Blunkett prepares for court battle

The private life of Home Secretary David Blunkett was again under the spotlight today after it was revealed he has launched a legal bid to prove he is the father of his former lover's child and the baby she is expecting.

He is said to believe both are the result of his three-year affair with Miss Fortier, 44, who ended the relationship in a bid to save her marriage. According to sources Mr Blunkett is prepared to go to court to demand DNA tests to prove paternity, despite the embarrassment it would cause him and the Government.

Mr Blunkett, 57, was said to have been devastated when the American-born publisher of The Spectator magazine dropped him in favour of her husband Stephen Quinn this summer.

He is thought to have written a formal letter to Miss Fortier's solicitors demanding the right to prove paternity under the Family Law Act 1986, but she is understoodto be reluctant to co-operate. Mr Quinn, 60, had a vasectomy reversed in order to have children with Miss Fortier, who began her affair with Mr Blunkett shortly after their marriage in 2001.

William's birth certificate names Mr Quinn as his father and he strongly believes the baby due in January is also his.

If Mr Blunkett proves paternity it is understood he will seek contact rights and contribute financially to the children's upkeep.

A source said: "David is finding it hard to come to terms with the fact he has lost Kimberly. He is convinced both children are his and is determined not to lose them as well." Mr Blunkett, who has three sons from his first marriage, took Miss Fortier and William on holiday to Corfu this summer shortly before the affair ended and the boy was a regular visitor to the Home Secretary's home. Observers say they behaved like "a happy family". When Miss Fortier left him he found himself distraught and "unable to let go".

Miss Fortier refused to comment. Mr Quinn, who has three sons from a previous marriage, said outside their ?2 million Mayfair home: "We have never spoken about our private life and have no intention of starting now."

Legal experts believe Mr Blunkett stands a good chance of winning a court order to decide who is the children's father and of gaining contact rights if DNA tests prove in his favour. Court proceedings would be private, but have leaked out in the past.

Mr Blunkett fell for Miss Fortier when the pair met at a dinner party in August 2001, only two months after her marriage at Westminster register office.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Secretary does not comment on his private life and neither he nor anyone authorised to speak on his behalf has discussed this with the media."