Con Mum: Who was Dionne and what happened to her? Details from the Netflix documentary, explored

The Netflix documentary Con Mum has just been released on 25th March, 2025.

Helmed by Nick Green, Con Mum showcases the real, bizarre incidents that took place in the life of a pastry chef named Graham Hornigold, when he experienced a severe case of fraudulence.

It all happened when a woman named Dionne suddenly entered his life, as she asserts to be his long-lost biological mother. However, things take a disturbing turn as Dionne, in the process, weaves a string of lies and maneuvers her way to achieve copious monetary gains out of Graham.

But who is Dionne in Con Mum? What happens to her in the end?

Well, in the documentary, we discover a shocking revelation. It is revealed that Dionne is, in fact, Graham's biological mother.

We do not really know anything about Dionne's current life updates. Despite Netflix's attempts to contact her, there was no answer from her end.

Let us know more about Dionne in Con Mum.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for the documentary. Reader discretion is advised.

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Con Mum: How did it all begin?

In Con Mum, we get to know that Graham Hornigold was born in Germany, in an army cantonment. However, as soon as he was born, he was moved to the UK by his father. He never got to meet his mother since his birth.

Cut to adulthood, Graham Hornigold has now become an incredibly successful pastry chef in the UK. He co-founded Longboys Doughnuts and served as a judge in the popular cooking show, Masterchef: The Professionals.

However, one day, he receives an email from someone named Dionne, who claims to be his birth mother. It was the year 2020 when major things were changing in Graham's life. He and his then-partner, Heather Kaniuk, were about to become parents, and Graham had also commenced his own business.

Initially, with Heather's help, Graham begins cross-questioning Dionne by asking personal details about him to prove the legitimacy of Dionne's statement. Interestingly, Dionne passed all the tests.

Graham and Dionne developed a bond as soon as they met in person. Graham, who craved maternal love since his youth, gave in to the display of affection he received from Dionne. She portrayed herself to be a highly affluent woman, as she claimed to be the love child of the Sultan of Brunei.

Dionne also claimed that she had only six months of life, owing to her medical condition. She said that she is suffering from terminal bone marrow and brain cancer. So she intended to lead Graham into conversations about the possessions she would leave with him, before she succumbed to the illness.

As soon as Graham's son was born, Dionne quickly made her way into Graham's house, as she started living with him. Then she emotionally entrapped Graham into taking a trip to Zurich with her.

That trip turned out to be extremely traumatising for Graham. He initially thought it would be a tiny trip, as per Dionne's words, as she wanted to get some of her things sorted before her passing. Little did he know that this was Dionne's ultimate trap to extort money out of him.

Dionne barred Graham from visiting the UK for months, preventing him from contacting his newborn son. She emotionally abused him as she kept expanding her web of lies and deceit. She lied to him about having bank issues and kept asking Graham for money.

However, Graham's world started to crumble. He realised that while lending money to Dionne, he was now bankrupt, with a whopping amount of £300,000. He realised he had been scammed all this time by Dionne.

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Con Mum: Who is actually Dionne? Where is she now?

To have a clearer picture, Graham had carefully scanned her hotel room. He found some heartbreaking revelations of her faking her sickness, as she used red food colour to showcase it as blood flowing in her urine. And the medications that she claimed were for her cancer treatment were actually for cholesterol.

Predictably, the con artist Dionne has absconded since then.

As per RadioTimes, we get her last update, upon a FaceTime call that she made to Graham. It is revealed that she was in Malaysia back then. As of now, we do not know any latest updates from her. Despite Netflix attempting to contact Dionne, they did not hear anything from her end.

In the call, Dionne had said:

""I just want to talk to my son,"

"I love you, son, I'm sorry for what happened... I've done what I've done, son. I cannot change, son."

As per reports, Dionne has not been arrested yet despite the accusations made by Graham Hornigold.

But Con Mum makes a shocking revelation. It is revealed that Dionne is indeed Graham's biological mother.

As per a DNA test carried out, it is revealed that there is a 99.9% chance of Dionne being Graham's birth mother.

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Also read: Everything we know about Netflix's Con Mum