Netflix's latest documentary has left fans seriously divided. Con Mum follows a man's journey into finding his long-lost mother, only to be conned out of tens of thousands of pounds, ruining his life and his relationship.
The official synopsis for the show reads: "A chef's life is upended when a jet-setting, champagne-sipping, hotel-hopping woman claims to be his long-lost mother. This documentary reveals the untold story."
In the documentary, Con Mum follows Graham Hornigold, a pastry chef who had previously starred in Masterchef: The Professionals and Junior Bake Off. One day, he received an email from his long-lost mother and reconnected with her. Claiming to be an illegitimate child from the Sultan of Brunei, Dionne gave Graham a Range Rover and stayed in luxury hotels before the relationship turned dark.
She told him that she had terminal cancer, and wanted him to accompany her to Switzerland to organise her affairs to inherit her wealth. As such, Graham missed months of his newborn son's life while living with Dionne and ultimately funding her lifestyle, only to discover that she had been scamming him.
Taking to X to discuss, some people were sympathetic with Graham's situation, with one person writing: "I just want to give Graham the biggest hug because, between his father beating him to a pulp his entire childhood, THEN his sociopathic predator mother doubling back 45 years later to destroy him too? how can anyone even still be standing after all he’s been through," while another person wrote: "I think the saddest part about #ConMum is that you can see in almost slow motion how the entry of Dionne into Graham’s life was always going to wreck his relationship with his partner."
However, others were less sure, with one writing: "Graham is just like his Con Mum but with different font because I swear if his mum hadn’t claimed she was multi millionaire would he still have spent 300k pounds on her life style, risked his marriage, not seen his new born baby for 3 months? He was just after the money #ConMum."
Another person wrote: "This guy left his partner who JUST had his baby for two months, to go be with a mom who had abandoned him for 45 years, only for the mom to scam him out of over 100k and disappear."
Denise Welch even got involved in the online discourse, questioning details of the show, saying: "Who were all the bankers and lawyers she had meetings with everyday?? How did she get to go to the private rooms of banks after hours in Switzerland ?? I hate it when these aspects aren't explained!"
