Health3 min(s) read
Published 10:55 12 May 2026 GMT
The horrifying misconduct of a fertility doctor could mean a number of children have “serious” relationship issues ahead of them.
In an article for The Daily Mail, a mum-of-two revealed that she found out she was biologically related to her ex-boyfriend via a text message.
Victoria Hill received a screenshot of her profile on a DNA-testing website alongside a message that read “you are my sister” from her old flame, Ethan, in 2024.
Obviously, she was horrified by this shock revelation from her teenage sweetheart and determined to find out more.
She recalled: "I couldn't sleep for days.
"I kept having flashbacks to the special times we'd shared... it was all tainted. Of course, when we'd got together we'd had absolutely no idea we were related – or that there was even the remotest possibility we could be."
The former couple went to school together and had a sexual relationship between the ages of 17 and 18.
Although they lost contact as they grew older, Hill said: "When we bumped into each other at a friend's wedding in our mid-20s, I was struck by a wave of emotion and wondered whether we should rekindle our relationship.
"Thankfully, nothing happened, and I met my husband Ben shortly after. But things could so easily have gone the other way. What if Ethan had become my husband and father of my children? It's unthinkable. The idea that I've been intimate with my own half-brother is torturous enough."
Shortly after receiving the bombshell message, the pair discovered that their mothers had undergone fertility treatment with the same doctor.
At the time their mothers received fertility treatment, in the 1970s and 1980s, it was widely considered taboo, and specialists even advised patients to have sex immediately after the procedure, meaning they might never know who the biological father was.
Hill claims: "DNA tests weren't available then, so paternity could not be proven either way."
The doctor both Hill and Ethan’s mothers sought treatment from, Dr Burtin Caldwell, horrifyingly had used his own sperm for insemination procedures at his private clinic.
Hill explained: "It turned out he had been secretly donating his own sperm to his patients for 20 years. Not only is this morally reprehensible, flying in the face of any code of ethics, but there have been grave consequences for me, my family, and his many other offspring.
"It's a serious issue for my children, aged eight and three, too. Should they stay in the area, they will need to ask potential partners to have DNA tests to avoid unwitting incest with unknown cousins.”
