A woman has revealed how her mother had to confess how she was conceived after a DNA test revealed a horrifying link between an ex-boyfriend and her biological father.
Victoria Hill's whole world fell apart in 2019 after she decided to delve into her heritage in the hopes of finding out about possible genetic conditions after a health scare.
Despite noticing she didn't exactly resemble her dad, Roy, and admitting she 'felt different' to her family members, she had never suspected she wasn't actually his offspring.
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So when the 23andMe results came in and revealed she had numerous half-siblings - and at her last count recently, there was 25 of them - she was left stunned.
Victoria admitted she initially thought the data was 'inaccurate' and assumed these supposed brothers and sisters were actually 'distant cousins who had been listed incorrectly'.
"Then I noticed multiple messages in my inbox," she told the Daily Mail. "'Hi, I know what you're seeing might be alarming,' read the first one, from a woman called Sarah. 'Please reach out if you want to know more'.
"I clicked on the next one. It was also from Sarah, this time asking if my parents had gone to Yale for fertility help. I froze. How on earth did she know that?"
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Although Victoria had a vague idea of how she was conceived, these results forced her to revisit this topic with her mother, Maralee - who hadn't been completely honest with her.
The Connecticut woman explained that she had been raised alongside her brother, who is eight years her senior, under the illusion that her parents had relied on fertility treatment to conceive her.
When she was 17-years-old, her mum and dad had explained they struggled to get pregnant for a second time, and so visited a clinic where Roy's sperm had been artificially inseminated into Maralee.
Victoria admits she 'never thought much of' this, until her 23andMe results changed life as she knew it for good.
She recalled how prior to sending her swabs off for testing, her mother's reaction it 'took her by surprise' as she urged Victoria: "Please don't do it. 'Don't sell your private information to some company."
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"She wouldn't let it drop," Victoria said. "I paid the £80 fee, spat in the tube provided and sent off the sample to 23andMe. I thought so little of it I didn't even mention it to my dad."
When 'Sarah' got in touch with her via the DNA testing site, she 'dropped the bombshell' that they were half-siblings, and that there were plenty more of them too.
Sarah explained that all of their mothers had also sought advice from the same fertility doctor, Burton Caldwell - and that he was their biological father.
"When the call ended, I sat in silence, utterly bewildered," Victoria said. "Surely my parents wouldn't lie to me?"
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She rushed over to her mother's flat and quizzed Maralee about the name of the fertility doctor she had, and saw 'panic flash across her face' before she went 'white as a ghost'.
"Mum admitted they hadn't used Dad's sperm but that of an anonymous donor - a medical student the clinic had supplied," Victoria explained. "They'd followed the doctor's advice not to tell me and made a pact to take the truth to their graves. By this point, we were both in tears.
"Then I realised Mum only knew half the story; she still thought my biological father was that unknown medical student."
It transpired that Dr Caldwell had used his own sperm when treating his patients - including the mother of one of her former boyfriends, who she had unknowingly engaged in incest with.
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Speaking of Maralee's reaction, she continued: "When I told her Dr Caldwell had used his own sperm, she recoiled and shook her head vigorously. He'd been her doctor for years and she trusted him.
"She didn't believe it. Instead she turned her attention on me: 'Are you upset that I never told you?' The answer was yes."
Victoria says that filling Roy in on this news was 'hard', as although he'd always known he was not her biological father, 'he was appalled by Dr Caldwell's lies', while her mother also 'struggled to come to terms with it'.
Maralee is one of four patients suing Caldwell in two separate legal actions as they allege he used his own sperm to inseminate unknowing patients.
The doctor, who died in February this year at the age of 86, faces numerous accusations including the likes of misconduct, fraud and inflicting emotional distress.
State Superior Court Judge Robin Wilson previously ordered Yale to participate by providing documents related to Caldwell from 1974 to 1984.
A Yale New Haven Health spokesperson told the Mail 'there is no evidence' of its 'involvement in the conduct alleged against Dr. Caldwell'.
Olivia Burke