- Entertainer, sports star discover they’re not the fathers!

Two high-profile Jamaicans - a famous entertainer and a celebrated sports figure - reportedly made jaw-dropping discoveries last year that they are not the biological fathers of the children they have been raising. The revelations were facilitated by 876DNA, its principal Terron Dewar said.

According to Dewar, the entertainer learnt the truth after conducting a routine DNA test, while the sports figure opted for a discreet test using his children's toothbrushes. The results? Both children were not biologically his. These situations are heartbreaking but not uncommon, Dewar told THE WEEKEND STAR.

"It is an emotional rollercoaster that these people go through. It's very hard for them, very hard," he said. "We have had multiple people cry on the phone because when they call us after we email the results and we explain to them what the results are actually saying, and the science behind it [and] the reality hits, many people can't handle it."

Dewar said that in 2024, nearly half--47 per cent--of the cases processed by 876DNA returned adverse results.

"The demand for tests in Jamaica is real," Dewar said. "There are thousands of searches on Google per month for DNA tests."

Dewar said his company receives hundreds of calls daily. He said that 70 per cent of inquiries come from women--grandmothers, sisters, and even partners--seeking clarity for the men in their lives.

"Women want to know too, whether for peace of mind or family planning," Dewar said.

The inspiration for 876DNA, Dewar revealed, came from the experience of a friend, whose 'father' was ill.

"[The father] was in the hospital and needed blood. It was at that point when he went to submit blood for his father, while his father was on his sickbed, that they discovered he was not a match. He was actually not his father," said Dewar, who witnessed the depression and pain his friend endured. This was heightened as his mother had passed away a few years earlier, leaving him with no information about who his real father was.

Another factor that inspired Dewar was his work as a justice of the peace, in which he had to intervene in several paternity fraud cases.

"I recognised the importance of having affordable, widely accessible, and trustworthy paternity and relationship testing services available to all Jamaicans, across all parishes," he said.

One case involved a St Catherine man who, after raising a child for eight years, discovered she wasn't his. With the child's mother now living abroad, he is grappling with whether to continue raising her or hand her over to the state.

In another shocking instance, a 62-year-old man learned his 92-year-old father wasn't biologically his, after decades of believing otherwise.