Sir John Mortimer revealed last night that a whirlwind affair with actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years ago ended with the birth of a love child - a son called Ross.
The playwright and author spoke publicly about his son for the first time, admitting he only found out about him in the past year when Craig rang him out of the blue. He said he was 'delighted' to have since met the 42-year-old, who works in television production.
Mortimer's relationship with Craig began in 1960 when she starred in his play, The Wrong Side of the Park at the Cambridge Theatre in London. Although they were both married at the time - he to writer Penelope Mortimer and she to journalist and musician Jack Bentley - the pair began a relationship.
'It was the Sixties and we were all a lot more excitable then,' said the writer best known for creating Rumpole of the Bailey yesterday.
The short affair lasted only up to the end of his next play, Lunch Hour, which ran in 1961 and also featured Craig. Ironically, both performances explored marriages under pressure.
By then Bentley had found out about the affair and Craig left Mortimer. She must have been pregnant at the time but according to the playwright, Bentley made her promise she would never discuss who Ross's father was. Instead the boy was brought up as the couple's own, although it is believed that Ross was told who his real father was when old enough to understand.
'I am not ashamed of this and I don't think that my son Ross is either,' Mortimer said. 'I met him earlier this year and got along very well with him.'
He added that he and Craig rarely saw each other after parting, only at occasional public events. Her husband, Bentley, died of prostate cancer in 1994.
Mortimer said that he understood why he had not been told about Ross: 'I can see why Wendy did what she did and I think it would be silly if I were to say that I missed out on the chance of seeing him grow up or whatever. The fact is that I have other children and have not been deprived of the joys of fatherhood.'
He pointed out that Ross Bentley looks remarkably like his own daughter, Emily Mortimer, from his later marriage to Penelope Gollop. He said he believed that he was his son, despite the fact there has been no formal DNA test.
Ross Bentley has followed in his father's footsteps. He co-wrote with Jack Bentley the1980s BBC comedy series Laura and Disorder which also starred his mother.