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First of all, it’s child, not children. They only had one child together, the other three had other father(s). Second, the “child” would be at least 31, if he was born in the last year of their failed marriage, at which time, and for several years after, both were destitute. What about the other father or fathers? Do they not have an obligation as well? Their obligation is far more recent than this gentleman’s. What about the mother? Does she not have an obligation to support her children, or is it only the man who has such an obligation?

We do not know the circumstances of the divorce or the post-divorce custody situation. Perhaps the mother kept the father out of the child’s life and he never had an opportunity to know his son. Maybe his son didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Maybe the woman was at fault for the dissolution of the marriage. We simply do not know.

There is no way in any case that this man should be LEGALLY obligated to pay anything to two other adults who he has no legal obligation to support. Sure, there may be a moral obligation, particularly with respect to his son, but again, this is a moral obligation, not a legal one.

So this good ole boy let his kids live in squalor while he did not?

Single. One kid. If we read the whole story, you get this timeline:

1981: They marry, she already has a kid from previous dude.

1984: They break up

1992: formally divorced

1996: Dude founds Ecotricity

2011: Lady first tries to get 1.9Mil pounds from him. Note the kid is likely now between 27 and 30 based on marriage/breakup.

Sorry, but this is ridiculous. Apparently he wasn't ordered to pay child support because he was just as broke when they first broke up. Spent ten-ish years as a wandering hippy before he started dabbling in his little energy stuff. The kid was at least 12-15 years old when he first started the company, so he was probably already 18 or close to it by the time the company was worth much.

I have no sympathy for this chick. While the dad may not have been a nice guy and not there for his kid much if ever, he didn't have any money until after his kid was pretty much raised. Even if he did make the money a bit before the kid turned 18, she never tried to get any child support ordered, so he was still under the original order: no child support required. While he should be there to help his (adult) kid now (as a dad), he has no obligation to the ex-wife or any of her other kids.