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  In the Name of the Father, Part 2 March 27, 2005 Reporter : Ross Coulthart Producer : Ann Buchner  When the story first broke about Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott's reunion with the son that had been given up for adoption over two decades ago, Mr Abbott remarked ruefully: " Truth is stranger than fiction — this story has certainly developed some pretty surreal twists."So surreal in fact, that if it had been a plot for a novel, publishers may well have rejected the storyline as being ridiculously over-blown. A baby is given up for adoption 27 years ago, grows up, finds his birth mother and discovers that for years, he's been working alongside his biological dad at Parliament House — it almost beggars belief. Daniel O'Connor, a 27 year old ABC sound recordist, who works in the Press Gallery at Parliament House in Canberra, had been present at numerous interviews and press conferences with Tony Abbott. "As soon as I saw Daniel I immediately recognised him and the strangeness of it all is that he's been as close to me as putting an earpiece in my waxy ear, " said Mr Abbott. O'Connor was equally amazed by the connection: "I got off the phone and started swearing. I just couldn't believe it, it was unbelievable." In the full blaze of a media spotlight, we were treated to the fairy-tale family reunion — as Tony Abbott met the son he had fathered all those years ago with teenage sweetheart, Kathy Donnelly. But in the latest twist to this family saga — Tony Abbott has had to relinquish Daniel for the second time — DNA tests proving Daniel is not his son after all. The news came as a bombshell for all concerned: "I am shocked, I am numb," said Tony Abbott. "It is impossible to go through 27 years of life thinking that you have got this boy out there, to have a reunion, to then discover that there isn't the connection that you thought after all and not feel pretty empty inside." Three years ago, Tony Abbott spoke to Sunday's John Lyons about the prospect of one day meeting the boy he had seen only fleetingly after his birth: "If you're in a situation like this, there is always the possibility that one day you might get a knock on the door from a stranger who says G'day dad. And it would be a pretty it would be quite an interesting thing to have happen would certainly be, yeah, a very powerful and emotionally wrought moment." "And what would you say if there was the knock on the door you referred to what you do or say?" asked John Lyons. "I suspect the first thing I would do is dissolve into unmanly tears," Mr Abbott confessed. But while the tears were in check, the cracks were evident as the hard man of politics got personal and explained how he felt about the "son" he had loved and then lost: "You know it is like losing a friend, it is like discovering that you have always thought was true wasn't true and that is a bit of a shock to the system." It's ironic that had this story not been played out so publicly, Daniel may never have found his real biological father. It was only after seeing Daniel's face splashed across the news, that Kathy Donnelly's former university flat mate — Bill Kensell — phoned her with some startling news. "He sounded a bit nervous and dry in his voice and I said — Bill are you OK and he said Kath — I think Daniel is mine," Kathy Donnelly told A Current Affair this week. "He said — he is exactly the same as my 19-year-old son, he looks the same, he said is he quiet and laid back and I said yes he is." A DNA test confirmed Bill Kensell's suspicions — the family resemblance had a biological basis. Daniel O'Connor was his son. If the story hadn't been public enough already, this latest revelation literally took us into Kathy Donnelly's bedroom as she was forced to explain how Daniel was conceived — and how she managed to get his paternity so wrong. In an exclusive interview with A Current Affair, Kathy explained how Daniel was the result of a contraception failure during a one night stand with Bill Kensell. Kathy Donnelly had always believed Tony Abbott was the child's father as they had never used contraception: "We were playing Vatican Roulette — were just using withdrawal, we were very naïve kids." But Tony Abbott refused to play the blame game: "All sorts of things happen when people are young and hot blooded and I am certainly not in the business of being critical of people 27 years after the event." For her part, Kathy Donnelly was distraught about the possible impact this new information would have on her son: "No one wants to inflict pain on their children no matter how naïve or foolish, and especially a child that has been relinquished — I would only want to give Daniel good things and he has had the baptism of fire from hell." When the original story broke, Tony Abbott said he didn't quite know how it would finish — but by week's end it was clear everyone involved just wanted it to go away. "I feel sorry for Daniel that he has been dragged through the mill of publicity because of a connection with a public figure which turns out to have never existed," said Mr Abbott. "Hopefully Daniel and Kathy can now get on with their lives without the publication which comes with an Abbott connection." |
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