The journalist who broke the story about John Darwin has opened up about the conman's current relationship with his two sons.
The 71-year-old fraudster faked his own death back in 2002 in a dishonest plot with ex-wife Anne Darwin, who played the grieving widow and helped him collect his £250,000 life insurance policy.
Anne even pretended to their two sons, Mark and Anthony, that their father was dead and has spent years begging for their forgiveness.
David Leigh is the journalist who exposed John and appeared on Tuesday's This Morning to discuss the epic story as well as ITV drama The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe.
Speaking to hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby about John's current situation, David said: "He was online as soon as he came out, he met a woman online in Manila and he went off to Manila.
"You know, he said one of the reasons he wanted to come back was because he'd missed his sons so much and he knew that one day they've have kids and he wanted to be a grandfather but you know, he has no contact with them at all."
Phillip then asked: "Is that from their point of view? Or is that from his point of view?"
"I think he's in Manila and I think he keeps in touch with one of them but the other one has completely disowned him and he doesn't seem to care you know, and it's completely the opposite with Anne.
"Anne now has both boys back in her life, she has her four grandchildren and she lives a very quiet and anonymous existence.
"She's obviously not enjoying this very much," David then added, referring to the publicity surrounding the ITV drama.
"She often says to me, 'I can't understand what all the fuss is about, why is there still this interest after all this time?' and yeah she lives a very quiet, anonymous existence.
"She obviously wishes this wasn't happening but she accepts she played a role in it and she understands, to a degree, the fascination from the British public, this story has been running now for 15 years and on it goes," David added.
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.
