Racing Metro's French international centre Alexandre Dumoulin has revealed he is the biological son of former France captain Marc Cecillon, who was jailed for murdering his wife.
The 25-year-old Dumoulin revealed the news in French newspapers on Friday through his agent Jeremy Bouhy, who said it was the right time to acknowledge an 'open secret'.
"The player and his entourage decided themselves, to today break 'the open secret', in agreement with his club and France team staff after informing his mother Carole Dumoulin, Marc Cecillon, and one of the latter's two daughters," Bouhy told sports daily l'Equipe.
"Alexandre is becoming a high-profile player, we knew that something was going to happen one day or another on social media," Bouhy continued.
"His choice is therefore to recognise this situation, which was whispered on the sidelines of rugby and also to stop fantasising about the fact he has suffered," said Bouhy, adding: "Alexandre was never short of love from his mother and adoptive father."
Bouhy said: "He increasingly dreaded the revelation of this story. But he knows that in the long term it will relieve and facilitate his life.
"Because it's still complicated he preferred not to speak, and should remain silent on the subject in the future."
Dumoulin's mother had revealed his paternity when he was aged 17, at the time of Cecillon's trial. She told the court that given that Cecillon was married she "had not asked him to recognise the child", the Parisian newspaper reported.
There had never been any attempt made by either Alexandre Dumoulin or Cecillon to get in contact.
Dumoulin, who has two caps for France, joined Racing Metro in 2011 from Bourgoin-Jallieu.
Cecillon, 55, played his entire career at Bourgoin-Jallieu and was capped 46 times for France, including five times as captain.
In 2008 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, reduced to 14 years on appeal, for shooting his wife in front of 60 people after she refused to leave a party with him.
He was freed on parole in July 2011.
Source: AFP
