LifeStyle of 2026-11-04
Dear Ghanaweb: My late father left more properties for his two secret wives than us
Dear GhanaWeb,
My father passed away about a year ago, and although his death was painful for our family, nothing prepared us for the shock we experienced during his funeral and, eventually, the reading of his will.
During his funeral, two women suddenly showed up claiming to be his wives. They wanted to be involved in the funeral arrangements, and although we were surprised by their presence, we did not want to create a scene. We allowed them to do what they wanted because we were more concerned about giving our father a befitting burial.
However, things became even more complicated in February this year when we gathered for the reading of his will.
To our greatest surprise, the two women were present at the meeting, each accompanied by two children. None of us knew who had invited them, but the lawyer explained that he was responsible for inviting them.
That was when we discovered that our father had not only known these women and their children but had maintained relationships with them and made provisions for all four children in his will.
What hurt us most was how he distributed his property and money. The four children received considerably more than those of us who grew up with him and were publicly recognised as his immediate family.
My father gave the two women a house to share, alongside money. He also allocated another house to their four children. Meanwhile, he left just one house for our family, which is considerably smaller than the other properties.
The distribution of his other assets was equally painful. He gave the four children more money than he gave us. He allocated six plots of land in total, giving them four and leaving us with only two. Even the cars in the house were given to them, except for the one we were already using.
I am the third of my mother’s five children, and what makes this situation particularly difficult is the sacrifices our mother made throughout our father’s life.
My father married our mother traditionally. He did not have a court wedding with her or any of the other women. However, she was the woman he lived with as his wife. She was the one everyone knew as his wife, and she stood by him through thick and thin.
She took care of him, including during his final days. She supported him and played a significant role in helping him become the man he was before his death.
Yet, despite all these years together and the five children they raised, my father did not leave her a house or any specific provision in his will. Instead, he gave the other women a house to share and money.
To make matters worse, these are people we never knew existed. Nobody in our immediate family or among those who knew our father publicly recognised them as his wives or the children as his children. Yet, they have suddenly appeared to claim a significant portion of his estate.
We are beginning to question whether the will we were presented with is truly what our father intended. We find it difficult to believe that he would distribute his properties this way, especially when he never gave us any indication that he did not intend to provide adequately for us.
We suspect that something may have happened to the will, and some of us even fear it could have been altered. However, we do not have evidence to support that suspicion.
We want to know whether there is a way to investigate the circumstances surrounding the preparation and execution of the will. Can we request further information from the lawyer who presented it? Can he answer questions about when it was prepared, who witnessed it and whether our father was in the right state of mind when he signed it?
We also want to know whether the fact that our mother was traditionally married to our father gives her any legal grounds to challenge how the estate was distributed. Does the law recognise her marriage, even though there was no ordinance or court wedding?
We do not want to fight over our father’s properties unnecessarily, but we also feel that our mother and the five children she raised deserve fairness. How do we go about this?
FG/EB
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