Former EastEnders star Shaun Williamson has just discovered he has a secret son he never knew he had after enjoying a romance with a circus juggler in the ‘80s.
The 54-year-old TV star – famous for playing Barry Evans on the BBC soap – was approached by a 32-year-old man named Gary who lives in Northern Ireland.
Gary claimed to be the actor’s son, and the actor revealed he went to meet the lad who was the product of a romance from 1987.
Shaun has two children – a 22-year-old daughter named Sophie and a 20-year-old son named Joseph – from his marriage to Melanie Sacre which ended in divorce.
Opening up about his expanded family, Shaun told The Sun on Sunday: “When I found out I had another son, I was stunned. I was shaking when I went to meet him.
“He said he never thought in a million years that Barry from EastEnders could be his dad.”
Shaun says he met Gary’s mother when he was working as a barman, aged 22.
The couple endured a “fiery relationship” and even became engaged after six months of dating.
Shaun and the circus juggler never married, however, and the relationship ended when the now actor moved to take a job as a Pontin’s Bluecoat.
He left before learning his ex-fiancee was pregnant.
In 2013, Shaun received an email from Gary, saying he was from his “circus days”.
The BBC star was confirmed as the father following a paternity test, and he says he connected immediately when he finally met his son for the first time in a Belfast bar.
He said: “It was a surreal experience. I could immediately see the similarity. We hit it off straight away.”
