Growing up, TikToker Kelli Fabian (@kellifabian) didn’t really know her father because he lived a secret life. Even in adulthood, she is still at a loss about his real identity.
Her father was born to socialite parents in South Africa who were well-off. Her grandfather was a medical doctor, professional rugby player, and political activist. Her grandparents would fly to England to have tea with the queen. They lived in a house with a butler.
Kelli’s parents met when they were in high school. They got married in the early 1970s. At the time, her mom was 19, and her dad was 23. He also played rugby professionally.
They moved to Italy after getting married, and life was great until her mom got pregnant with her. That was when he started showing signs of sociopathy and exhibiting narcissistic behaviors.
“He would make [my mom] walk on the opposite side of the street, tell her that she was fat and ugly,” said Kelli.
“Meanwhile, she looked like a Barbie doll. She says she has some fond memories, but reading between the lines, he wasn’t the most stand-up guy.”
Right before Kelli was born, her mom decided to visit her family in Cape Town, South Africa. While she was there, her father decided to pack everything up and move back to Cape Town without consulting her. So, instead of being born in Italy, Kelli was born in Cape Town, where both of her parents were born and raised.
When she was around three months old, her dad left and never paid child support. Since then, her mom has gotten remarried to her stepdad, who raised her and is also South African. Kelli has a few memories of her dad dropping in while growing up in South Africa.
He would show up and orchestrate fancy photo shoots on the beach with her so that the press could capture him looking like a good father.
She also remembers him with his new Italian wife and her baby sister, who is now 47 years old and lives in Rome. In addition, Kelli recalls her dad parading her around the makeup counters at department stores, trying to use her to meet other women.
Other than that, Kelli had a wonderful childhood being raised by her mom and stepdad. They gave her a little brother. When she was 11 years old, they immigrated to the United States in 1986. Kelli was close to her father’s parents, but they always avoided talking about him.
In 1989, when she was 14, she received a telegram from her dad, asking her to visit him in London. So, she flew from Miami to London by herself. Her dad picked her up from the airport on a motorcycle. He presented her with a bouquet of a dozen red roses.
They drove back to his house in London. The next day, he asked her if she wanted to go to Italy to meet her sister. She told him that she didn’t have a visa, but he said not to worry about it. The next thing she knew, they were flying to Italy. They arrived at an apartment with African masks on the walls.
He told her that they talked sometimes and asked her to stay with him in his room, where he slept with a pistol under his pillow. The next morning, they stopped at a local coffee shop. Then, they went to a restaurant for lunch to meet her sister. Her dad was divorced from his second wife by then.
Halfway through lunch, he had to take a phone call and never came back. So, Kelli was left alone with his second ex-wife and her half-sister. They took her into their home for the remainder of her trip. They were very kind and wonderful to her.
Ten days after returning home to Miami, Kelli still hadn’t heard from her father. She tried calling various phone numbers to reach him, but none of them worked.
A year later, she received a telegram from him. He apologized for missing his birthday and asked if she wanted to bring a friend and meet him in Hong Kong.
So, she brought her best friend to Hong Kong, and they stayed in a luxury hotel. There were many gifts on the bed for her friend, but none for her.
Next, they flew to Thailand and stayed at a beautiful resort. Her father was traveling with the Italian Defense Ministry, so they were with members of the Italian government.
Her father had a meeting and never came back. At the airport in Bangkok, he showed up out of nowhere and told Kelli that they were going skiing in December. She was 15 years old back then, and she never saw him again after that.
Over the years, Kelli’s grandparents fell ill and passed away. He never attended their funerals. Kelli was told that he was dealing arms and couldn’t come back to South Africa.
When she was 34, she received an email from her father, offering his condolences for the death of her stepdad. She responded to the email with a photo of her son, but he completely ignored everything she had sent about her son.
She finally decided that she wanted nothing to do with her dad. About three years ago, her sister informed her that their father had passed away due to COVID-related complications.
He had been living with a Serbian woman. The Italian embassy in Egypt wanted to know what to do with his body.
He ended up getting buried in a mausoleum in a Christian cemetery in Cairo. Kelli also found out that she had another younger sister in Zurich who is now 20. Their father abandoned her when she was just eight years old.
So, he abandoned three daughters and three wives in the same way. He owned dive shops that were probably a front for some shady business. None of them knows who their dad really was.
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
