For Victoria Hill, a 23andMe DNA yielded two shocking revelations: First, about her father, and then, an uncomfortable truth about her high school boyfriend. In the aftermath, Hill and her family are reconsidering what they thought they knew about their personal history, and Hill has taken a second look at who she dated.
As CNN first reported, Hill, who was 39 when the news first broke, long thought she didn’t look much like the man she knew as her dad, and she took a DNA test, as many people do, on a journey of personal discovery. The results uncovered an enormous case of fertility fraud, as Hill discovered at least 20 siblings she never knew she had.
In order to conceive, Victoria’s mom, Maralee, had sought fertility treatment, and the fertility doctor used his own sperm to inseminate Maralee without her knowledge or consent. And, as Hill’s DNA results attest, Doctor Burton Caldwell, who treated Maralee, perpetrated that fraud on more than one occasion.
Speaking with CNN, Hill said, “Now I’m looking at pictures of people thinking, well, if he could be my sibling, anybody could be my sibling.”
Hill dated her half-brother
Piled on top of the news that Victoria Hill’s biological father was not who she thought he was, and that she had many siblings she never knew she had, there was a familiar face among her newly-discovered half brothers and sisters: Hill’s high school boyfriend in Connecticut, with whom she said she had been intimate and almost married. “I have slept with my half-sibling. I went to elementary school with another,” Hill said.
As commercial genealogical tests grow more common, instances of fertility fraud are increasingly reported. But Jody Madeira, a law professor and fertility fraud expert at Indiana University, told CNN, “This was the first time where we’ve had a confirmed case of someone actually dating, someone being intimate with someone who was their half-sibling.”
Fertility fraud is still not illegal everywhere, but in light of so many similar cases popping up in the age of commercial DNA testing, many are working to put laws in place to prevent it from happening, and to hold fraudulent doctors accountable. According to CNN, Dr. Caldwell declined their request for an interview.
The New York Post says Hill told her old boyfriend, who has not been named in the press, but knew that his mom sought treatment from Dr. Caldwell, and he confirmed it was true — as if high school reunions weren’t awkward enough.
