From Longed-for Reunion to Shattering Betrayal: The Shocking Truth of Con Mum

Graham Hornigold harbored the hope that the woman he referred to as Dionne Marie Hanna, was not actually his biological mother.

Since the renowned pastry chef was so caught up in joy over his mother’s discovery after 40 years since being placed in foster care at just 2 years old, he failed to realize that other aspects of his life were falling apart around him.

In my recent exploration of intriguing tales as a lifestyle expert, I’ve come across an enigmatic story revealed in the Netflix documentary titled “Con Mum”. After establishing contact less than a year ago, Graham found himself in a financial predicament, owing more than £300,000. As he delved deeper into this complex narrative, he began to question the true identity of this woman and ponder about the kind of individual who could be accused of such alleged actions towards her own son.

According to Graham and others who claim to have been deceived, the person known as Dionne persuaded them to hand over significant amounts of money by posing as a princess from Brunei who was struggling to tap into her massive fortune.

In the book “Con Mum“, Graham expressed, “You think she’s telling the truth about her identity, but she’s actually ruining lives.

At the moment, I don’t have Dionne’s contact details readily. During a subsequent video conversation after the events portrayed in the documentary, she mentioned that she was residing in Malaysia. As the film doesn’t provide a definitive answer, it seems that Dionne has been known by various names throughout her life, as suggested by marriage records and news articles discussed within the documentary.

According to Mum’s statement, Dionne failed to address inquiries regarding comments. Heather mentioned in the document that the police suggested it would be improbable for Dionne to face charges concerning any funds given by Graham to her, as she was his mother.

Here is Graham’s story about what happened when he finally met the mum he spent decades missing:

Graham Hornigold, aged 48, is a well-known pastry chef based in the U.K., sharing this recognition with Heather Kaniuk as co-founders of the donut chain Longboys. With multiple outlets across London, they have also established Smart Patisserie Ltd., a partnership focused on pastry and hospitality consulting.

You might recognize him from TV appearances: In the past, Graham served as a judge for two seasons of ‘Junior Bake Off’, and he also made a guest appearance on ‘Top Chef: World All Stars’ on Bravo in 2022.

Graham and Heather, a woman from New Zealand, have a child who was born in September 2020 – the name hasn’t been revealed and their faces are blurred in the Netflix documentary Con Mum. On his Instagram profile, his first job title is “Father.

According to what was documented, Graham was born on a British military base in Germany when he was just two years old. After that, he was placed in foster care. Two years later, his father and stepmother relocated him to St Albans, England, where he spent his childhood and obtained his first bakery job at the age of 14, which involved sweeping floors and stacking bread.

Graham said he was 18 the last time he saw his dad.

Even though Graham achieved much personal and professional success throughout his life, he often felt a sense of emptiness or lack, as if there were still something vital missing from his existence.

“Obviously, it was quite painful,” he said in the doc, “not knowing your mother.”

They managed to locate Graham’s birth certificate, which revealed that his father was a saper (a member of the British Army’s Royal Corps of Engineers), and his mother was Theresa Hornigold (formerly Mahamud).

For a while, they searched for Theresa, as stated in the document by Heather, but eventually stopped the search after about three months. Not long after that, according to Graham’s recollection, they discovered they were expecting a child.

In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, London was placed under lockdown. However, the time spent together at home was cherished, with Graham referring to it as “the most memorable period in our relationship.

Then, he mentioned receiving an unexpected email, as documented, from a lady claiming to be Graham’s mother, Dionne.

In her email, it was stated that she gave birth to a child in Germany, but he was then taken away from her and transported to England. She continued by saying that if the details make sense to you (Graham) and you are the person Dionne has been searching for, she would be delighted to hear back from you. If not, she expressed her apologies.

In questioning Dionne to verify her authenticity, Graham cleverly inquired about details he knew only someone genuinely familiar with him would know. Notably, he did not ask for Dionne’s knowledge of his middle name, a fact he doesn’t have, thereby avoiding the deceitful ploy of questioning it.

When Graham and Heather ultimately agreed to Dionne’s invitation to visit her in Liverpool, Graham expressed in the documentary, “Upon first meeting her, I didn’t feel like an infant, but rather as if I were someone’s cherished baby, if you understand my meaning.

From the recollections of Graham and Heather, it’s clear that Dionne and Graham were instantly compatible. They shared a striking resemblance, exhibited similar behaviors, and forged an immediate bond between them. This was noted in their documentation.

A day following their joyous meeting, Graham learned from Dionne that she was battling both a brain tumor and bone marrow cancer, with only six months left to live.

In the book “Con Mum“, it’s mentioned that Dionne regularly stayed at luxurious hotels in London, where the employees recognized her personally. She amassed large bills by ordering premium champagnes and caviar, according to Graham.

Graham elaborated that Dionne described herself as a prosperous entrepreneur residing in Singapore, who owned fruit farms in Indonesia and palm oil plantations in both Indonesia and Malaysia, her native country. She was frequently conversing on the phone in approximately 18 different languages, he mentioned, and she demonstrated videos of her providing sustenance to impoverished communities in distant locations she often visited.

Graham mentioned that Dionne shared with him her two main sources of affluence: Her business skills and the fact that she is an illegitimate offspring of a previous Sultan of Brunei.

He strongly agreed with this, as he mentioned, and his belief was further solidified when they visited The Dorchester in London, a hotel known to be owned by the Brunei Investment Agency (also referred to as the royal family). It seemed everyone there recognized her.

After four and a half decades, Dionne suggested it was long overdue for me to receive a gift, and so I did, choosing a Land Rover together. Eager to ensure Heather didn’t feel neglected, Dionne also picked out a BMW for her daughter-in-law.

Shortly after Heather and Graham became parents, Dionne requested that Graham accompany her to Zurich to handle urgent financial affairs prior to her passing. This is what they discussed in the documentation.

While Graham and Dionne were away in Zurich for an extended period (beyond a few days), Heather, who was taking care of a newborn at home, began feeling uneasy as the trip duration prolonged and crucial documents regarding Dionne’s matters remained unsigned.

Later on, Heather mentioned that while going over the accounts, she spotted a significant sum being transferred into Graham’s name.

In an unexpected twist, as per Graham’s revelation, Dionne had asked for my assistance with her £20,000 hotel bill in London before our trip to Switzerland. The reason, he mentioned, was a problem with transferring money due to the ongoing pandemic. As I wrote in the document, “We may not be swimming in cash, but helping my mom was never a question, you understand?

Heather mentioned in the show “Con Mum” that she believed Dionne was personally handling her own expenses. When she inquired about the money Graham had used to settle Dionne’s bills, he eased her concerns by saying, “Don’t worry, it will be repaid many times over.

In the documentary Con Mum, Dionne – whose voice and image have been captured through mobile video recordings, photographs, and audio clips – is heard saying to Graham, “I’ve been borrowing money from you because we are family…I hold you very dear.

Graham managed to return to London just in time for Christmas, as Heather mentioned in her notes. He found himself caught between his desire to be with his terminally ill mother and his need to support his partner and newborn baby. It was on the night of December 24th that he finally arrived back.

As I delved deeper into my conversations with Dionne, it seemed as though she was growing increasingly eager to distance herself from me and exclude me from the situation. This dynamic, unfortunately, went unnoticed by Graham, who failed to recognize the subtle yet hostile undertones in Dionne’s behavior towards me.

Heather said it ended up being “the worst Christmas I ever had in my life.”

Originally, they had planned to travel to New Zealand so that Heather could introduce their child to her family. However, Graham eventually expressed that he wouldn’t be able to go because he couldn’t leave Dionne and potentially miss seeing his mother during her final moments.

In the course of events, I came to learn that Graham had taken the step of opening credit cards under his own name, at Dionne’s behest. As for Graham, he admitted that when the hotel in Zurich presented Dionne with a bill approximating £25,000, she claimed she was encountering difficulties accessing her funds. In response, he decided to extend a loan to her. His recollection is that he had already lost between £80,000 and £100,000 by then.

Later on, Heather stated that there appeared to be two significant withdrawals from their shared account as car payments. As Graham explained, Dionne had initially made a deposit, but the cars were registered in his name alone. When she unexpectedly ceased making the monthly installments, Graham found himself responsible for approximately £300,000 for both the Land Rover and BMW, which they had believed were gifts.

Heather explained how she reported Dionne’s actions to Action Fraud UK and then the police. However, they informed her that it was improbable that Dionne’s actions would be classified as a crime since she was Graham’s mother. To clarify, Heather acknowledged that Dionne didn’t resemble a conventional criminal, being a wheelchair-bound elderly woman in poor health.

In simpler terms, as reported by The Guardian before the release of Con Mum, Graham expressed that it was a poor business choice because it’s clear where the funds are being directed and who they are intended for.

After receiving the DNA test results, he admitted, “To be honest, a part of me didn’t want to be connected to her.” (He asked Dionne for a DNA test when they first met, and she had replied, “Oh no, no, no, just trust me or don’t.”)

However, the findings in the document clearly indicated that he was almost certainly 99.9% genetically related to a woman named Ms. Dionne Marie Hannah. This fact, according to Graham, was incredibly difficult for him to comprehend.

In the show “Con Mum“, Graham was told by Dionne that she had experienced bleeding shortly after her son was born, and she also sent him a picture of red liquid in the toilet, which was later displayed in the documentary.

Several months passed in Switzerland, and upon becoming wary of Dionne, Graham claimed he discovered red food coloring in a drawer. Dionne refuted Graham’s allegations that she used the dye to fabricate blood, instead explaining it as a “traditional Chinese remedy” to him.

In the documentary, Graham mentioned that Dionne declined going to the doctor when it seemed she was in severe pain. Upon examining the bag of medication she carried, Graham stated that while some were for common conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes, none of them seemed to be cancer treatment drugs.

“In my mind,” he said, “there is no cancer.”

In addition, Dionne repeatedly asserted that Graham’s grandfather was once the ruler of Brunei, a sultan, and he emphasized this point, saying something along the lines of “Whether you choose to accept it or not, it is truthful,” as captured in a recording from the documentary.

About a year after she first re-entered his life, Dionne called Graham, saying she was in Malaysia.

In the recorded conversation, Dionne expressed her regret about the incident by saying, “What transpired is something I’m truly sorry for,” and added, “It comes from the deepest part of my heart.” She further explained, “I’ve acted as I did, and now I can’t alter it. I can’t change it, my son.

Regarding the truth of anything Dionne shared with him about her life, Graham stated to The Guardian, “One can ponder, but in the end, one cannot be certain, right?

According to him, it has been three years since he last communicated with her, and he currently has no idea about her current location. Meanwhile, Dionne could not be reached for a statement.

Graham and Heather ultimately split up and she lives in New Zealand with their son.

On December 31, 2024, Heather posted the first Instagram picture since September 2020, which depicted a sunny beach scene. In her profile, she remains identified as the co-founder of Longboys and Smart Patisserie.

In the documentary, Graham expressed, “I yearn for them daily, yet my son is content.” He shared that he has managed to rebuild his life. “I’ve come to understand that one can heal, pick oneself up, and move forward,” he concluded.

Graham shared with The Guardian that he frequently video calls his son and intends to meet him in person when possible. Despite being in debt, he emphasized that he doesn’t want this financial situation to prevent their relationship, stating, “I will make every effort to be a significant part of my child’s life.

As Longboys continues to flourish, I’m proudly associated with it, having been recognized as one of the 10 “most exciting pastry chefs in the U.K.” by Great British Chefs in 2024. Recently, I’ve been actively engaging on my personal and business Instagram accounts, offering glimpses into the inspiration behind our shop’s spring flavors last month. I even took time to celebrate U.K. Mother’s Day on March 30 by sharing a photo of a delightful box of donuts, captioned “Happy Mother’s Day, to all the incredible moms out there.

2025-04-12 15:18

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