You’ve been in a relationship, living with this woman for a couple of years. She gets pregnant, and gives birth to a beautiful baby girl. You’re there, and you sign the birth certificate. A few months later, the two of you get married, and you live happily all together and you have another child together. Seven years pass. Your wife tells you she thinks you aren’t the father. She’s been in touch over the internet with the man she was also sleeping with at the time your daughter was conceived. And he’s coming to meet her. You’re adamantly opposed. You realize your marriage is over. But she’s telling you that you have no rights; that DNA confirms he’s the father and “he wants his daughter”. What now?

Good news. You’re in total control. Because you signed the birth certificate, and then married the child’s mother, the law treats her as though she were born during the marriage, and you are the legal father. You do have the right, but only you have the ability, to disestablish paternity of your daughter IF YOU WANT TO. If you want to continue to raise your daughter, and you want to maintain that relationship, you can assert your absolute right as the legal father, and this other man has no rights whatsoever. Nor can you or your wife demand he pay child support or otherwise be responsible for the child. In your divorce, you will be treated as though you were the child’s natural father, and will have all of the parental rights and responsibilities