A life insurance salesman who was on a quest to prove William Shatner is his father has learned the hard truth that he’s not really related to the “Star Trek” actor – thanks to a DNA test.
Peter Shatner, who legally changed his name from Peter Sloan last year, used Ancestry.com to identify his biological father as a Canadian man named Benjamin “Chick” Freedman who died in 2001, the Tampa Bay Times reported Wednesday.
Peter, 63, first uploaded his DNA to the site in 2009 in the hopes of finding genetic matches through relatives of the man better known as Captain Kirk. Some 11 years later, the Clearwater man found his link to Freedman’s children when his daughter agreed to take a DNA test in October, according to the report.
“The test came back positive that she was my half sibling,” Peter told the newspaper.
His biological mother told him in 1984 his father was either William Shatner, now 89, or a man she remembered solely as “Chick.”
That led Peter — a former radio host who now sells life insurance — to call on the actor to take a DNA test for the next 36 years, a request he repeatedly denied.
Peter tried to sue William Shatner in March 2016 for $170 million, claiming his birth mother, late Canadian actress Kathy McNeil, had an affair with the actor in Toronto prior to his birth at a New York hospital in December 1956. McNeil then gave Peter up for adoption days later.
William Shatner, however, has flatly denied the claims that Peter is his son, saying he was trying to profit off the connection.
“Mr. Shatner has three lovely daughters, but no sons,” Shatner’s rep told Page Six in 2016. “Mr. Shatner is aware of the lawsuit, but there’s nothing there because he isn’t his father.”
Peter had insisted his legal fight to prove the “Star Trek” actor was his dad was “never about wanting his money,” claiming he intended to renounce any inheritance if a DNA test was taken.
October’s revelation was jolting since he’ll never meet his biological father, he said.
“I will never have the opportunity to sit and talk to him,” Peter said. “I just wanted to know where I came from.”
Peter said he’ll now “obviously” seek to get his name changed again, likely back to Sloan, the newspaper reported.
“I found what I was looking for,” he said. “It took time and it was a fight, but I did it. I finally know where I come from.”