Where Is Graham Hornigold Now: The Gut-Wrenching Appropriate Legend Within the back of Netflix's Con Mum
Within the Netflix documentary Con Mum, pastry chef Graham Hornigold detailed how his existence unraveled after a lady showed up “instantly” announcing she used to be his prolonged-misplaced mother.
Graham Hornigold used to be left hoping that the girl he knew as Dionne Marie Hanna wasn't in fact his mother.
Because whereas the massive title pastry chef used to be busy being cheerful that his mother had chanced on him, more than 40 years after he used to be placed in foster care at the age of two, he hadn't seen that the relaxation of his existence used to be coming undone.
Decrease than a 12 months after they made contact, in step with the narrative that unfolds within the Netflix documentary Con Mum, Graham used to be upward of £300,000 in debt and questioning who this girl in fact used to be—and what roughly particular person would ranking what she allegedly did to her have son.
As detailed by Graham, his outdated school accomplice Heather Kaniuk and several other an excessive amount of of us that utter they had been conned, the girl they all knew as Dionne convinced them to present her noteworthy sums of cash by presenting herself as a daughter of Bruneian royalty who used to be having ache having access to her have massive wealth.
“You suspect that that she is who she says she is,” Graham said in Con Mum, “nonetheless she is a destroyer of lives.”
Contact recordsdata for Dionne wasn't genuine now available. She suggested Graham in a video name following the events alleged within the documentary that she used to be in Malaysia. (The film isn't determined on what her proper title is, as marriage certificates and newspaper clippings talked about within the doc repeat that she went by an excessive amount of names over time.)
Con Mum notes that Dionne did no longer answer to requests for bid. Heather said within the doc that police suggested her it used to be unlikely Dionne may perchance perchance also be charged with a crime over any cash Graham gave her due to she used to be his mother.
Here is Graham's narrative about what took place when he sooner or later met the mum he spent decades lacking:
Who Is Graham Hornigold?
Graham Hornigold, 48, is a notorious U.K. pastry chef and cofounder with Heather Kaniuk of the donut chain Longboys, which has several locations in London. To boot they started the pastry and hospitality consultancy Intellectual Patisserie Ltd. together.
You would ranking seen him on TV prior to as effectively: Graham served as a mediate on two seasons of Junior Bake Off and guest-starred on Bravo's Prime Chef: World All Stars in 2022.
Graham and Contemporary Zealand-born Heather part a son who used to be born in September 2020—title no longer disclosed and face blurred within the Netflix documentary Con Mum—and basically the predominant job listed on his Instagram bio is “Daddy.”
As he explained within the doc, Graham used to be born in Germany on a British Navy contemptible and went into foster care at the age of two. Two years later, his father and stepmother moved him to St Albans, England, where he grew up and purchased his first bakery job—sweeping ground and stacking bread—at 14.
Graham said he used to be 18 the final time he saw his dad.
How Did Dionne Come Into Graham Hornigold's Lifestyles?
No matter his success in existence, in my opinion and professionally, Graham always felt cherish something used to be lacking.
“Obviously, it used to be rather painful,” he said within the doc, “no longer engaging your mother.”
They tracked down his initiating certificates, which noteworthy that Graham's father used to be a sapper, a.k.a. within the British Navy’s Royal Corps of Engineers, whereas his mother used to be listed as Theresa Haton Hornigold, previously Mahamud.
They looked for Theresa for awhile, Heather said within the doc, nonetheless gave up after just a few months. And then, “every week or so later,” Graham recalled, “we chanced on out we had been pregnant.”
In March 2020, London locked down due to the the COVID-19 pandemic, nonetheless they remembered all that time spent together at dwelling fondly, Graham calling it “the exact time of our relationship.”
And then he purchased an email “instantly,” he said within the doc, from a lady figuring out herself as Graham's mum, Dionne.
She had him in Germany nonetheless he used to be taken a long way flung from her and delivered to England, she wrote within the electronic mail, as read by Graham and Heather within the doc. “If any of these [details] makes sense to you and you’re the Graham I've been having a gaze for,” Dionne wrote, “I’d prefer to hear back from you. If no longer, I ship my apologies.”
As Graham asked questions to gauge whether or no longer Dionne used to be the particular deal, she knew key necessary factors, corresponding to that he didn't ranking a heart title, no longer falling for the trick inquire of of of asking what his heart title used to be.
When Graham and Heather sooner or later accredited an invitation from Dionne to check with her in Liverpool, “The feeling I had after I first met her used to be to no longer be a baby,” Graham said within the doc, “nonetheless it definitely felt cherish I was any individual's baby, if that makes sense.”
They clicked genuine now, as remembered by Graham and Heather, who said within the doc that Dionne and Graham “looked alike, that they had the similar mannerisms, there used to be upright an rapid connection to them.”
The day after this overjoyed reunion, Graham said, Dionne suggested him that she had a mind tumor and bone marrow most cancers, and had six months to dwell.
Why Did Graham Hornigold Judge Dionne Become once prosperous?
Dionne checked into a series of 5-superstar accommodations in London, where the workers knew her by title, and racked up massive bills “ordering the exact champagnes” and caviar, Graham said in Con Mum.
Graham detailed how Dionne explained that she used to be a prosperous businesswoman who lived in Singapore and had fruit farms and palm oil plantations in Indonesia and her dwelling nation of Malaysia. She used to be always on the mobile telephone speaking regarded as one of “cherish, 18 languages,” he said, and she showed him movies of her bringing food to the center-broken within the a long way-flung destinations she frequented.
Graham said Dionne suggested him she had two sources of wealth: Her “alternate acumen” and “that she is the illegitimate baby of the outdated school sultan of Brunei.”
And he believed it, he said, namely after they went to The Dorchester in London (which is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, a.k.a. the royal family) and “fully each person knew her.”
Dionne suggested him it used to be high time she sold him a elaborate after forty five years, Graham said, they generally picked out a Land Rover. And, no longer attempting Heather to in fact feel left out, Dionne purchased her daughter-in-law a BMW.
No longer prolonged after Heather and Graham welcomed their son, they said within the doc, Dionne asked Graham to affix her in Zurich so they’ll are seemingly to pressing financial matters prior to her imminent loss of life.
When Did Graham Hornigold Commence Giving Dionne Cash?
While Graham and Dionne had been in Zurich, Heather—dwelling by myself with a brand original baby—said within the doc that she started to grow suspicious when the glide went from just a few days to a month and former, and aloof no papers had been signed concerning Dionne's affairs.
And then, Heather said, she used to be having a gaze by their accounts when she seen “a in fact intensive amount transferred into Graham's title.”
It turned out, in step with Graham, that Dionne had asked him prior to they went to Switzerland if he may perchance lend a hand her along with her £20,000 London hotel invoice, due to “supposedly there used to be a local transferring cash due to COVID.” As he place it within the doc, “We're no longer exactly cash prosperous, nonetheless I was overjoyed to lend a hand my mum, you know?”
Heather said in Con Mum that she had been below the influence that Dionne used to be paying for her have prices and, when she asked Graham about the cash he’d spent covering Dionne’s bills, he suggested her to no longer fright and assured her “it’s going to come back back tenfold.”
Dionne—who's seen and heard in Con Mum from cell mobile telephone movies, images and audio recordings—is heard within the doc telling Graham, “I borrow cash from you due to you are my blood…I love you dearly.”
Graham Hornigold's Accomplice Heather Starts Having Suspicions About Dionne
Graham barely made it back to London for Christmas, Heather recalled within the doc, as he used to be torn between looking out to stick with the mum he understanding had months to dwell and being there for his accomplice and 3-month-dilapidated son. But he returned the evening of Dec. 24.
“The more I was questioning Dionne,” Heather said, “the more Dionne used to be looking out to push me out and ranking me out of the picture.” Graham, she added, did no longer survey the “nasty undercurrent” in how Dionne used to be treating her.
Heather said it ended up being “the worst Christmas I ever had in my existence.”
They had been purported to switch to Contemporary Zealand to introduce their baby to her family, Heather said, nonetheless Graham within the close said he couldn't ride, he couldn't ride away Dionne “and dart the likelihood I didn't come back to gaze the passing of my mother.”
Heather said she later chanced on out that Graham had opened credit ranking playing cards in his title at Dionne's inquire of of. And, Graham said, when the hotel in Zurich provided Dionne with a roughly £25,000 invoice, she suggested him she used to be aloof having ache having access to her cash, so he agreed to lend her some. He estimated he used to be down £80,000 to £100,000 by then.
Then, Heather said, she saw “two noteworthy transactions” taken out of her and Graham's joint fable as car funds. Based on Graham, Dionne had paid a deposit nonetheless the vehicles had been in his title and, after she “suddenly” stopped making the monthly funds, he used to be liable for “on the world of £300,000” for the Land Rover and BMW they understanding had been gifts.
Is Dionne Truly Graham Hornigold's Mother?
Heather recounted within the doc reaching out to Action Fraud UK and then the police, who suggested her it used to be unlikely that what Dionne had executed would be seen as a crime due to she used to be Graham's mother. Admittedly, Heather said, Dionne didn't match the “similar outdated criminal” profile as a wheelchair-tear 80-something girl in heart-broken effectively being.
“Truly they name it a gross alternate decision,” Graham suggested The Guardian before Con Mum's premiere, “due to you know where the cash goes and who to.”
By the level he purchased a DNA take a look at, he said, “piece of me didn't are looking out to be linked, in actuality.” (He said he asked Dionne for a DNA take a look at after they first met, and she had suggested him, “Oh no, no, no, you’re thinking that me or don't think me.”)
And but the outcomes, as he read them within the doc, said he used to be “unequivocally ninety nine.9 p.c the biological son of 1 Ms. Dionne Marie Hannah.” Which, Graham said, used to be “the toughest thing to like.”
Become once Dionne Sick With Cancer?
Graham said in Con Mum that, correct after his son used to be born, he purchased a message from Dionne telling him she had “handed blood,” apart from a picture exhibiting crimson liquid within the bathroom (which used to be shown within the doc).
Months later in Switzerland, once he too used to be suspicious of Dionne, Graham said he chanced on crimson food coloring in a drawer. Dionne denied the exhaust of the dye to false blood, in step with Graham, telling him it used to be “a Chinese medication thing.”
Dionne also refused to let him rob her to the doctor when she reputedly gave the influence to be in agony, Graham said within the doc. And once he took a closer stare upon the gain of medicines she had along with her, he said, they had been for ailments cherish hypertension and diabetes, nonetheless no longer one perceived to be a most cancers drug.
“In my mind,” he said, “there is never always a most cancers.”
Dionne also persevered to grunt that Graham's grandfather used to be the outdated school sultan of Brunei, he said, telling him (as heard in a recording within the doc), “I don't care must you’re thinking that me or no longer, it's all correct.”
What Came about to Dionne?
A few 12 months after she first re-entered his existence, Dionne known as Graham, announcing she used to be in Malaysia.
Dionne suggested him she used to be “sorry for what took place,” as heard in pictures of Graham on the choice. She used to be “sorry, from backside of my heart,” she persevered. “I've executed what I executed, I’m able to no longer replace, son. I’m able to no longer replace.”
Whether the rest Dionne suggested him about her existence used to be correct, Graham suggested The Guardian, “You may perchance perchance perchance also speculate, nonetheless you upright don’t know, ranking you?”
He said he hadn't spoken to her in three years and doesn't know where she is now. Con Mum notes that Dionne did no longer answer to requests for bid.
Where Are Graham Hornigold and Heather Kaniuk Now?
Graham and Heather within the close fracture up up and she lives in Contemporary Zealand with their son.
In her first Instagram post since September 2020, Heather shared a picture of a sunny seaside on Dec. 31, 2024. Her bio aloof says that she's cofounder of Longboys and Intellectual Patisserie.
“I ride away out them every day,” Graham said within the doc, “nonetheless [my son] is overjoyed.” He had place his existence “back together,” he persevered. “I've realized that you will more than seemingly be ready to enhance, mud your self off and inspire going.”
Graham suggested The Guardian that he video chats along with his son and plans to check with when he can. He's aloof in debt, he said, nonetheless doesn't want that to ranking an ticket on his baby “within the sense that he gained’t survey his dad. I’m going to be a mountainous piece of his existence.”
Within the period in-between, Longboys appears to be like to be thriving, and Graham—named regarded as a number of the 10 “most relaxing pastry chefs within the U.K.” by Mountainous British Chefs in 2024—is lively on his non-public and alternate Instagram accounts, congenially sharing the muse at the back of his shop's spring flavors final month. He even posted for U.K. Mother’s Day on March 30, captioning a picture of him holding a box of tempting donuts, “Fully overjoyed Mother’s Day, to the whole improbable mums available.”
Source credit : eonline.com
