A MILLIONAIRE toy maker’s son is fighting to boot his illegitimate half-brother out of his dad’s £14.5m family fortune after their mum’s secret affair was revealed.
Stuart Marcus built a lucrative games empire after he began selling dolls’ houses from a room above a small East London toy shop in the 1960s.
Shortly before he died, he put £14.5m worth of company shares into trust for his “children,” with brothers Edward, 47, and Jonathan, 43, both benefiting.
But the family was thrown into turmoil after the revelation that Edward was not Stuart’s son, but instead the product of an affair between his mum, Patricia Marcus, and lawyer Sydney Glossop.
Last year, a judge ruled that Stuart was not Edward’s dad, but said that Edward could still benefit from the £14.5m fortune on the basis that both brothers were intended to share.
This week, the case came back to court, with lawyers for Jonathan arguing that it was wrong to let solicitor Edward share the wealth when he was not Stuart’s biological son.
Barrister Thomas Braithwaite, for Jonathan, insisted that the word “children” in the trust document meant “biological children” and so could not include Edward.
Stuart Marcus – dubbed “a modest man with a big dream and a big heart” by business colleagues – founded Kitfix Hobbies in 1962 and carved out a major niche in toys, board games and craft kits, later transferring the company HQ to Swaffham, in Norfolk.
The disputed trust he set up holds shares valued at £14.5m in the family companies, in which both brothers worked as the brand grew and diversified into other fields such as property, with Jonathan heading up successful commercial operations in Germany.
But since 2016, relations between the two brothers soured, climaxing in the High Court clash, in which Jonathan claimed Edward should be excluded from benefiting under the trust.
Jonathan claimed Edward was the product of a one-night stand his mum Patricia Marcus, 82, had with a lawyer named Sydney Glossop while his dad was away on business.
That claim was based on Jonathan’s discovery in 2023 of the “monumental” news that Patricia had confided in Edward that he wasn’t Stuart’s son during a confidential chat 14 years ago.
Although Edward kept his secret for more than a decade, when Jonathan learned the news it triggered a court fight as he tried to have Edward removed as a beneficiary of the multimillion-pound family trust established before Stuart’s death, aged 86, in 2020.
Jonathan commissioned DNA evidence to back his claim, while his mum told the court herself that she had no doubt that Edward’s real dad was Sydney, with whom she had a brief encounter over 40 years ago.
From the witness box, Edward told how his mum suddenly spilled the revelation about her affair and his paternity during a meeting at his home in 2010.
He said he then searched online for anything about his mystery dad, finally tracking him down to a retirement home near Birmingham, which he and his mum visited in order to meet Sydney.
Once there, he witnessed the pair of them “cuddling,” said Edward, telling the court: “I saw her sit on the bed and cuddle him and I was shocked to see her behaving that way because it wasn’t the way I saw her behave with my father.”
However, he said he began to harbour doubts about his mum’s news and claimed she went back on her account in 2010 when she told him she was wrong about Sydney being his dad.
After three days in court last year judge Master Matthew Marsh, found that the evidence confirmed that Edward is not Stuart’s son.
But found the family trust does not exclude Edward, as in the context of the trust settlement, the word “children” meant both boys.
This week, representing Jonathan in an appeal at the High Court, Mr Braithwaite argued that Master Marsh had got it wrong and that Edward should not benefit.
Stuart’s trust described the beneficiaries as his “children,” which Mr Braithwaite insisted could only be taken in its ordinary meaning, “biological children.”
But for Edward, barrister Matthew Mills argued that it was obvious that Stuart had intended to benefit Edward and urged the judge to dismiss Jonathan’s appeal.
“Jonathan is doing this to try to take away from Edward any rights in this multi-million pound family business,” he told the High Court judge.
“Stuart intended to benefit Edward, who he designated and thought to be his child. Realistically, the reasonable person would think that Edward is a beneficiary of this settlement.”
Following a half-day in court, Sir Anthony reserved his judgment on Jonathan’s bid to exclude his brother from the family fortune until a later date.
