• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Man who thought he had no children of his own discovers he has 37 secret kids

Home> News> US News

Published 19:39 12 Feb 2024 GMT

Man who thought he had no children of his own discovers he has 37 secret kids

US-based Peter Ellenstein found out he had 37 secret kids.

Anish Vij

Anish Vij

Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Peter Ellenstein

Topics: Parenting, US News

Anish Vij
Anish Vij

Anish is a Journalist at LADbible Group and is a GG2 Young Journalist of the Year 2025. He has a Master's degree in Multimedia Journalism and a Bachelor's degree in International Business Management. Apart from that, his life revolves around the ‘Four F’s’ - family, friends, football and food. Email: [email protected]

X

@Anish_Vij

Advert

Advert

Advert

One day you have no children - and they next day you have 37.

This is exactly what happened to Peter Ellenstein, who was stunned after receiving a message on Facebook in October 2017 which changed his life forever.

The message was from a young woman called Rachel White who believed 62-year-old Peter, from California, to be her biological father.

“I was so shocked it was like a bolt from the blue - I held it out for a friend to read, who couldn’t believe it either," he told The Sun.

"I messaged my then wife and siblings about it, who wondered if it could be a scam."

Advert

It turns out that in the 80s and 90s, Peter needed to raise money to start a theatre company and one of the ways he did that was by being a sperm donor.

Despite making a load of drop offs at his local sperm bank, Peter thought nothing of it - until Rachel got in touch decades on in 2017.

"I messaged Rachel back and we arranged to meet later that night, and it was amazing," Peter said.

"We hugged each other and cried, but we hit it off instantly and ending up talking until the early hours of the morning.”

Peter Ellenstein pictured with some of his biological children.
Facebook/Peter Ellenstein

Advert

With help from his biological daughter, Peter had now met 34 of his biological children so far.

He explained: “I met up three weeks later with Rachel again, and she had a list of another 11 children that she had found.

“Then I went on a genealogy site and I was finding another one each month and began reaching out to them.

“When I first made those donations I never imagined it would come to this.

“At the time, the clinic told me the donations were anonymous, although I agreed that any offspring could track me down in the event of a medical emergency - if they needed my bone marrow for a transplant for example.

Advert

“So I went away and mostly forgot all about it.”

Peter - who has been previously married - never thought to start a family of his own, but he's said that 'meeting all my biological children has enriched my life enormously'.

Peter was stunned to find out he had 37 children after he made multiple donations at a sperm bank in the 80s and 90s.
Facebook/Peter Ellenstein

He keeps in touch with his kids in a private Facebook group where they share jokes and their love of board games.

“It's truly the best thing that has ever happened to me," he added. “It’s made me learn a lot about myself and made me a nice person.

Advert

“I never had a family of my own and perhaps it has made it easier that I didn’t have any ties to a biological family when I started to meet my donor children.

“It’s not the same relationship that you have if you raise a child - some of them I’m very close to, and some I have a lesser connection with.

“The relationships I have with them are based on what they want from me.”

Choose your content:

an hour ago
2 hours ago
3 hours ago
  • x/Lukethenuke180
    an hour ago

    Fans in shock as Luke Littler shares video announcing he's 'taking a step back' to 'do something he loves'

    He's not really leaving darts... is he?

    News
  • H. Hung et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
    an hour ago

    Archaeologists rewrite human history after making 12,000 year old discovery

    Evidence of early human mummification has proven the existence of preservation practices far earlier than previously believed

    News
  • Greta Otteson / Facebook
    2 hours ago

    Devastating update on Brit and fiancé who were found dead in hotel after drinking limoncello

    The couple were found dead after being gifted some limoncello

    News
  • Sky News
    3 hours ago

    Donald Trump makes scathing admission about Vladimir Putin during speech on UK visit

    Donald Trump called the Russian president out during a press conference at Chequers today (18 September)

    News
  • Mother of children who vanished into wilderness speaks out after their father is killed and kids found
  • Father-of-12 Nick Cannon reveals why he had so many children
  • Priscilla Presley had heartbreaking thought moments before turning off daughter’s life-support
  • Full timeline of events as dad who vanished into wilderness with kids is killed by police