[bright string music playing]
My name's Graham Hornigold,
former group pastry chef for Hakkasan,
and now a Michelin-starred
pastry consultant.
[commentator] 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. [laughing]
-Why is there smoke everywhere, Heather?
-[Heather laughing]
[Graham] 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.
[Graham] 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.
[gentle music playing]
[woman speaking]
Why did she have to come into our lives?
[Graham] You believe
that she is who she says she is.
But she is a destroyer of lives.
[woman speaking]
[mysterious music playing]
[Graham] 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.
[melancholy music playing]
[Heather] 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.
[Graham] I have a copy
of my birth certificate.
Born on the 26th of November, 1974,
in a British military hospital in Mnster,
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.
[muffled heartbeats]
[Graham] A week or so later,
found out that we're pregnant.
And we were like, "Oh! Hallelujah!"
Heather was ecstatic, which was great.
[Heather] 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.
[gentle music playing]
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.
[Heather] 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.
[Graham whispering playfully]
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. [laughing]
[indistinct chattering]
And then, all of a sudden,
we received an email out of the blue.
[cell phone vibrates]
[Graham] 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?" [chuckles]
"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?"
[phone chimes]
[Heather reading message]
[Graham reading message]
[Heather reading message]
You're telling me I was born in Germany,
which not many people know.
[Heather] "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."
[continues reading]
Yeah.
Wow.
Wow, on reading that.
Jeez, man.
[laughs boisterously]
[exhales audibly] Yeah.
So I write back [reading]
You found my name on the internet.
That makes me just go, "Okay."
Well, let's find out what else you know.
[intriguing music playing]
[Graham] Over the next couple of weeks,
I responded with a series of questions.
"What was my middle name?"
Because I don't have one.
[keyboard clacking]
[Heather] 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.
[music fades out]
[Heather] 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.
[melodic piano music playing]
[Heather] 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?"
[Graham] 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.
[music swells]
[Heather] 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.
[hopeful orchestral music playing]
Hello, my darling.
[indistinct chattering, laughing]
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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."
[Heather] 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.
[camera shutters click]
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."
-[Dionne] His bottom here.
-Yeah.
[Dionne] 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?
-[Heather and Graham laughing]
[Heather] He's making a video.
[Graham] Smile, Mum.
-Yes, darling.
-[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Heather] 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.
[somber music playing]
[Heather] Later that evening,
Dionne sort of rented this private room.
She wanted to talk with Graham alone.
[exhales deeply]
-[interviewer] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] She had six months to live
because she had a brain tumor
and marrow bone cancer.
[Dionne speaking]
[exhales deeply]
[Dionne speaking]
[camera shutters click]
[Heather] 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."
-[seagulls squawking]
-[ethereal music playing]
[Graham] 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."
[seagulls squawking]
[Graham] It was a voyage of discovery
as well, because she gave me an insight
into who she was.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] My mum had lived in Singapore.
She told me that she's got businesses
all over the world.
[plane engine droning]
[Graham] 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.
-[Dionne] I talk to you later.
-[Graham miming words]
[Dionne] Okay?
[Graham] 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.
[Heather] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] She suggested that she comes down
to London for a couple of weeks.
She decided that she wanted
to stay in a hotel.
[clicks tongue] And
to my surprise,
she picks a five-star down by the river.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] Every day, she's ordering
the best champagnes, caviar.
All of this comes to her table.
[intriguing music playing]
[Graham] She looks very comfortable
with her surroundings.
Ready?
-[Graham laughing]
-[Dionne speaks indistinctly]
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."
[camera shutters click]
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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] I'm sitting there in awe,
going, "Wow."
"This is my mum."
[camera shutters click]
[Heather] Dionne started just buying
gift after gift for Graham.
You know, personalized suits.
Bags. Designer clothes.
[engine revs]
I've never had a decent car.
[engine running]
[Graham] When I met my mum, however
[chuckles]
"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."
[Dionne] Close that.
[man in car] Of course.
[uplifting piano music playing]
[Graham] 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."
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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."
[camera shutters clicking]
[Graham] 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
[blows raspberry, exhales heavily]
"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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] You're walking
into a life-changing moment.
[ethereal music playing]
[fetal heartbeat thumping]
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.
[hospital machine beeping]
[blows raspberry] 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."
[Heather] 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.
[scoffs] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] We read up on it,
and it's part and parcel
of the condition that she had.
[tense music playing]
So I'm like, "Christ, I've got
to deal with this as well."
[camera shutters click]
[melancholy music playing]
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] 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.
[Graham] 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.
[intriguing string music playing]
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Heather] After I gave birth,
Dionne very much changed
in her nature towards me.
[Dionne speaking]
That sense of "I've just become a mum"
was robbed from me
because there's Dionne.
[camera shutters click]
[Heather] I don't think I was allowed
to celebrate becoming a mother.
Is there something wrong?
You like Nana? Yeah.
[Graham] 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."
[mimicking baby crying]
"I'm hungry, Daddy."
[Heather chuckles]
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."
[intriguing music playing]
[Graham] 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.
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] 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.
[intriguing music continues]
[Graham] We arrived in Zurich,
and we checked into a five-star hotel.
Very plush.
Two-star Michelin restaurant, innit.
Very expensive.
Very expensive.
[Dionne speaking]
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.
[bright string music playing]
[Juan] 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
-[Juan] Kiss him!
-[people cheering]
Mama.
Mommy put it in your mouth.
-No.
-Yes.
-This is way too twee.
-[both laughing]
[laughter]
[cutlery clinking]
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.
[Juan] 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
[doors creaking]
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."
[Graham] 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?"
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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.
[intriguing music playing]
[Graham] Nice dancing, Mum.
[chuckles]
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."
[loud pop]
[Graham] I've won the jackpot.
[Heather] 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.
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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 f*cking nuts, innit.
Excuse my language. [claps hands]
[pensive music playing]
[Heather] 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.
[Heather] My head is spinning
because Dionne presented it as
her that had been paying for everything.
[camera shutters click]
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."
[camera shutters click]
[Dionne speaking]
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."
[bright string music playing]
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." [laughs]
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."
[laughs] So I start to call her "grandma."
[camera shutters click]
[Juan] 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."
[uplifting music playing]
"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.
[camera shutter clicking]
We went to a few houses.
They were really expensive houses.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Juan] 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.
[Juan] 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."
[pensive piano music playing]
"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.
[camera shutters click]
[Juan] His mother was dying.
And his mother wanted to be with him.
And for Graham, that was more important
than anything else.
[camera shutters click]
[music stops]
[Heather] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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."
[emotional orchestral music playing]
[Juan] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[man] 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.
[woman] 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."
[Markus] She was really engaging.
Charming.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Markus] Witty.
It was fun.
[Dionne singing]
[laughing]
And she was calling my partner
her granddaughter.
So it became a personal journey for us.
[humming]
And then she said, "Grandson."
That was my name. "Grandson."
"Can you get me 2,000 euros?"
[pensive music playing]
[Markus] 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.
-[staff] Thank you very much.
-[Dionne] You tell the lady
[Junyan] 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."
[Junyan] We bought her warm boots.
Hats.
[camera shutters clicking]
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.
[people laughing]
[Markus] 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.
[Heather] 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.
[somber music playing]
[Dionne speaking]
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.
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] 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?"
[Dionne speaking]
[Heather] 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.
[somber music playing]
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 [scoffs] "You're mad."
[Heather] I needed to just
allow them to love each other.
You miss your mum?
[indistinct chattering in background]
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.
[pensive, rhythmic music playing]
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] 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.
[Dionne speaking]
[Heather] Graham was really upset.
Emotionally all over the place
at this point
because he's convinced
that she's going to die.
[Graham] 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?
[Dionne speaking]
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?
[camera shutters click]
[Heather] 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.
[emotional music playing]
[Dionne] 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."
[intriguing music playing]
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.
[camera shutters click]
[Junyan] 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.
[machine beeping, whirring]
[Peng] This treatment
will be completely free.
[machine whirring]
[camera shutters click]
[Dionne speaking]
[Markus] 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.
-[camera shutters click]
-[Dionne] Thank you, darling!
[engine roaring]
[Graham] She comes back to the UK,
and she takes an apartment
right on the river.
Floor-to-ceiling aspect of Tower Bridge.
-[uplifting music playing]
-[camera shutters clicking]
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.
-[man] What's record on this?
-[Dionne] You just follow.
-[man] Is that it? All record?
-[Dionne] That's it.
[man] 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.
[man] The River Thames.
Tower of London.
Look through there.
The most amazing apartment.
-[woman] Thank you, sweetheart!
-[man laughing]
[Dionne] I adore you.
Very, very, very, very
[man] 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.
[chuckling]
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.
[Heather] He had a difficult upbringing.
His dad was very a*usive.
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.
[Graham laughing]
[Graham] 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.
[music fades to silence]
[blows air]
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.
[dishes clatter softly]
I think Graham had a lot
of unprocessed trauma.
[Graham] One of the things
I tend to do is instantly love.
I leave myself too open.
[Heather] 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.
[ethereal music playing]
[Heather] 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.
[beach goers chattering in distance]
This is the point that I realized
that Graham has been fully manipulated.
-[camera shutters click]
-[uneasy music playing]
[Graham] 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 [blows raspberry]
I nearly fell off my chair
because it was like 25,000-30,000,
and I was like, "Bloody hell."
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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.
[keyboard clacking]
[Graham] 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.
[music peaks, fades]
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.
[Graham] "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?
[mournful music playing]
[Graham] 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 d*uche.
She paid the deposit to get the contract.
[Inhales anxiously]
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.
[interviewer] How much for, do you think?
I would say upwards of
180k.
Nearly 300,000 of card debt.
[music sting]
[mournful music continues]
I'm so f*cking 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.
[night chirping]
[Heather speaking over phone]
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.
[pensive music playing]
[Heather speaking]
[camera shutters click]
[Juan] 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.
[Dionne speaking]
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.
[Juan speaking over phone]
[Juan] There was concern
about the situation.
He will lose all his money
and lose his friends, family.
Everyone.
Lose everything.
[somber music playing]
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.
[Dionne speaking]
[Markus] 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."
[Dionne speaking]
At one point, she started to become,
I would say, quite nasty about Graham
and accusing him a lot of things.
[Dionne speaking]
[Peng] 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.
[Dionne speaking in labored voice]
[Peng] I feel terribly sorry for Dionne.
She's an old lady in wheelchair.
Eighty-five years old.
Suffering from three
different kinds of cancer.
[Dionne speaking]
So I gave another 10,000
to Grandma.
I-- I do call her Grandma.
[Dionne] Thank you, sweetheart. Bye-bye!
[night chirping]
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.
[intriguing music playing]
[Heather] 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?
[camera shutters click]
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." [laughs]
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.
[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?
[Dionne speaking]
[Juan] She is better than every one of us.
And I told him everything
I thought about his mother.
[Graham] 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.
-[camera shutters click]
-[ethereal music playing]
[Graham] 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?"
[camera shutters click]
Takes me back to months before,
when I received a picture
of blood in urine.
[unsettling music playing]
I was like, "What" [scoffs]
"Why do you have red food coloring?"
[Dionne speaking]
She said it's some Chinese medicine.
You eat it and do this and that with it.
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] 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.
[music fades]
[Graham] She
lied.
And I made life-changing decisions
based on that.
I've made choices which have affected
my son, my partner.
[pensive music playing]
And I realized I was drowning in debt.
Is my grandfather
really the previous Sultan of Brunei?
-[Dionne, on phone] Yes.
-[Graham] He is?
-[Dionne] Yes.
-[Graham] And you believe that?
[Dionne] Yes.
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] So my uncle
is the current Sultan of Brunei?
[Dionne] Yes.
[Graham] You're the daughter
of the Sultan of Brunei
and one of the richest people
in the world?
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] 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--
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] Okay, Mum.
[Dionne] Bye.
-[seagulls squawking]
-[waves lapping]
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Heather] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[pensive music playing]
[Peng] 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?"
[camera shutters click]
[Peng] 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'?"
[Dionne speaking]
"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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] Because of a cellular-level need
for acceptance and for a mother,
I have been played.
[Heather] 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.
[intriguing music playing]
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?
[music swells, fades]
So here we have, uh, my results.
It says that,
"I am unequivocally,
99.9%
the
biological son of one
Ms. Dionne Marie Hanna."
[gentle piano music playing]
[Graham] She is my mum.
This is the hardest thing to understand.
The hardest thing to understand.
Why'd you do it to your son?
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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.
[Junyan] 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.
-[wistful music playing]
-[liquid spraying]
[Graham, on recording] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Heather] Who-- who is this woman?
I'm on Google
for hours on end every day,
trying to find information about her.
[woman on phone] I was working in this
very luxurious five-star hotel in Zurich
[Heather] I started to reach out
to other people
to try and understand
the bigger picture as well.
[woman] 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.
[Heather] 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.
-[Heather] Wow.
-[Agik] Forty-one thousand.
Forty-one thousand dollars?
-[Agik] 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.
[Graham's voice echoing] Initially,
she was paying for everything herself.
Forty-one thousand dollars.
[voice echoing] 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.
[Heather] So Dionne is telling people
that she's going to offer them
a cheaper visit to hajj
-For the Muslim celebration.
-[Agik] 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 [laughs incredulously]
[camera shutters click]
You have to wonder why?
Why did she have to come into our lives?
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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.
[camera shutters click]
[Graham] 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.
[mysterious music playing]
[Heather] I keep researching.
Because Graham grew up without his mum,
we want to know where
she actually has been during that period.
[music continues]
[Dionne speaking]
[Heather] 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.
[Graham] "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.
[tablet chiming]
[indistinct chattering in background]
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] What's going on? Where are you?
[Dionne speaking]
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] Really?
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] Yeah,
it was kind of life-changing, Mum.
[Dionne speaking]
[Graham] You take care, yeah?
I need to go.
[call ends]
No more bullshit.
Those days are done.
It's time to move on.
[ethereal music playing]
[Graham] The year that I had with my mum
took an enormous toll
on my relationship with Heather.
[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.
[Graham] I miss them every day.
But he's happy.
He has stability,
and he has family that loves him.
[heartwarming music playing]
[Graham] 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.
[Graham laughing]
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.
-[laughing]
-[heartwarming music continues]
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.
[man] I knew you could cook.
[chattering indistinctly, laughing]
-[Graham] And that's what you call family.
-[music peaks, fades]
[thoughtful piano music playing]
[music fades]
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Con Mum (2025)
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