I just finished watching the Netflix’s true-life documentary Con Mom and I must say I am very annoyed. Don’t get me wrong, the documentary was fantastic but the outcome for Graham Hornigold definitely put a bad taste in my mouth.
It mostly began in July of 2020, when pastry chef and co-founder of Longboys Dougnuts, Graham Hornigold, decided he wanted to find his birth mom. Graham grew up with his father who he described as not a good man. According to him, there was both physical and emotional abuse on the part of his dad and the last time he ‘spoke’ to his dad, he was 18 years old.
So one day, while Graham and his partner, Heather Kaniuk, were looking through some documents, they stumbled upon his birth certificate and that kind off kicked of the journey to see if they can find his mother. They knew he was born in Germany but very little information about his mother other than her name.
With little success in trying to find her, they slowed down and began focusing on their life. Heather would shortly find out that she is pregnant and they were both ecstatic. Shortly after, a woman named Dionne reached out to them via email saying she was looking for her son who was born in Germany.
Graham and Heather met up with her in Liverpool and it is soon established that she is his mother and she is living a very lavish lifestyle; expensive hotels, champagne, purchasing expensive designer gifts and luxury cars etc.
Dionne told Graham that she had just six months to live, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She said this was why she had reached out—wanting to reconnect before it was too late. Dionne also revealed she intended to leave him her considerable fortune, which her extravagant lifestyle certainly seemed to support.
On top of that, she claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of the former Sultan of Brunei. Now, I know—hearing all this, your first reaction might be, “Seriously?” But as Graham carefully laid out the timeline and shared how people at various locations, including banks, treated him while he was with Dionne, it became clear how convincingly she pulled him into her scheme.
“If you’re thinking, ‘No way—I’d never fall for that,’ ask yourself this: it wasn’t just Graham. Dozens of others got caught in Dionne’s web too.” There was Heather, Graham’s partner at the time, who became suspicious of Dionne’s intentions and played a crucial role in uncovering the deception. There was Juan, Graham’s friend who was residing in Zurich. Junyan and Markus, who owned a startup and Peng, who was a medical representative.
And then comes the final twist—was this woman actually Graham’s mother after all?
If you haven’t had a chance to see this documentary please find some time to watch it. It’s not only engaging and well done, it is very educational too.
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