The daughter of a serial bigamist who had more than a dozen children and three wives said he seemed like the ‘perfect dad’ before his deceit was uncovered.
Eilidh Turner Thomson, from Edinburgh, told how her father, William Allen Jordan, was ‘so fun’, ‘caring’ and ‘just the right amount of strict’ when she was growing up.
But in reality US-born Jordan was a liar and a scam artist who had duped Eilidh’s mother, Mary Turner Thomson, 55, and two other women into marriage, as well as fathering 13 children with a total of six women. He was jailed in 2014 for his crimes.
Appearing alongside her mother on This Morning today, Eilidh admitted she had only seen her father as the perfect parent.
Hayley Turner Thomson, pictured, from Edinburgh, is the daughter of William Allen Jordan, who was jailed for bigamy in 2014 after it was uncovered he had several marriages and liaisons, and had lied about being a CIA agent to several women
Hayley said her father was ‘the perfect dad,’ and had been ‘caring’ to her and her mother until he was found to have several wives and children (pictured she she was a toddler)
She said: ‘He was so fun, he was also caring, he was strict but the right amount of strict a father should be. He was the perfect dad if you could put together all the values a father should have or should be.
‘It was really really shocking that such a kind, amazing caring man could…’ she continued, her voice breaking.
Asked by Eamon Holmes what she would tell her father is she could see him, the teenager revealed she did not want to speak to her father anymore.
‘I don’t think I’d say anything, I don’t think there’s anything I could say that could do anything or change anything in his mind,’ Eilidh continued.
‘He’s got a personality disorder, it’s not personal. It’s something that took me a while to find out, but it’s not personal.’
Mary and Jordan, who met online in 2000, were together for years before his secret past was uncovered in 2006, when Eilidh was six years old.
Hayley was on the set of This Morning with her mother Mary Turner Thomson, 55 (left), where they discussed their lives with Allen Jordan
Mary, who has written about her experience in a new book, The Bigamist, admitted that up until that point Jordan had seemed like the perfect husband and father.
He had told Mary that he was an active CIA operative on secondment to MI5 in the UK – and was able to give her proof, including paychecks.
Explaining how they met, Mary said: ‘I kind of had given up on finding Mr Right.’
She signed up to an online dating site, which at the time was a ‘brand new’ idea, and soon met Jordan.
‘I got contacted by this man who was calm, charming, humble, good looking,’ Mary continued. ‘We chatted for two weeks and then we eventually met up and within a month he asked me to marry him.’
Their relationship was ‘full-on’, with Jordan the one ‘pulling the relationship forward’.
Mary said Allen Jordan had provided her with evidence of who he said he was until she was contacted by his other wife in 2006
‘He was the one pulling the relation forward, it’s “loving bombing,” flowers being sent to work, messages everyday all day, it’s incredibly romantic and intoxicating.’
She fell pregnant with Eilidh within six months of meeting Jordan and they lived together as a family with their son Zach, born three years after Eilidh, and Mary’s oldest daughter Robyn, from a previous relationship.
However her world came crashing down in 2006 when Mary was contacted by another of Jordan’s wives.
‘She said “I’m the other Mrs Jordan,”‘ Mary said.
She went on to say that Allen Jordan had told him he was infertile and that Eilidh was a ‘miracle child,’ but it turned out he had had several children with other women during the course of their relationship.
‘His wife and the nanny had both been pregnant,’ Mary added. ‘We sat down and talked for 12 hours and compared notes.’
The mother-of-two discovered that Jordan had used pregnancy as a way to manipulate women, saying: ‘You’re much more likely to to stay with the father of your children, or stay in contact with the father of your children, than if it’s a boyfriend, so he actively impregnates women to rip them off of the money.’