Original subtitles

My name's Graham Hornigold, former group pastry chef for Hakkasan,

and now a Michelin-starred pastry consultant.

And executive pastry chef Graham Hornigold.

You need to be precise, you need to understand technique,

and you need to understand flavor.

There's no greater act of love than to cook for someone.

I want to take care of these ingredients

and give you something memorable, hopefully.

In a good way.

Why is there smoke everywhere, Heather?

What's happened to my pandijan? Heather!

I first met Heather when she came, uh, for a job interview.

She was very driven.

Very clever. Very articulate.

And for the first couple of years,

it was a very platonic and professional relationship.

However, we'd grown close over a period of time.

It just... just clicked.

I think we just had a lot of fun together, a lot of good experiences.

Just traveling, eating. It was a spark. We clicked.

She's very thin and healthy. I'm very red meat, wine, cheese.

Heather's an amazing person.

She was the perfect fit.

We were both on the same sort of page with where we wanted to go in life.

Wanting to put roots down, start a family, have our own business.

Our business was a consultancy about pastry.

Graham was like an onion, and there were so many layers to him

that you had to sort of peel back till you got to the core.

And I realized early on that... there was a lot of sort of trauma there

that probably hadn't been dealt with.

I had the perfect life.

I thought.

Life was good with Heather.

But just when you think you got your life in order,

you realize you just can't escape your past.

Why did she have to come into our lives?

You believe that she is who she says she is.

But she is a destroyer of lives.

I was born in Germany in a British army base,

and, uh, fostered at the age of two for two years.

I don't know why.

And then moved to St Albans with my stepmum and my dad.

I didn't know my mum.

My father never really spoke about her.

I fantasized about who she might be, what she might be.

But, I mean, it was something that I didn't really care to think about

because, obviously, it was quite painful not knowing your mother.

You haven't got your mum.

You haven't got your mum.

Graham didn't know who his real mum was.

It was almost like something was missing in his life.

It was a piece of the puzzle that wasn't explained, wasn't there,

and I think he really... really longed to feel love

and to feel that sort of connection with family.

One day, we were cleaning out the loft, and we found this birth certificate.

Up until that point, I'd never asked about who his biological mum was.

I have a copy of my birth certificate.

Born on the 26th of November, 1974,

in a British military hospital in Münster, West Germany,

to my father,

a Sapper in the Engineers, and from King's Lynn,

and my mother, who is named here as Haton Hornigold, formerly Mahamud,

which would suggest, obviously, Muslim descent.

We were like, "Hey, let's find out who this woman is."

And we started looking into her, googling her,

researching her based on the name that was on that document.

We kind of estimated that she must be in her late seventies or early eighties.

But we couldn't find anything about her. It was just like this woman didn't exist.

And a good couple of months in,

we kind of gave up and didn't really think about it anymore.

A week or so later, found out that we're pregnant.

And we were like, "Oh! Hallelujah!"

Heather was ecstatic, which was great.

We were both really happy to find out that we were pregnant.

We were settling down, and it was sort of that new beginnings.

We were so excited.

But a week later, the first reports of COVID started coming in as well.

So you had this elation of, "Great, we're pregnant."

But also, the world was changing rapidly at that point.

Obviously, lockdown came.

We did nothing but basically work on our hobbies.

It was just an amazing period to actually spend quality time together,

playing around in the kitchen and developing recipes

and just cooking and eating and feeding each other and looking after each other.

Heather, look up.

Heather!

Best time of our relationship.

Not gonna lie, best time of our relationship.

Sit up higher, Kev. That's it. Higher. Push it up.

I look slim then.

And then, all of a sudden, we received an email out of the blue.

I remember it clearly.

I was out the front, and I got this "buzz" on my mobile.

And I looked at it, and I was like, "Is this for real?"

"Is this for real?"

Graham came to me a bit confused,

and was like, "Look at this. Look at this email."

"It's a lady saying that she's my mum. Do you think this is legitimate?"

You're telling me I was born in Germany, which not many people know.

"If any of this makes sense to you,

and you are the Graham I'm searching for,

I'd love to hear back from you."

Yeah.

Wow.

Wow, on reading that.

Jeez, man.

Yeah.

So I write back...

You found my name on the internet. That makes me just go, "Okay."

Well, let's find out what else you know.

Over the next couple of weeks, I responded with a series of questions.

"What was my middle name?" Because I don't have one.

The answers that came back were the correct answers.

Graham sent a follow-up email, you know, asking for a few more details.

And then again, the correct answers came back.

There's not a thought in my head that says I'm not gonna go find out who you are,

and who I am.

That's the first thing I'm gonna be doing.

I wish we had never received that email.

Because it was the start of something which you never in a million years

thought was gonna happen.

Dionne was staying in a hotel up in Liverpool,

and she invited us to come to Liverpool for a few days to meet her.

"I've got this hotel room ready for you. Come. I'll organize everything."

We still weren't sure what to expect. I think there was a nervous excitement.

A bit of apprehension of, "what is this gonna turn out like?"

As I got closer to the hotel, the anxiety and everything kicks in.

You're hoping that they're everything that you thought they were gonna be.

I think he was sort of holding his emotions in a little bit.

And when we got to Liverpool,

that's when it really came out, and it became real.

Hello, my darling.

The feeling I had when I first met her was...

not to be a baby,

but it felt like I was somebody's baby.

If that makes sense.

Imagine that for a second.

Forty-five years, you've not met your parents.

As a child, you've never had that mother-child bond.

But it becomes instantaneous

from the second that you see each other.

You hold someone's hand for the first time,

and instantly, you're like, "Well, this is my mum."

That's... I can't explain that.

It's like when you have skin-on-skin contact

as an-- as an infant coming out,

and you have that connection over a period of time. Imagine that bang.

In your face. Straight.

That's the connection. That's what it felt like.

And so straightaway, I was in. I was like, "Bloody hell, this is my mum."

They were just so excited to meet each other. They looked alike.

They had the same mannerisms.

There was just an instant connection between them.

Dionne was really so welcoming to me as well,

and instantly sort of said,

"I'm your mother-in-law. I'm here for you."

"I'm so excited the grandchild's coming. This is amazing."

- His bottom here. - Yeah.

The head, other side.

"I can't believe I found my son, but also, I'm having a grandchild as well."

Why are you taking that?

He's making a video. Smile, Mum.

- Yes, darling. - Smile.

The next morning, Graham woke up with this feeling of...

probably relief,

um, that he'd found his mum, that everything was great.

There was a lot of excitement, but there was also a lot of sadness.

Dionne alluded to the fact that Graham was forcibly taken from her,

and she had no control over that.

And at that point, they were in Germany,

and she didn't know where he was.

Graham was effectively ripped away from her.

Later that evening,

Dionne sort of rented this private room.

She wanted to talk with Graham alone.

- You okay? - Yeah.

So I'm meeting with Dionne in Liverpool for the first time.

I was trying to deal with and process the fact

that she's standing in front of me after 45 years.

And then I had to deal with, or-- or try to take on board,

what she's telling me about six months left to live.

She had six months to live because she had a brain tumor

and marrow bone cancer.

She'd been given months to live by the doctor,

and she had terminal cancer.

And this was her driving factor in trying to find Graham.

It was sort of that roller-coaster ride for him of, "Wow, found my mum,

but as soon as I found my mum, she's gonna be taken away from me,

and I need to spend all the time that she has left together."

"This is my one chance to find out about my mum."

It's a whirlwind of emotions.

We were trying to deal with the happiness, the outpouring of love,

the childhood emotions.

But at the same time, know that I'm gonna lose her again.

Very quickly.

One of her requests was to come to the sea.

She wants to see the sea for her last time.

So I just

put her in the car, and we drove to the sea.

And, you know, it's all a bit sad when she's like, you know,

"This could be my last time coming, but it's actually our first time going."

It was a voyage of discovery as well, because she gave me an insight

into who she was.

My mum had lived in Singapore.

She told me that she's got businesses all over the world.

Farms, passion fruits, mangoes.

Whatever it is, having multiples of these businesses.

Palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia.

And she's chatting to associates that she has all over the world

because she spoke like 18 languages.

Yeah.

Eighteen.

Crazy.

Some guy would ring up from a fruit farm in the middle of the jungle somewhere.

I talk to you later.

Okay?

But the way they're talking to her,

they're all talking to her like she's their mum.

"Mama," like this. And you're like, "Why does everyone call you 'Mum'?"

And she'd tell you how she'd given money to the villagers,

so that they could feed themselves, and they planted fields.

She'd share videos of her and her colleagues

giving out packages and food to the poor.

She's got all of this business acumen.

But to top it all off, she's really charitable as well, you know?

She's amazing.

I think for Graham, it was a journey of discovery.

It was a journey of developing love between the two of them.

And I think their bond just grew quite... quite quickly.

She suggested that she comes down to London for a couple of weeks.

She decided that she wanted to stay in a hotel.

And...

to my surprise,

she picks a five-star down by the river.

Every day, she's ordering the best champagnes, caviar.

All of this comes to her table.

She looks very comfortable with her surroundings.

Ready?

She's moving from one five-star hotel to another.

She's spending up large.

And people knew her. "She's stayed with us before."

"She's one of our best customers."

We were like, "Wow, okay, this woman, she's obviously quite wealthy."

My mum told me that there were two sources of her wealth.

One avenue was her business acumen.

The other way...

she tells me

that she is

the illegitimate child

of the former Sultan of Brunei.

Her family, the family of Brunei and the former sultan,

had given her money.

That family happens to be incredibly wealthy.

It's fantastical in the sense

that, well, who'd believe it?

But the real eye-opener for me,

and this is... this is-- this is just crazy,

is when we go to The Dorchester.

It's a top-end, five-star hotel in, um, Park Lane.

Absolutely everybody knew her.

From the doorman, the receptionist, concierge...

They position her right bang-smack in the middle of the restaurant

and quite happily sit there for the afternoon,

couple of bottles of champagne.

And it dawns on me that,

is she getting this service because people know who she is?

Because the hotel is owned by the Brunei royal family.

I'm sitting there in awe,

going, "Wow."

"This is my mum."

Dionne started just buying gift after gift for Graham.

You know, personalized suits.

Bags. Designer clothes.

I've never had a decent car.

When I met my mum, however...

"Son, I haven't seen you for 45 years."

"You've never had a present from me. I'm gonna buy you a present."

"I'm gonna take away 45 years of pain."

Those were her exact words.

"Let's go and get yourself a car."

Close that.

Of course.

So I had a conversation with the head sales honcho at Rolls-Royce.

I pulled him aside and said, "Do you know this lady?"

And he said to me, "Yes, she has had two Phantoms off me previously."

Next thing you know, we're going past Land Rover.

She calls me over.

"Son, which one do you like?"

"This one looks nice, Mum."

You're driving off in a new Land Rover with your mum in tow

after 45 years absent.

She's happy as Larry because she's got her son a present.

And I'm just like...

"This is incredible."

But at the same time, she also believed that Heather needed a car

so that she didn't feel left out that I had a car.

There's your car.

What do you say?

Thank you, Mum!

It's amazing.

We drove off, and we were both like,

"Well, this is mad."

Two months after the initial meeting,

Heather goes into labor.

Our son is, uh, is-- is on the way.

And I made sure she had our bag, and everything was ready.

You're walking into a life-changing moment.

It was a very long, protracted, difficult birth.

I was worried that she was gonna be okay

because it was-- it was stressful, and it was traumatic.

I was on blood transfusion for five hours afterwards.

That was a bit...

That was a bit hard.

But then you got this bundle of joy.

You're both looking at him like, "That's the best thing we ever baked."

I think the minute that you have a child,

the idea of love changes.

It's your overwhelming responsibility to love that child, protect that child.

Be everything that that child needs.

It was amazing.

Everything you could ever wish for.

But I have just put my son down,

and I get a message from my mum.

Her saying that she's passed blood.

We read up on it,

and it's part and parcel of the condition that she had.

So I'm like, "Christ, I've got to deal with this as well."

We have a newborn son, and, uh, I have a partner

who's in desperate need of my attendance.

And you've got an 85-year-old cancer patient.

I can't leave her in the hotel room.

She's there by herself.

And I can't leave Heather and the newborn.

And in my mind, it's easier if they're both in the same house,

and at least then I can try to be there for both, but obviously, it's not ideal.

You know what I mean? It's not really ideal, is it?

So I went and collected her.

Is the baby gonna cry tonight, Mum?

No chance.

And if they do?

I look after him.

From tonight, I hold the baby.

I take care of the baby.

He never cry. Watch me.

So my mum was really ecstatic,

but she's got the chance to hold her grandchild.

You know, she's got six months to live.

Not even that anymore.

After I gave birth,

Dionne very much changed in her nature towards me.

That sense of "I've just become a mum" was robbed from me

because there's Dionne.

I don't think I was allowed to celebrate becoming a mother.

Is there something wrong?

You like Nana? Yeah.

You got an Asian mum who's trying to tell you

how to look after your baby, yeah?

You've got a tired, weary, and outspoken mother,

rightly so, who is saying, "Now hold on. It's my house, it's my home."

"It's my son, and I'll look after him in the manner that I want."

And I'm just like,

"Okay, this isn't working."

"I'm hungry, Daddy."

Two months after our son is born,

Dionne and Graham start talking about this trip to Switzerland

to get this money that she had access to,

to give to Graham.

She's got this wealth that she wants us to inherit, essentially.

So the initial plan is to go to Zurich to sign the documents,

which would help to facilitate that.

Dionne had told him that these lawyers were there waiting for him.

The bankers were waiting for him. Everything was set up.

So just go.

Sign the paperwork.

And then, you know, everything would be sorted.

If I'm honest, I was like, "Go to Switzerland."

"Give me some peace and quiet for four days, not a problem."

"Just get out of my space for a bit."

My mother was-- was trying to prepare me

for what was to come,

which was to take on her affairs after her passing.

Zurich is a town that lives by money. It respects money.

It takes money seriously.

She told me that I have exponential wealth,

so I would need to have a Swiss bank account opened.

I would need to sign some forms for a bank in Zurich

and meet private equity lawyers,

other bank representatives from high-net-worth banks.

We arrived in Zurich, and we checked into a five-star hotel.

Very plush.

Two-star Michelin restaurant, innit.

Very expensive.

Very expensive.

During that time, my mum was talking all the time with a Swiss banker.

The conversations that they have about money are away from me.

But she told me we have to have a base of 20 million

to open a Swiss bank account, with that bank.

One-zero-zero.

That's 100%.

I called on one of my friends who was in Zurich.

I said, "Hi, mate, I'm about."

"Would you like to join us and have a, you know, drink, whatever?"

I was like, "Man, yes."

"And you will meet my mother."

Okay, yes. Let me know when, and I will be there.

I met Graham quite a long time ago.

We worked together.

I start to learn from the master of pastry.

I mean, we're talking about one of the most popular chefs in London.

We became, I would say, really good friends.

Really close.

They were staying in one of the most expensive hotels in Zurich.

And I sat down, and he was, "This is my mum, Dionne."

He was like a little kid.

I never, never, never saw him like that.

He was like a baby.

Like he was just, you know, born again.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ My nice son ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

Kiss him!

Mama.

Mommy put it in your mouth.

- No. - Yes.

- This is way too twee.

We're sitting in the hotel, and finally, I get to meet the banker

to talk about trust funds.

Well, the banker is not just any banker.

The banker is fairly high up in his establishment.

Two to three days later,

we were invited to the head of this bank.

And the bank is closed.

I was going there to sign papers and to understand the inheritance,

and what that might look like in the event of Mum dying.

Graham called me. "We are in the bank."

"It's happening," he said. "It's happening. Run here."

"I need to see you here in ten minutes."

Feels very,

very strange because it's so quiet.

But we were invited to the private rooms above the bank.

We went through security. Went up.

And we end up in the office.

This room...

...that not many people get into that room, you know?

And Graham was, like, looking at me like, "What's going on, man?"

"This is happening."

I'm thinking, "What levels of wealth do you need

to have the power to get a private banker

to open up the global headquarters of said bank in Zurich

past hours to give you access to a private room above the bank?"

Nobody truly knows her wealth.

My mum's financial arrangements are really complicated,

and there was the realization that this was gonna take a lengthy time.

You know, we didn't actually sign anything at that meeting.

The businesses were all over the place, scattered.

Everybody needs to understand what assets there are globally.

They're talking, like, hundreds... hundreds of millions.

Nice dancing, Mum.

We went back to the hotel, and we had a glass or two.

And I was just like, "Bloody hell."

Me and my friend looked at each other. "Bloody hell, what's going on?"

I remember thinking,

"Man, your life is changing now."

"It's like, boom. It's just..."

"You're gonna have a lot of money."

I've won the jackpot.

Graham starts talking about large volumes of money,

and that this money would change not just his life and our lives,

but also would be, you know, generational wealth.

It was amazing, the thought, as a father,

that your family didn't have to worry.

Not having to worry about money? Tell me anyone who wouldn't think that.

And you're gonna help people. How you can better the planet.

How you can get rid of the palm oil farms that she has

and change them for something else, like clean energy.

Because you got the money to do it.

It's fucking nuts, innit.

Excuse my language.

I'm in London. Graham's in Switzerland.

And one day, I'm looking through our accounts,

and there's a substantial amount of money

that has been transferred into Graham's name.

I confront Graham about this

and find out that this money is going to Dionne.

She needed money because she couldn't get money out of her bank

because of COVID.

During her stay at one of the London hotels, um,

we were having lunch, and, um, my mum leans into me

and asks me if we could help pay a bill

because she had difficulty transferring money because of COVID.

The payments were to pay for her hotel bill.

1,000 pounds here, 2,000 pounds here.

Five, ten. Okay, no problem.

It's gonna come back.

I paid around £20,000, £25,000.

A bit unexpected, and we're not exactly, you know, cash-rich,

but I was happy to help my mum.

You know? Hadn't seen her 45 years.

I know that she's gonna be dying soon.

My head is spinning

because Dionne presented it as... her that had been paying for everything.

Graham tells me not to worry about it.

"Everything is gonna come back to you. Stop worrying about it."

"It's gonna come back to you tenfold."

The trip to Switzerland.

is initially supposed to be four days long.

After the four days,

Graham tells me, "Oh, the paperwork wasn't ready."

"The lawyer wasn't ready. We need to stay for a few more days."

I'm like, "Fine, stay for a few more days."

I remember having really expensive dinners.

Really expensive dinners.

Eating caviar.

Eating really expensive food every single day.

Having a bottle of wine of $350, $400 easily.

Like... like water, you know?

"Bring me another bottle. Bring me another bottle."

She start to mention to me that, "Now you are part of my family."

"Because if my son

is your best friend,

you are part of my family."

"So you are my grandson."

So she start to call me "grandson."

So I start to call her "grandma."

She said to Graham,

"Son, how much money I give to your friend?"

And Graham looked at her and said, "I don't know, 3.5? Four?"

"Three-point-five what?"

"Millions, man."

"And tomorrow, we're gonna look for houses for you,

and I gonna buy a house for you."

So I left the hotel a little bit drunk,

and my life may change a little bit after tonight.

We went to a few houses. They were really expensive houses.

It was exciting, but at the same time,

I never saw myself living in those houses.

It's-- it's way too much.

I said to her,

"How can I maintain this massive, expensive house?"

"I don't have the money for that."

"It's okay. I really appreciate your help, but no."

She said, "I'm not gonna give you 3.5, I'm gonna give you 7 million."

But she's explaining to me she didn't have the money there to buy the house.

She was waiting to get that money coming from somewhere in Asia,

to Switzerland,

to make the payment of the house.

So we had to wait a little bit.

Yeah, you can't make it today, you make it tomorrow. You try hard.

But then something happened.

Graham went to the toilet,

and I was left alone with her at the table.

And she said,

"I always help people. I always help."

"In order to help you, you need to give me something."

"I need something from you."

And I was like, "What is she talking about?"

"I need some money from you."

"But don't tell anything to Graham."

"This is between you and me."

And, of course, I told her,

"I don't have money today to give you. I don't have..."

"I'm a normal person, been living a normal life."

"I'm not that rich, so..."

"I'm sorry, but I cannot give you anything."

So that thing, for me,

rang the bell.

And I start to think something

smells here.

Ooh! I have to think first.

When are you gonna think?

When you get gray hair like this?

It's too bloody late, isn't it?

Yeah.

I didn't want to say anything to Graham

because I was talking about his mother, and he was so happy about that.

If I say something negative about his mother,

it will break my relationship with Graham.

His mother was dying.

And his mother wanted to be with him.

And for Graham, that was more important than anything else.

These "few more days"

became more days and more days.

I'm in a house by myself.

No family support, first baby.

You know, I was going to my neighbor to get my neighbor to go and buy milk

and stuff from the supermarket.

As a father, you want to be with your family.

However, hadn't actually signed any paperwork,

which was the entire reason for us going out there.

My mum, she's still in meetings with the banker and the lawyer.

And she's pushing for me to stay.

So I'm thinking,

"I can't leave her to go back

because she's gonna be gone soon."

I was going to the hotel every two days, I would say.

I will try to see what's going on.

It was not just Graham, myself, and Dionne.

I met so many people in the hotel.

The first thing was, I didn't see her, I heard her.

I heard a voice in the background saying,

"Young man!"

You know, and I turned around, and I saw this lady

that kept looking at my partner because my partner, she's Chinese.

The first question she asked me is,

"What's your business?"

And I was-- Oh, I was quite shocked because, you know,

I saw this maybe 80-year-old lady,

and she was asking me what's my business.

And I said, "My financier says I'm a filmmaker."

I'm just a human that's interested in life.

It's the reason why we were in Zurich.

We were looking for investment for our startup.

So think about it like a small Amazon.

It's a marketplace

to sell high-end products.

She seemed very intrigued.

She said, "I want you to talk to my lawyer."

She had her lawyer from a very good law firm

come almost daily.

There's her banker from a major Swiss bank.

She came across as a very wealthy person.

And she made a point for you to know it.

She said, "You know, I'm an illegitimate child

by the Sultan of Brunei."

I've met crazier stories, so this is nothing.

The lawyer checked the deal,

and she signed the papers.

Okay, here's the contract.

She was basically buying 20% of our company shares.

So 2.5 million Swiss franc for 20% of the company.

Then she said, "Well, now you have an investor."

She was really engaging.

Charming.

Witty.

It was fun.

And she was calling my partner her granddaughter.

So it became a personal journey for us.

And then she said, "Grandson."

That was my name. "Grandson."

"Can you get me 2,000 euros?"

She was having problems getting money

because of COVID and transferring the accounts, and this and that.

I said, "Sure, yeah, no problem."

Put back. Here.

- Thank you very much. - You tell the lady...

She was gonna be our investor.

And in Asian cultures,

there is definitely this tradition of gifting.

There is this obligation that whenever you receive something, you give something.

She just said, "Let's go outside and go shopping."

We bought her warm boots.

Hats.

Handbags.

Dresses.

She was trying on a coat.

I think it was 8,000 or something.

And she said, "Oh! Oh, how I love that coat."

And then I ended up paying for it.

We bought her champagnes. A lot of champagnes.

Oh my God, our champagne bill must be, alone, 10,000.

She said, "Don't you tell Graham."

I was not allowed to tell Graham because she didn't want her son to know

that his wealthy mum that finally rekindled with him

maybe had problems getting enough money in the moment.

So I had promised her by my heart that I would not tell Graham anything.

I'm becoming increasingly concerned

about what is happening over there.

The contracts that Dionne talks about, the money that Dionne talks about...

None of it is actually happening.

It's all just talked about.

And the more I was questioning Dionne,

the more

Dionne was trying to push me out and try to get me out of the picture.

She would speak to you with just this intensity

that you've never felt from anyone.

She was exposing this fun, happy,

"Let's go party, let's have a good time" persona to Graham.

And then there's this really deep, nasty undercurrent

which is coming in underneath towards me.

And Graham doesn't see that.

If I go upstairs and you fall, smack your head and never wake up,

I'm in big trouble.

I was starting to get very worried

because, some days, she just lies on the sofa and does not move.

Gaunt and, uh, white,

with all the life sucked out of her.

I would ask, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Let's go and see a doctor."

"What type of medication do you need?" She has a big bag of medication.

She goes, "You know what?"

"I've just had it. Let's just finish it now."

And she'll get up on the balcony, and you have to physically drag her down.

This can be one, two o'clock in the morning,

and then you're just sitting there, anxious.

"Am I gonna come home and find her dead somewhere?"

"Or is she gonna do something during the middle of the night?"

As it got closer and closer to Christmas,

Graham was telling me that she

effectively was refusing to let him come home.

It was the first Christmas with our son, and he was three months old.

And for me, that was so important that Graham was there.

I'm gonna be back for Christmas. I had to fight to get back for Christmas.

I've made a promise to Heather that I'll be back.

Graham got back in the evening of Christmas Eve.

And he called me up that morning and said, "I'm coming home today."

Which I was very relieved about.

And on the night that I left, I received a load of messages.

Images of how she's devastated,

of a lady destroyed that her son had left her.

And she's full of tears.

But at the same time, I'm back.

I was ecstatic, obviously, to see my son and Heather.

He'd grown so much in the two months.

I made Christmas lunch.

I thought it was a pretty, pretty good time, you know?

I had-- You know, good time with them. Christmas Day and everything.

Christmas was the worst Christmas I ever had in my life

because we had

a huge argument at 4:00 a.m. about Dionne.

And it was me saying to Graham, "This is not okay."

"You've disappeared for two months."

"And now you rock up last minute like nothing's happened."

Heather tried to point out that there was a wedge being driven between us.

And I said... "You're mad."

I needed to just

allow them to love each other.

You miss your mum?

Good.

Graham and I had wanted to come back to New Zealand,

to introduce the baby to my family and my parents.

So I'm trying to book us tickets, and...

Dionne is trying to convince Graham that he can't go

because she's gonna die in this period.

The trip to New Zealand was for six weeks,

end of January, which is six months after my mother told me

that she had this diagnosis.

Effectively, time was up for her.

And she made it very clear

that the doctors had now given her weeks or days to live.

Graham was really upset.

Emotionally all over the place at this point

because he's convinced that she's going to die.

It's a moral dilemma, isn't it? Do what's right and true

and be by your partner and your child,

or what's right and true,

and to see your mum enjoy the rest of her last days

after a 45-year absence.

Which way do you go?

Which way?

He doesn't want to not be there for her.

And so he decides that he won't come to New Zealand.

Could I really go to New Zealand and run the risk that I didn't get back

to see the passing of my mother?

I was absolutely

distraught

because I needed to get out of there, I needed space. And-- and I was so...

I just-- I needed to see my family

and to be around people that loved me at that point.

Good morning, my darling.

I'm fine. I know whose voice is that.

I came back from a short trip with Junyan,

and then suddenly, there was this guy.

Chinese guy, Peng.

She said, "Oh, grandson, granddaughter,

I have to discuss a business with this Peng."

I'm Peng.

I'm from China.

I'm living in Germany for many years.

Peng had a business associate that connected him with Dionne,

with the idea that Dionne could invest in her business.

She will give my business associate 60 million

for the total investment to expand her business.

But in Southeast Asian countries, you don't only take.

Peng was a middleman representing a medical company

that specialize in treating cancers.

He could help her get treated

and also help get the company financed.

So my business associate offered Dionne

a free cutting-edge cancer treatment,

which is only available in Switzerland.

This treatment will be completely free.

Dionne said, "I don't want that treatment. I'm dying."

"There's no point for me."

"But he could give some money."

She spoke about how she will redistribute that money

to people in need,

that this flow of money would actually benefit someone.

We gave, total,

um, 50,000 US dollars.

She wanted it delivered by cash.

Thank you, darling!

She comes back to the UK,

and she takes an apartment right on the river.

Floor-to-ceiling aspect of Tower Bridge.

When she came back to London,

Mother was paying for everything.

Every day, she has a call with the banker,

and every day, she has a call with the lawyer,

making sure that she got what she needed to get done.

- What's record on this? - You just follow.

- Is that it? All record? - That's it.

Okay, we're out. We're out, we're out.

Whilst we were living in this apartment, I had a couple of friends over.

Old friends from my childhood.

The River Thames.

Tower of London.

Look through there.

The most amazing apartment.

Thank you, sweetheart!

I adore you.

Very, very, very, very...

Dionne was great fun, you know?

She was very, very, very friendly. Quite charismatic, actually. She was--

Similar characteristics of Graham, really.

Just very easy, very warm, and a big smile.

I met Graham when I was in my teenage years,

probably around 14, 15 years old.

Busted.

He enjoyed being out, and I know why he enjoyed being out.

Because it was no fun being at home.

I never met his dad, but I knew he drunk a lot.

He had a difficult upbringing.

His dad was very abusive.

His key driver for becoming a chef

was to sort of get out of that environment.

Being a chef was a place where he had a roof over his head,

it was warm, and he had access to food.

My childhood was a little problematic at times.

Um, there was a lot of alcohol

from one of the family members,

and I still carry the scars today.

It's there.

I was seven years old, and I dropped a cup of tea,

so I had my head stamped on.

Look, my father

wasn't a nice man.

I don't really think about him.

The last time I saw him,

I was 18 years old, and I was knocking him down.

That's what it says about what I think about him.

I think Graham had a lot of unprocessed trauma.

One of the things I tend to do is instantly love.

I leave myself too open.

He was trying to kind of make up for all that trauma

that he'd been through.

And Graham very much fell into that trap of

wanting his mother's love

and doing anything to get that love back.

While I'm in New Zealand, it becomes very apparent

that it's a lot worse than I thought it was.

I found out that he'd set up

other credit cards in his own name

that his mother had requested him to set up,

and had been accruing debts

that I didn't know about.

This is the point that I realized that Graham has been fully manipulated.

When I was in Zurich before Christmas,

we were staying in this suite in a five-star hotel.

They presented her with a bill, and I...

I nearly fell off my chair

because it was like £25,000-£30,000, and I was like, "Bloody hell."

And she said, "I'm just having trouble getting my funds."

"I'll get some funds."

Um... so I thought, "Okay, fine."

But then they kept asking. I said, "Look, I can lend you some money."

In Zurich, I'd spent, um, 15 to 20,000.

In London, I'd spent £20,000 on hotel bills.

When she came back to London,

we did another £10-15,000 on entertainment and bills for her.

Total amounts on credit cards? About 20, 25.

At that point, I'm about £80,000 or £100,000 down.

The next month,

I see

two large transactions coming out of Graham and mine joint account

as payments for these cars.

And I confront Graham,

and I'm like, "What the hell is this?"

"Why are there car payments coming out for these cars

that you've told me have been bought outright?"

Dionne presented that these cars were a gift.

And clearly, Graham's been completely fooled by this.

"I'm gonna buy you a present. I'm gonna take away 45 years of pain."

Those were her exact words.

Why would I not believe her?

If I was just coming into a family,

I wouldn't want to pay outright to somebody I'd just met,

in case they turn into a bit of a douche.

She paid the deposit to get the contract.

I'll put it in my name, and she'll pay. And that's what she was doing.

She was paying for that car.

She was paying for that car.

I didn't pay for that car. She was paying for that car.

But then, all of a sudden, she stops paying for the cars.

I realize that the cars haven't been purchased,

and I realize that there's now this agreement in place

that he's liable for these cars.

How much for, do you think?

I would say upwards of...

180k.

Nearly £300,000 of card debt.

I'm so fucking angry.

Um... I'm feeling very

scared.

You start to become very, very afraid of who this woman is

and how deeply entrenched she is in your partner,

and how much control that she now has over him.

I think I was

realizing that I was

essentially on a train heading for a train wreck,

and I need to save Graham.

I realized that I'm not enough to save Graham.

And I felt like

Juan would be supportive

and could potentially see what I was seeing.

This is a scam.

She told me that

she didn't trust Dionne at all.

That she think that she's actually a scammer.

And I told her, "I think... I think that too."

"I really don't trust her."

He was so desperate to have his mother next to him.

Dionne knew that, and she took advantage of that.

Once she stopped paying for the cars, it's incredibly stressful.

We're talking thousands of pounds a month

on these vehicles.

But she's there telling me that I don't need to worry.

They were gifts.

They would be paid.

I was reassured by the fact that she's always on the phone

having conversations with her banker and with the lawyer.

And that's literally all I ever see her do.

There was concern about the situation.

He will lose all his money

and lose his friends, family.

Everyone.

Lose everything.

I knew it was gonna be catastrophic.

And I felt very powerless.

It's almost like a form of hypnotism,

where he's not seeing things in a rational, clear way anymore.

She calls me up and says, "You know Graham,

he doesn't take care of me."

"He just wants my money."

"If I die, he doesn't care."

At one point, she started to become,

I would say, quite nasty about Graham

and accusing him a lot of things.

Dionne claimed that Graham had emptied her bank account

and spent all of her money

as other accounts was already handed over to the lawyers.

I feel terribly sorry for Dionne.

She's an old lady in wheelchair.

Eighty-five years old.

Suffering from three different kinds of cancer.

So I gave another 10,000

to Grandma.

I-- I do call her Grandma.

Thank you, sweetheart. Bye-bye!

Emotionally, I realize I need to try to get my partner back,

and I need to convince him,

and I need concrete evidence to present to him

to make him realize what's going on.

I need to fight back against Dionne and not allow her to get away with it,

'cause she needs to be stopped.

So I start researching Dionne.

I want to know more about who she is

and perhaps find out what her real motives are

and what her intentions are.

And it became pretty apparent

that she'd used so many different names over the years,

that it was really hard to actually track her

or find evidence.

But I eventually came across her marriage records.

So the first being in 1970.

The second in 1984.

And then a third in 1994.

So what's really odd here

is that on her first certificate,

she's recorded her date of birth as 1940.

But on her next marriage certificate,

she's recorded herself as being 34 years of age in 1984,

which would make her birth 1950.

So she's already lost ten years of age

by the time she gets to her second marriage.

Dionne has different fathers recorded on each of these certificates.

In 1970, her father's name is Mahmud.

And it doesn't give any other details.

In 1984,

she's got Antonio Lerres, who's deceased, as her father.

1994,

her father's name is Ising William.

And he's also deceased.

And she's listed his occupation as a violinist.

She's never mentioned having a father that was a violinist.

Like, it makes you realize,

if these lies are all over these official documents,

what other lies is she telling us?

Her background is a lie. Her family is a lie.

What else is a lie?

Graham was so brainwashed

that he couldn't listen to Heather anymore.

And she asked me if I can help her to get Graham to see what's going on.

I said,

"Count on me, of course."

They came back to Switzerland,

and I thought this is the time to really speak with him alone.

I arrived late.

Dionne was in the restaurant.

So we went to the lobby of the hotel, and we drink a bottle of wine.

And I said, "Give me another bottle of wine."

"I need him to be relaxed."

So we had two bottles of wine.

I didn't mention to Graham that I was in contact with Heather

because he will be upset, and he will not listen to me anymore.

It was really difficult because he was convinced 100%

that his mother was legit,

was a rich person, dying soon, that everything was true.

For me, was really challenging

because I had to start to question this to Graham.

We were having a glass of wine.

He's like, "You'd better be careful. Your mum is..."

"She's lying, and this is what we see as friends."

Why she keep promising you

that she will have some money, and the money's not coming?

Why she keep saying that she's dying soon?

She is better than every one of us.

And I told him everything I thought about his mother.

And he told me his need for me to refind myself

and to "snap out of this almost trance that you're under."

I was, like, hoping that it's not true.

It can't be true. It can't be that you came in and...

after 45 years, and lied about everything.

You're not ignoring the evidence. You are questioning everything again.

So, I go back to her suite.

I snoop around and open up a drawer,

and there's a little pot of red food coloring.

I'm like, "Why do you have red food coloring?"

Takes me back to months before,

when I received a picture

of blood in urine.

I was like, "What..."

"Why do you have red food coloring?"

She said it's some Chinese medicine.

You eat it and do this and that with it.

We googled the medication that she's on.

So... but most of those were for hypertension,

cholesterol, diabetes.

Everything but...

Everything but cancer.

In my mind, there is no cancer.

She...

lied.

And I made life-changing decisions based on that.

I've made choices which have affected

my son, my partner.

And I realized I was drowning in debt.

Is my grandfather

really the previous Sultan of Brunei?

- Yes. - He is?

- Yes. - And you believe that?

Yes.

So my uncle is the current Sultan of Brunei?

Yes.

You're the daughter of the Sultan of Brunei

and one of the richest people in the world?

I hope it's all true because if it's not,

and I'm left in this position after meeting with you, Mum, well, then--

Okay, Mum.

Bye.

The walls are closing in.

You have no cash. You have no support.

You have no way out.

It's a dark, dark place.

It's all-encompassing. It really is.

You don't know what to do, honestly. You don't know what to do.

I contact Action Fraud in the UK

because I know there's a way that you can register someone

as a vulnerable person if they're being financially manipulated.

I also go to the police at that point, and I'm very quickly told that

it won't be seen as a fraud because she's his mother.

I was told, "She's an 80-year-old woman."

"We don't really see these kinds of crimes."

"Are you sure it's his mother?"

Dionne doesn't conform to your typical criminal.

She's wheelchair-bound. She's in her eighties.

She supposedly has a terminal illness.

She is overweight and in ill health.

And none of these things sort of pointed to her being a criminal.

Ten months after I gave Dionne the money,

there is still no progress in the investment.

My anxiety is to the limit.

I'm thinking, "Did Dionne trick me?"

I start to write directly

to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brunei.

And they replied, "To Embassy's knowledge,

there is no person named Dionne Marie Hanna

or Theresa Haton Mahamud

as stated in your email who is related to Brunei royal family."

"We therefore regret to inform

that we are unable to provide any assistance in this matter."

Which indicates

Dionne has

no connections whatsoever

to the royal family.

So all her stories is fake by the officials.

Everything could turn out to be a scam.

Worst-case scenario,

everything is gone,

and I will never get my money back.

I'm deeply in debt.

Felt like being pressed into water.

And you can't breathe.

There is a strong hand pushing your head down

at this-- the moment before you are about to drown.

I raised the pressure on her.

I'm asking her directly,

"When are you giving us the money back?"

The reply from her,

"I will not ever forget what you done for me."

I made up my mind to reach out very first time to Graham.

"You do know she gets money from me."

"I have given a huge amount to her."

Bottom line's 150,000 euros.

Graham freak out.

Freak out at that time.

When Peng told me that he'd actually been lending her money,

I was like, you know,

"So essentially, it's your money that we've been using in London."

Which actually made me feel very sick.

I-- I feel sick.

So I said, "Graham, I don't think you're a bad man,

bad person at all."

"Why I heard so many negative things about you?"

"And, uh, why is so many things she talked to me,

talked to other people and said, 'Don't tell Graham'?"

"Don't tell Graham."

"Don't tell Graham" is a phrase that I've heard a lot.

The realization kicks in

that this woman is not who she says she is.

Because of a cellular-level need for acceptance and for a mother,

I have been played.

She's a master manipulator.

She's not ill. She doesn't have money.

She's a con artist.

His friends were putting more and more pressure on him of,

"Where's the proof that she is actually your mum?"

"There's a whole bunch of lies here."

"You know, where is your concrete evidence that she is your biological mother?"

I'd asked to have a DNA test on meeting her.

"So let's do a DNA test."

"Oh no, no, there's no need to do a DNA test."

"You believe me, or you don't believe me."

I mean, nothing that she said before has been true.

So the only way to find out for sure is to have a DNA test.

The day that we gave the sample, we were sitting in this five-star hotel.

Two sets of swabs.

We put those into the vials.

We were told that it could take weeks to get the results.

A part of me didn't want to be related, obviously.

Because why would one of my family members be like this?

So here we have, uh, my results.

It says that,

"I am unequivocally,

99.9%

the...

biological son of one

Ms. Dionne Marie Hanna."

She is my mum.

This is the hardest thing to understand.

The hardest thing to understand.

Why'd you do it to your son?

Around the time of the DNA test

was the last time that I saw her.

There is suddenly no messages.

No calls.

She cut all her connections.

A year after signing the contract, I still got no money.

No commitment.

No communication.

Dionne kind of had disappeared.

I was talking with Junyan and saying, "We've spent a lot of money."

"More than 100,000."

"But we write it off as a loss."

Just, you know, it's a survival mode. You just let go, and you move forward.

I invested a lot of my energy,

time, and love, in a way.

But it has taught me a great lesson.

To see reality exactly as it is.

Not wishful thinking.

Hi, Mum. Just wanted to know you're okay,

and, you know, I know...

you've done what you've done.

It's cost me, it's cost my family, it's cost everybody.

But what can I do?

It's done, isn't it?

I've just got to pick up the pieces.

And you've gone again, so...

What can I do?

Gone...

again.

Singapore, Semarang,

Indonesia, Brunei, wherever you are.

Maybe one day you can explain to me why.

Maybe not.

I'll never really understand, Mum.

You take care of yourself, Mum.

I knew her for

just over a year.

I call Mum

"Dionne" now

because no mum

should, uh, come into someone's life and do that.

So best to, um...

Best to stop calling her "Mum."

It goes against everything

you think a mother should do.

Caring and loving and protecting a child, and...

she didn't do any of that.

And she effectively destroyed her child's life.

With no remorse.

Who-- who is this woman?

I'm on Google

for hours on end every day, trying to find information about her.

I was working in this very luxurious five-star hotel in Zurich...

I started to reach out to other people

to try and understand the bigger picture as well.

She actually left a set of diamond rings to the hotel

because she did not pay for her room,

to then find out they weren't even real diamonds.

As I started talking to people, I started to realize that Dionne's scam

was much bigger than just Graham and myself.

I think up until that point,

I just sort of thought her behavior was solely directed at Graham.

But the more people I spoke to,

the bigger and bigger this kind of crime started to become.

Can you tell me how much money you lost to Dionne?

At least 627 million rupiah.

- Wow. - Forty-one thousand.

Forty-one thousand dollars?

- Yeah. - Wow.

My wife and I treat her like our mother.

Our own mother.

Can you tell me when was this happening? When did you meet Dionne?

January 2020.

All right. In Indonesia?

Indonesia, yeah.

She was doing the same thing to you right before she met us.

Initially, she was paying for everything herself.

Forty-one thousand dollars.

Moving from one five-star hotel to another...

We were like, "Wow, okay, this woman, she's obviously quite wealthy."

The other victim is

mostly Muslim in Indonesia

who want to go for hajj.

So Dionne is telling people that she's going to offer them

a cheaper visit to hajj...

- For the Muslim celebration. - Yeah, yeah.

It is all bullshit.

I was one of the people who paid of this trip,

but she never provided the trip.

And I'm worried the same thing happened to

hundreds of people being scammed.

She-- she really is a piece of work. I mean...

You have to wonder why? Why did she have to come into our lives?

When I first met Mum, she had a first-class return ticket.

It had been used prior to lockdown to come into the UK via Bangkok.

I didn't realize at the time, but she was due to go back

two weeks after the start of lockdown.

So the only things I can draw from there is,

if lockdown hadn't have happened, probably would never have met her.

She was a scammer.

But there's no transient tourists coming in and out.

High-net-worth families, whatever. There's no way to make a living.

So what do you do?

You go on the internet, you find your son.

Very easy that way.

She obviously told us that she had six months to live.

As a result of that, I'm gonna make decisions

solely based around her.

Making sure she has the best time that she can have within that six months.

You have to make fast decisions.

You want to have as much memory as you can within that short space of time.

She must have been doing it for years to know

all of the concierges, the head receptionists,

and the people within the hotel sectors that-- that she frequented.

So it's not like it's something that's happened overnight.

I keep researching.

Because Graham grew up without his mum,

we want to know where she actually has been during that period.

So this is dated 1982.

"Dionne Hornigold, 41 years of age, of no fixed address,

pleaded guilty to four charges

of obtaining cash and jewelry by deception."

You know, it goes on to say that she presented herself

as a woman of considerable means and wealth,

and that she was defrauding people by making promises that she couldn't keep.

Forty years ago, she's doing the same thing.

Graham would have been eight years old at this time.

"The judge jailed Hornigold for two years,

but suspended eight months of the sentence."

"The court heard that Hornigold, who was born in Malaysia,

came to United Kingdom in 1971."

"She was fined for three shoplifting offenses

in February 1980,

and in September that year, she was given an 18-month prison sentence,

suspended for two years after admitting offenses

of obtaining property by deception."

Oof. God, I wish I heard this before.

I wanted to know who my mum was.

This is who she is, and who she has been all of her life.

I've been sideswiped by a seasoned pro.

Just happens to be my mother.

What's going on? Where are you?

Really?

Yeah, it was kind of life-changing, Mum.

You take care, yeah? I need to go.

No more bullshit.

Those days are done.

It's time to move on.

The year that I had with my mum

took an enormous toll on my relationship with Heather.

There was a point where I was hoping to reconcile with Graham.

But a lot later, when things had sort of settled down,

Graham and I had come to the conclusion that I wasn't coming back.

You become a mum, and your child becomes your priority.

And you've got to give them the best life that you can.

I miss them every day.

But he's happy.

He has stability, and he has family that loves him.

As painful as it is,

as stressful as it's been,

I've put my life back together.

I've realized that you can recover,

dust yourself off, and keep going.

You do have to have the closest of friends around

which act like your family.

Gently, gently, gently, gently, gently.

For me, that happens to be from the kitchen.

These are the people who helped me

through the most difficult time of my life.

Juan, he was such a good friend.

When it's all been at its ugliest, they were around.

I knew you could cook.

And that's what you call family.