Man in China discovers his 3 kids were fathered by others, wife asks 'are blood ties that important?'

After 16 years of marriage, a man in China filed for divorce from his wife as he discovered that not just one, but three of the daughters they raised together were fathered by other men.

The woman later gave birth to another girl, with another man named in hospital documents.

The series of events first transpired in February 2022, after Chen Zhixian found out that his wife, surnamed Yu, had spent the night in a hotel with a man, reported South China Morning Post.

This incident raised Chen's suspicions that their youngest daughter, born in 2018, was not his biological child, as she looked nothing like him.

He brought her for a DNA test, and his suspicions were proven right.

Following this, Chen also took the other two girls — born in 2008 and 2010 — for DNA tests.

He was not their father either. 

New evidence presented in court last December as part of Chen and Yu's divorce proceedings showed that Yu had given birth to a fourth child in November 2022, Chinese news outlets reported.

According to hospital documents, a man surnamed Wu, whom Chen suspects Yu had an affair with, was present at the girl's birth.

'China's most pitiful man'

Chen has been deemed "China's most pitiful man" by Chinese netizens due to his wife's serial adultery, reported South China Morning Post.

"No man wants to reveal this kind of humiliating experience to the public. I felt so much pain when I realised the kids are not mine," Chen was quoted as saying.

Chen said that he still does not know who the daughters' fathers are.

"I have been looking for my wife, hoping she could tell me the truth. I want to know who fathered the kids and why she covered it up from me," Chen said.

"But she is always hiding and will not talk to me," he added.

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According to a lawsuit filed by Chen, he is not only asking for Yu to take guardianship of the three girls he helped raise, but also compensation for the cost of bringing them up.

In addition, Chen is also seeking compensation for the mental anguish he has suffered.

Chen told media outlets that he still misses the three girls, but they are cold towards him now.

"I don't know who taught them to act like this. It hurts me, like rubbing salt into the wound," Chen said.

Speaking to Daxiang News about the divorce proceedings, however, Yu criticised Chen's actions.

"The kids have been calling him 'dad' for many years. It is the act of an animal to take them for a paternity test," Yu said.

"I don't think I've betrayed him. Are blood ties that important? Infertile couples believe it is fine to adopt and raise children who don't have any genetic connection with them," Yu was quoted as saying.

In a Douyin video posted in December last year, Chen said that he hopes the divorce case will conclude soon and the "immoral people" involved will be punished accordingly.

bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com