Former Ghana football star, Nii Odartey Lamptey has revealed the depth of his emotional turmoil upon discovering that the three children he raised with his ex-wife, Gloria Appiah, were not his biological offspring.
In a recent interview, Lamptey said the revelation drove him to the brink of despair, even contemplating the use of a gun in his anguish.
Lamptey, speaking with Dan Kwaku Yeboah TV on YouTube in an approximately 10-minute-long video, explained the feelings.
He also spoke about how he was smuggled to Belgium with a Nigerian passport.
PUNCH Online reports that the video was uploaded earlier this month but was translated from Ghanaian language to English by Pulse Ghana on Tuesday.
The 49-year-old former Anderlecht and Aston Villa forward revealed the harrowing moment he discovered that the three children he raised with his ex-wife were not biologically his.
With a gun in his car, Lamptey contemplated drastic action but ultimately decided against it after reflecting on his future.
The revelation came in 2013 when DNA tests confirmed that Lamptey was not the father of the children, leading to his separation from his ex-wife, Gloria Appiah.
The matter resulted in the collapse of their 20-year marriage, but disagreements between the couple over the compensation to Miss Appiah led to a protracted legal tussle.
Four years later in 2017, PUNCH Online reported that the footballer won a lawsuit in which his wife claimed 50 per cent of his fortunes.
Then, an Accra High Court ruled that Gloria Appiah (Lamptey’s ex-wife) committed ‘adultery’ when she gave birth to three children outside wedlock and subsequently nullified her request to be given half of her ex-husband’s wealth.
Justice Cecilia Don-Chebe Agbevey who presided over the case also ordered Lamptey’s estranged wife to vacate the footballer’s plush seven-bedroom apartment in East Legon within 30 days.
However, it ordered Lamptey to settle her with his four-bedroom house at Dome in addition to a car and an amount of Ghc200,000, Pulse Gh reports.
Jail or move on?
Opening up on his reaction when he found out he wasn’t the father of the three children he had raised, Odartey Lamptey said he nearly took a decision that could’ve landed him in jail.
“Yeah, I took that decision [to pull a gun], but God spoke to me and since then I haven’t touched my gun. The gun was in my Tundra, but I decided I would not do anything.
“I was broken, but I was very patient about it, and that has led me to where I am today. I believe it was God who spoke to me, and so I decided not to use my gun. It used to be in my Tundra, but I decided not to touch the gun again.
“I had to control my anger, otherwise I could’ve been in prison by now. And I wouldn’t have been able to have my three children. So, sometimes when you get angry, you have to think twice before taking action,” he said.
Meanwhile, Odartey Lamptey is now happily married to actress Ruweida Yakubu, and together they are blessed with three children.
(Punch)
