Vaughn's truth about son Matthew

When Matthew Vaughn and Claudia Schiffer tie the knot at Skibo Castle in Scotland in a few months' time, for what promises to be the most glamorous showbiz wedding of the year, the guest list will read like a Who's Who of the film and music worlds.

Sting and Trudi Styler will be there, probably Stella McCartney, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and a clutch of supermodels plus Vaughn's best friend Guy Ritchie and his wife, Madonna, for whom Matthew acted as best man when they wed at the same venue two years ago.

But probably the proudest guest there will be Matthew's 54-year-old mother, Kathy, the woman who practically brought up her son singlehandedly when his father apparently abandoned them.

The father was one of the most celebrated heart-throbs of the Seventies, the impossibly suave Robert Vaughn, whose boisterous bachelor lifestyle was tamed by the society beauty Kathy Ceaton, whom he met at a party and immediately became besotted with, wooing her by whispering that she looked just like Hollywood star Natalie Wood.

Gossip columns were abuzz with stories about how The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s daredevil spy Vaughn had fallen in love with Kathy, the beautiful daughter of electrical and property tycoon James Ceaton, and they swiftly became one of the most glamorous couples in London and Los Angeles, propelling the Winchester-born girl into a heady life of Hollywood glitz.

However, the most mysterious aspect of the affair is why the man who apparently doted on his new love and, later, their newborn son should, just before Matthew's first birthday, cut him and his mother out of his life entirely, never seeking to speak or see them again, his only contact being a paltry £191-amonth upkeep.

It's a perplexing mystery that only now 70-year-old Vaughn feels able to solve - the extraordinary revelation that, despite what his former lover says, he is not Matthew's father. And, he says, there are court papers to prove it. "The matter was resolved in the Eighties in America, both scientifically and legally in the Superior Court of Los Angeles," he says in an exclusive interview. "The litigant lost. I'm not the father."

Back in 1970, Vaughn was the party-loving superstar who fell head-over-heels in love with beautiful 22-year-old Kathy, who was 13 years his junior. At the time, he was in London filming a TV drama, The Protectors, with Nyree Dawn Porter, and Kathy was working as a researcher for the Eamonn Andrews chat show.

Their passionate three-year affair eventually saw Kathy share homes with Vaughn on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey and in Hollywood where she soon found herself hosting some of the glitziest parties on the West Coast, entertaining the likes of Steve McQueen and Jack Nicholson. "We have the grooviest relationship,'' she said at the time. "There's no need for marriage, I think we should let things stay as they are for a while. We have everything you could want from marriage except for a ring and children. The ring I can live without, and babies can wait.''

Except they didn't and, a year later, on 7 March 1971, she gave birth in Beverly Hills to a son, Matthew - the same Matthew who years later was to masterminded the success of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, who entertains close friends like Pitt, McCartney and Sting at his Notting Hill home and who has become one of Britain's most successful film moguls.

Strains on his parents' relationship began to show just before Kathy announced that she was pregnant with Vaughn's child and it was rumoured that Vaughn began an affair with his current wife, Linda Staab, halfway through the pregnancy. The rows grew fiercer and, the moment Matthew was born, Kathy fled the country, returning to her parents' home in London, though not before a judge ruled that a paternity test must be taken. For almost a year, Vaughn acted like the doting father, insisting that the boy took his name, lavishing him with affection and gifts from Harrods plus a christening spoon that was a family heirloom, and writing him affectionate letters.

However, just before their son's first birthday, after a Superior Court Commissioner insisted Vaughn pay £191-amonth support for the child, all contact with Kathy and Matthew ended. She brought up her son while her ex-lover went on to marry former actress Linda. For the past 30 years Kathy has bemoaned the fact that Vaughn, the father of her son, has had nothing to do with their lives. It's a mystery that only now the Hollywood star feels able to speak about. Matthew's friends say he has never pursued contact with his father for fear of upsetting his mother. But is it really as clear-cut as that?

On the eve of Matthew's celebrity wedding to Claudia Schiffer, I met Vaughn at the Plaza Hotel in New York, in one of its most expensive suites with panoramic views of Central Park and Fifth Avenue.

The temperature outside was a blistering 95F but Vaughn looked cool and relaxed in a dark blue linen shirt, beige trousers and white socks and trainers. Ostensibly, the purpose of our interview was to talk about The Man From U.N.C.L.E. series, which is soon to be rescreened on Granada Plus, but what I really wanted to know was whether he would be rubbing shoulders with Madge, Guy and new daughter-in-law Claudia at what will surely be the showbiz wedding of the year.

Nothing could have prepared me for the way Vaughn dropped his bombshell when I broached the sensitive subject of his relationship with Matthew.

Pausing for a moment, he leaned forward purposefully on the sofa and his tone changed from jovial and familiar to more edgy and urgent. He seemed to have anticipated that the question would arise and had already prepared his answer.

"Let me explain this to you. I want to get it very clear in one sentence, OK? Is that tape working?" he said, gesturing towards my recorder on the coffee table between us and paused while I leaned over to check it was running, then he continued very slowly and deliberately, as if to make sure that each word had a chance to sink in.

"That matter was resolved in the Eighties in America, both scientifically and legally in the Superior Court of Los Angeles. The litigant lost. That's all I'm saying. You understand what that means?"

"That you are not his father?" I ventured.

"Correct," he added, noting my surprise at this extraordinary and unexpected revelation.

"It is available at the public records office. What I have just told you is available at a public viewing. If you wish to go to the Superior Court of Los Angeles, you will see what I have said - DNA and all." I later discovered that the public wasn't privy to the paternity details since the results have been "sealed", a common occurrence in Los Angeles when the couple involved have not married.

I wondered aloud why this news had not seeped out in Britain, but Vaughn wouldn't be drawn on the reason, adding only: "That is my answer to your question."

Undeterred, I told him I was amazed that if that was the case, he was still commonly referred to as Matthew's father in every article I have seen and even by his former lover, Kathy.

He merely repeated: "That's the answer to your question." So, as far as he is concerned, there is no link between them? Vaughn interjected: "There hasn't been for almost 20 years."

Presumably Matthew and his mother knew the results of the paternity case? "I presume so, yes. It was almost 20 years ago. I haven't been involved, anyways, with that since that time," he replied quietly.

The last time they met was in August 1982, when Matthew was 11. His mother had taken him to the Theatre Royal in London to see The Pirates of Penzance, as special guests of impresario-Michael White. Coincidentally, Vaughn was at the same performance, along with Pamela Stephenson and Annie Ross, with whom he was filming Superman III. They bumped into one another backstage but, to the amazement of onlookers, Vaughn ignored Kathy and Matthew.

In an interview last year, Kathy recalled the crushing incident, saying: "It was the most upsetting evening. We were sitting one row behind Robert in identical seats. I was very sad and disappointed that he wouldn't even acknowledge us.

"Robert insisted that Matthew adopted his surname. He never denied paternity and used to buy beautiful presents for our baby. Then Linda arrived in this country and Robert stopped seeing me but still saw Matthew.

"This went on for months. Then Robert went back to America and has ignored Matthew ever since.

"Robert would just like to forget about Matthew's existence, but I'd have thought he would understand - he himself was illegitimate and didn't see his own father until he was about nine.''

Matthew has never been keen to talk about the man whose name he shares. By nature, he is shy and has always been happier to stay in the background while his flamboyant business partner enjoys the limelight.

Neither has he traded off the connection with Vaughn, who starred in The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt and The Towering Inferno, and who counted Steve McQueen and Bobby Kennedy among his closest friends.

After leaving £14,000-a-year Stowe public school in Buckinghamshire, Matthew started his career as a runner in Los Angeles on the set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, long before his meeting with Guy Ritchie in 1995.

Intriguingly, his birth certificate states that he was born Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn on 7 March 1971 at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, and that his father was actor Robert Francis Vaughn.

Certainly, Kathy has always maintained that Vaughn is her son's father but, for his part, Robert seems satisfied that he has finally set the record straight with me. With my questions now answered in as much detail as he was prepared to give, he returned to the charming mood he had been in when we first met.

With two shock streaks through his hair, he looks older these days, but none the less retains the distinctively smooth voice and rugged good looks that landed him the role of Napoleon Solo alongside David McCallum's Ilya Kuryakin in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Vaughn is semi-retired, only taking an acting job if "the location is good and the pay is even better". He prefers to potter around his sprawling mansion in Ridgeville, Connecticut, writing his memoirs and spending time with Linda and his children, Cassidy, 25, who works as an estate agent, and 20-year-old college student Caitlin.

"Some actors are not happy unless they are working but I 'm the opposite," he said. "I have a million things I can be doing, I'm just as happy not acting and being at home with the family."

Matthew, meanwhile, need no longer wonder why the man he has always believed to be his father had so publicly turned his back on him after years of silence. The question he must now face is: if Robert Vaughn is not his father, who is?

? The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is being shown on weekdays on Granada Plus from 6 May at 3pm and 10pm.