state will not take my case. I have called every agency I can think of and explained my situation, and they all say something along the lines of, „I don’t know if we can do anything.“»

The man sounds very desperate. He says, «I spoke to a lawyer and I know for 100 percent certainty that she has committed a felony against me. Is there really nothing I can do? Why won’t anyone take this case!? She is 100% guilty and I have all the evidence that would be needed. I have completely lost faith in the legal system because of this.»

The man explained why he is so concerned and why he really wants to punish his ex.

The OP’s situation is now quite complex. As he says, «I am also now on the hook as the father of the child. Without a conviction, I cannot be removed from the birth certificate.»

He also wrote an additional explanation about his motivation for his legal actions. He wrote, «For those thinking my main goal in all of this is to abandon the child, that’s not the case. I want to be exonerated from the birth certificate in order to withdraw from my LEGAL obligations to the child.»

The man then added, «The reason being that she has the power to spring all kinds of nastiness on me as long as I remain on the document. Being removed from this document doesn’t affect my ability to be a father. The child doesn’t care or understand about a birth certificate, nor should he at this age. It wouldn’t change his life (from his perspective) at all.»

People of Reddit gave some nice piece of advice to a desperate man.

Some people tried to say the words of support to the poor man, but many users were skeptical and even critical about his decision.

One person wrote, «Based on the information you provided, it sounds like you did some type of home test as opposed to going to an official lab where they check the ID of the person giving the sample to ensure this doesn’t happen?
If that’s the case, then you do have an uphill battle to climb. You should consult with a family law attorney, but you usually can not challenge paternity after 11 years. Regardless of DNA, you are considered the father of that child.»

Another person was critical about the man’s decision. The user wrote, «I apologize if my tone is aggressive, but it seems you need the kind of „man-talk“ you haven’t gotten yet.
Let’s parse this out. As a man who has been cheated on, and a dad and a stepfather myself, you need to separate what she did from your relationship with the child. And I write this in the hope this reaches your heart and your brain, both. But mainly the first one.
So first up, on what she did, as a husband and a couple, you are, 100% percent in the right. She lied, cheated, and she committed fraud, which is legally actionable. And it does indeed sound like you chose a horrible person. It is up to you if you want to pursue it legally.»

Another user wrote, «Yeah, so here’s the thing. You keep repeatedly calling him the boy or the child. Someone who loves their child isn’t going to refer to them like that. Blood is useless.
The bonds you create with people are far stronger than a little blood, and it’s obvious that you only care about you in this scenario when in reality, you don’t matter at all. Your son, the baby you watched grow into the child before, is what matters. His feelings matter and you want to drag him through some far-fetched court case for what?»

And here’s a story about a woman, whose over-suspicious partner asked her for a paternity test for their baby. And she made a tough decision in return.