MasterChef judge shares shocking tale of losing everything when a woman who said she was his wealthy birth mother suddenly got in touch

The story of a TV chef who was adopted at the age of two is now the focus of a new Netflix documentary. This comes after a woman claiming to be his long-lost mother reappeared in his life, leading to astonishing consequences.

Meet Graham Hornigold, a 50-year-old chef and judge on MasterChef: The Professionals from St Albans. Growing up without a mother figure, he always harbored a deep desire to unravel the mysteries of his past.

However, his life took a dramatic turn in 2020 when he unexpectedly received an email from an elderly woman named Dionne. She revealed that her dying wish was to reunite with her son, who had been taken away from her when he was just two years old.

Less than a week later, Graham finds himself in the penthouse of a Liverpool hotel sipping on champagne with the mother he had always longed to meet, discovering she was an affluent businesswoman worth multi-millions, spoke 18 languages and was living a life of luxury. 

In a Netflix world exclusive, Graham’s story, which is being told for the first time on the global streamer, details how he went from the highs of being a head chef at A-list restaurant Hakkasan to suffering a betrayal so calculated he lost his entire life savings and the chance to finally connect with blood family.

MailOnline has the first look trailer at Con Mum, which is available to watch on March 25, where Graham details his heartbreaking encounter with Dionne, the woman who convinced him that she was his birth mother.

Speaking in the preview clip, Graham, co-founder of Longboys Doughnuts, says: ‘There’s no greater act of love than to cook for someone… As I child I never had that mother child bond.’ 

His ex-partner Heather, who’s from New Zealand, explains: ‘Graham didn’t know who his real mum was and then one day out of the blue we received an email… She had been given months to live, and this was her driving factor in trying to find Graham. 

‘I wish we had never received that email. It was the start of something we never thought in a million years was going to happen.’  

Graham adds: ‘She has this wealth which she wants us to inherit. She has businesses all over the world, we are talking like hundreds of millions.’ 

The trailer begins with voice notes from Dionne, who tells Graham: ‘I never stopped loving you, I just want to be with you so much.’  

She is also heard saying: ‘If I die soon… You’ll be a multimillionaire.’  

The complexity of Graham’s story begins to unfold as he explains feeling confused by several other people calling Dionne their mother. 

Graham, whose culinary career spans over 28 years, gained experience on the job working at some of the capital’s best restaurants including the Park Lane Hotel, Mandarin Oriental, and Hyde Park, London.

He began wiping floors and stacking bread at Ushers Bakery, where he grew up in St Albans.

Impressed by his work ethic and abilities in the kitchen, the owners eventually bought him his first set of knives and chef whites and sent him to a catering college in Watford.

He has spoken in the past about how cooking gave him a focus after suffering a ‘challenging childhood.’

Speaking in 2016 about his adopted family, Graham said: ‘I have always been happy cooking and remember preparing supper for my brothers and sisters when we were growing up.

‘A challenging childhood made life a little difficult at times, but having a loving mother helped to mould my decision to move with my chosen profession so at the age of eighteen years old I left home and started at The Lygon Arms, Broadway as a Commis.’

Referencing his close working relationship with chef Lisa Crowe who took him under her wing, he recalls needing motherly advice during the early stages of his career. 

He said of Lisa: ‘She whipped the rebellion out of me… took me under her wing, beat me up a few times, had a few ‘chats’ – a bit like your mum.

‘She taught me about life, work ethic, organisation and that the most important thing you can do is understand taste – everything else stems from that.’

Later in his career, Graham was recruited by the Hakkasan Group, a high-end chain of Chinese restaurants, working for the brand between 2011 and 2017. 

In his role as executive pastry chef, Graham oversaw the pastry sections of Hakkasan’s portfolio around the world, producing a reported 12,000 macarons and 1,200 intricate cakes every week. 

His craft and expertise led to Graham becoming a judge on TV’s MasterChef: The Professionals, most recently in 2023 and 2024, and on the Junior Bake Off in 2015. 

Following the success of documentaries Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare and The Tinder Swindler, Con Mum is available to stream on Netflix on March 25, just days before the UK celebrates Mother’s Day.

The 90-minute feature film, directed by BAFTA-nominated Nick Green, is billed by Netflix as a story about ‘A chef’s life is upended when a jet-setting, champagne-sipping, hotel-hopping woman claims to be his mother.’

Con Mum is just one documentary being produced by the streamer set for release this year.

Grenfell, an emotional retelling of the June 2017 Tower Block fires which claimed the lives of 72 residents and destroyed hundreds of families in London’s North Kensington, will be available to watch in 2025.

Critical, an upcoming series which follows emergency doctors and paramedics as they work to save lives in London, is another documentary in the works.