I think you got that backwards. His mother ran off with the monk when she was sixteen. This was her first marriage.
The monk had chronic illness, and was treated by the doctor, Levy. She had an affair with the doctor while still married to the monk, and got pregnant with Ashoka.
The monk adopted Ashoka as his own. Apparently, she eventually divorced the monk, and is now married to the doctor, the father of Ashoka.
I thought monks didn’t need sex /S
My version was a more logical sequence of events than reality. Sounds like the Buddhist guy was more than decent, adopting a son with whom she became pregnant due to an affair. Then she divorced him. What a gem.