William Shatner is not the father of a Florida man who has long claimed that he is the son of the "Star Trek" legend, a DNA test has revealed. For years Peter Shatner, 63, has insisted that star know for playing Captain James T. Kirk was his biological father and even went as far as to change his name from Peter Sloan last year. In 2009, he uploaded his DNA to Ancestry.com in hopes of finding a link to William Shatner, but instead, the site identified his biological father to be Benjamin "Chick" Freedman, a Canadian man who died in 2001, the Tampa Bay Times reported on Wednesday.
Peter found out the truth after Freedman's daughter agreed to take a DNA test in October.
"The test came back positive that she was my half-sibling," he told the outlet.
Peter previously stated that his mother, the late actress Kathy Burt, later Kathy McNeil, had a one-night stand with Shatner in early 1956 in Toronto, Canada, after they'd been working together on Canadian television, and he was born on Dec. 9 of that year. She gave Peter up for adoption in New York, but the two reconnected in 1984, when she admitted that his father could either be Shatner or another man she called "Chick," a law student from Montreal.
William Shatner has denied being Peter's father and refused to take a DNA test per Peter's request. In 2016, Peter filed a $170 million lawsuit against the actor, claiming damages for libel, defamation, tortious interference, and slander, but the case was dismissed.
Speaking with the Tampa Bay Times, Peter said it was never about the money. He just wanted to know where he came from.
"If you are not adopted, you could never understand. I had to know who I am," he said.
Peter added that he would be changing his last name back to Sloan and is happy to finally put the whole ordeal behind him.
"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."