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This article was one of Herald Lifestyle’s best-read stories of 2024.
A British man discovered he was not his baby’s real father after he caught his wife and her lover on the couple’s puppy cam.
Firefighter Rob Parsons shared details of the heartbreaking discovery with a UK newspaper,saying: “Just imagine the most outrageous Jeremy Kyle story you have ever heard and times it by 100”.
Parsons told the Daily Mail he thought his life with his new wife and their cherished baby daughter was perfect - until the day he logged on to the couple’s home security system.
What he discovered was his wife Facetiming another man - and telling their daughter to call him “Daddy”.
Parsons, 34, met his wife, a police officer, just before Covid lockdowns began in the UK. They married at Christmas in 2021 and their daughter arrived the following year.
For three years before he discovered her betrayal, Parson claims his wife was in an illicit relationship with another man - and he says she knew full well that her lover was the baby’s biological dad, despite signing him as the father on the birth certificate.
A DNA test later confirmed he was not the father and he is now estranged from his wife and the child, living on friends’ couches and trying to rebuild his life.
He was at work in June 2023 when he wanted to check with his wife, who had been at a doctor’s appointment.
Not hearing back from her for hours, he told the Mail he logged on to the camera the couple had set up to check on their two dogs, just to see if she was home.
The truth was delivered via puppy cam. Photo / Getty Images
“As soon as I turned on the camera, I saw my wife sitting on the floor with our daughter on her lap on Facetime. She was saying ‘say thank you to Daddy for buying you the presents yesterday’ then was saying ‘are you showing Daddy your present’.
“I re-watched that video probably 100 times while I was at work checking what she said,” Parsons said.
“As soon as she hung up, she texted me saying ‘all good, baby’s just being a pain’.”
He confronted his wife immediately and she denied it, telling him: “The baby calls everyone Daddy”.
Parsons said he was in total shock, believing their marriage to be a happy, faithful one.
The only clue was a strange message from a man the night before their wedding, telling Parsons that his bride was a “great girl”.
When he asked her who the man was, she told him that he was just a friend from work.
His wife continued to deny the baby wasn’t his until Parsons completed a DNA test on the baby, confirming his worst fears.
“I would tell my friends just imagine the most outrageous Jeremy Kyle story you have ever heard and times it by 100,” Parsons told the Mail.
“What has happened, you couldn’t make it up.”
He says he misses the little girl “like mad” and the news devastated his parents, causing his father to “bawl his eyes out” at learning he was not the baby’s grandfather.
He has complained to the police that his wife broke their code of ethics, but his complaint was reportedly rejected.
“I am still in disbelief about how blatant she is with her lying,” Parson said.
