Vladimir Kuzmin with his daughters: Nicole, Marta and Sonya (from right to left).
After the death of famous artists, their illegitimate children begin to appear on television shows. Television projects get good ratings: they are seen thanks to the big names and the impostors receive a fee for the melodrama depicted. For the amusement of viewers, DNA tests are carried out to determine the relationship with distant relatives of the deceased star, which cannot be reliable. There were many impostors: “false children” appeared among Alexander Abdulov, Boris Grachevsky, Vyacheslav Zaitsev and other celebrities. Before the “heyday” of DNA testing season on talk shows, “Lieutenant Schmidt’s children” acted differently. For example, 20 years ago, the fake son of actor Leonid Bykov collected money from film studios, supposedly to celebrate “dad’s” creative evenings, the scammer even visited Klara Luchko’s house and lured her with 500 rubles; the impostor knew it very well; Details of Bykov’s life. Now professional TV show editors help fake children make up legends. Often, impostors decide to invent a legend due to the similarity of some facial features with the star.
At the same time, stars often have illegitimate children. For example, the composer Vyacheslav Dobrynin during his lifetime did not deny in an interview the presence of an illegitimate son, but refused to meet with him and take a DNA test. But there are artists who themselves recognized their illegitimate children. Let’s tell these stories.
Vladimir Kuzmin
Author and performer Vladimir Kuzmin, 69, likes to gather his three daughters at his house during the holidays. His wife Ekaterina does not object, but organizes these meetings herself. Kuzmin had five children. Three children married to his first wife, poetess Tatyana Artemyeva: Elizaveta was born in 1977 (died in 2002), Stepan was born in 1983 (died in 2009 while fleeing a fire in his apartment, fell off a ledge) and in 1985. Sonya (became a singer). In 1986, model Irina Miltsina gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Marta (she works as a DJ), from her lover Vladimir Kuzmin, who recognized the girl and gave her his surname.
After the children’s deaths, Kuzmin declared a concert of silence, mourning two irrevocable losses. In 2013, Vladimir learned that he had another illegitimate daughter: in 1987, a fan of the musician Tatyana Muingo gave birth to a girl, Nicole. The story deserves a melodrama: the mulatto Tatyana Muingo (Russian mother, Ugandan father) was raised by her grandmother in Rostov-on-Don, since her mother constantly went on business trips abroad, her father died, and all her relatives lived in Africa. In 1986, in Rostov-on-Don, Tanya and her friends went to Kuzmin’s concert, following her friends she ended up backstage, where the artist drew attention to her. There were barbecues and socializing. And then the artist left, and Tatyana ran 400 km from her city, finding out where Vladimir’s next concert would be: “He is a handsome and popular man and suddenly he paid attention to me! I was shocked… I found the hotel where he lives, I went into his room and this happened. Vladimir was my first man. I felt special, he was very gentle…” The married artist went on tour and Tatyana, 16, returned home, where her grandmother and the police were already looking for her. Soon Muingo discovered that she was pregnant, her father hid her identity and her grandmother sent her to Uganda. Tatyana’s father’s relatives were not happy: “I gave birth to a little white girl. He called her Nicole; in honor of his mother’s father, his name was Kolya. As soon as I came to my senses, they told me I had to leave my daughter. My cousin is the queen of Uganda. No one there wanted an illegitimate child, and a white one at that. I disobeyed. By what miracle did Nicole and I survive? Don’t know. No one helped me, there was absolutely nothing to eat, but an African woman from a nearby village helped me feed myself with my own milk, due to malnutrition. With sheets I sewed diapers and t-shirts for Nicole. She trusted only herself and did not admit to whom she had given birth to a girl.” The girl grew up smart and beautiful – Nicole lives in Los Angeles and works in marketing. Even when I was a child, my mother told me who her father was. Nicole accepted this story and loved her father, whom she had never met, but wanted to meet. I was proud that he was a famous person.
In 2013, a woman approached Andrei Malakhov abroad and gave him the phone number of a friend who lives in Los Angeles: they say that her daughter gave birth to a star and wanted the adult son to meet his father. This was the phone number of Tatiana Muingo’s mother. Then Malakhov learned about this story and recorded an interview with its main characters. The program was launched in early December 2013. After which Vladimir Kuzmin immediately contacted Nicole and asked her to fly to Moscow for the New Year to meet his father. Kuzmin recognized his daughter as illegitimate and refused to take a DNA test: he said that she was very similar to him in everything, even in the timbre of her voice! Soon Nicole returned to her home in Los Angeles and since then she has always been in contact with her father, who began to participate in her life. They meet periodically.
Igor Krutói
Composer and producer Igor Krutoy, 70, now has four children. From his first marriage: son Nikolai (born 1981). In his second marriage, Krutoy adopted his wife’s daughter, Victoria, and in 2003 he and his wife Olga had a daughter together, Alexandra. Five years ago, Igor Yakovlevich Krutoy learned about the existence of an illegitimate son. Muscovite Yakov Miroshnichenko contacted the teacher’s son Nikolai: he told him that his mother had recently died after a serious illness, and before her death he managed to find out who his real father was, and it was Igor Krutoy. The composer often heard stories from colleagues about imposter scammers, so he suggested continuing the conversation with Yakov after taking the DNA test. Two DNA tests showed that Yakov is the son of Igor Krutoy. The composer recognized his son, introduced him to his family and they all became friends. The illegitimate son of the star changed his patronymic and surname and became Yakov Igorevich Krutoy (born 1991). The son and father quickly found a common language. Igor Yakovlevich supported Yakov financially: he gave him a luxurious house in the Moscow region, an apartment in Moscow and a good car. When Yakov and his wife had a son three years ago, they named him Igor.
“My mother admires him, she prepared cakes for him in the morning. Yasha is a boxer, so anyone who has complaints against me, please contact him! – jokes the composer Krutoy about his new son – But seriously, a son has appeared in my life for whom I am and will be responsible. I won’t say that I immediately felt fatherly feelings for him. But this is my blood, my dear person. He looks like me, my father and my mother. “I’m a happy father.”
Yakov’s mother, Irina, worked as a saleswoman in the capital’s Oktyabrsky grocery store in the early 90s. At that time they sold not only food, but also scarce foreign goods, so many stars shopped in Oktyabrsky, for which Irina became friends with Valentina Tolkunova and, through her, met Igor Krutoy. The affair was short-lived during Irina’s fight with her husband Sergei Miroshnikov. Then Irina made peace with Sergei and they continued their married life, the man thought he was raising his own child. Irina and Sergei divorced when Yakov was 5 years old, but the man did not abandon his son.
Valentin Gaft
Valentin Gaft died four years ago at the age of 85. The People’s Artist has a large family. Gaft was married three times. In his second marriage to the dancer Inna Eliseeva, he had a daughter, Olga, who became a dancer, but at the age of 29 she committed suicide after a fight with her mother. Gaft found personal happiness in his third marriage to actress Olga Ostroumova, accepting his daughter, son, and grandchildren as family. The native son of the national artist lives in Brazil: Gaft has an illegitimate son, 53-year-old Vadim Nikitin, and a 21-year-old grandson, Valentin, who was born with his grandfather on the same day.
The illegitimate child appeared after a brief affair between Gaft, 36, and artist Elena Nikitina, 31. Nikitina became pregnant and informed Gaft about this; Then the actor disappeared from Elena’s life. Then Nikitina assaulted Gaft on the street and showed him a photo of the child, saying that her son was three years old. Valentin took the photo and left in silence. A year later, Elena left with her son to reside permanently in Brazil, where her sister lived with her husband. The woman raised her son herself, gave him a good education and became a famous artist in Sao Paulo, now she has her own art school; Nikitina told her son only good things about his father. Vadim works as a theater director, is divorced, but often communicates with his son, Valentin Adariu Frateschi, who sings in a rock band.
Valentin Gaft once saw his illegitimate son. This happened six years before the artist’s death: Vadim flew to watch a television show, and Gaft agreed. After recording the program, the “Brazilian son” stayed in Moscow for three days: he talked with his father and they walked around the capital. After that, Vadim flew home to Brazil and called his father several times. In his last television interview, Valentin Iosifovich answered the question: “Is it a joy to be Valya’s grandfather?” – answered: “This is joy with tears in my eyes.” Gaft worried he would never see his grandson again. The son never asked his father for money, but his mother once told Gaft that Vadim had been beaten; the artist himself decided to send money for treatment. Vadim did not fly to Russia for his father’s funeral, as it was the worst time of the pandemic. But he said he would never claim his father’s inheritance. Gaft publicly acknowledged his son, but did not document it.
Denis Klyaver
Author and performer Denis Klyaver has three children: from his second marriage, his son Timofey (born in 2001), from his current marriage, his son Daniel (born in 2013). After breaking up with his second wife and before meeting his third, Klyaver had a brief affair with fellow singer Eva Polna. After this adventure, Eva gave birth to a daughter, Evelyn, in 2005. Denis immediately recognized the girl and always communicated with her, helped her financially and participated in her education. But Denis publicly announced this fact of his biography when the girl grew up. All of Klyaver’s children are friends: Evelyn, his son from his second marriage, Timofey, and his son Daniel from his current wife.
Who else?
Illegitimate children were recognized and helped by: folk artists Alexander Semchev, Andrei Konchalovsky, Mikhail Porechenkov, honored artist Leonid Agutin, Sergei Mazaev, actors Dmitry Nagiev, Anatoly Zhuravlev.
