This is officially one of the biggest glow-ups in history. A man in Cornwall, England, went from struggling as a care worker to being the lord of a $60 million estate in a matter of days.
Jordan Adlard-Rogers had never lived a lavish lifestyle. He often lived paycheck to paycheck and worried about how to pay his next bill.
He had suspected that his father was the British aristocrat Charles Rogers, who lived on the nearby Penrose Estate. But without a DNA test or Charles' own admission, Jordan was never able to prove it.
One day, he gave the DNA test one last try. He received word that Charles had died and Jordan was his son after all — making him the sole heir of Charles' fortune.
Jordan has since received the keys to Penrose, a sprawling 1,536-acre country estate. He also reportedly receives $1,300 per week from the Rogers Family Trust fund.
Jordan says he's now getting his "feet under the table" and that he no longer has to work.
Penrose Estate is a 1,536-acre property in the countryside in Cornwall, England. It's worth $60 million, according to People.
The Rogers family has lived on the property for generations. They first bought the property from the Penroses in 1771.
In August 2018, the most recent lord of the manor, Charles Rogers, was found dead in his car at age 62. He left the estate with no apparent heir.
Charles struggled throughout his life with drug abuse, and he died from an overdose. After the death, a DNA test was carried out on Charles, and it was discovered that he actually did produce an heir to the estate: a son, Jordan Adlard-Rogers.
Jordan had known there was a possibility that Charles was his father since he was a child, but he was never able to confirm the information.
The 31-year-old grew up in a council house (a form of British public housing), and he often struggled financially. He was employed as a care worker.
After discovering that he is, indeed, the sole heir to the Rogers fortune, Jordan quit his job and moved onto the property with his partner, Katie Hubber, and their newborn son, Joshua.
First, though, Jordan took Katie on a vacation to New York.
He's now settling into his new life and discovering more about the family he never got to know.
"I haven’t been here long and don’t know all the ins and outs but have been able to piece some of the puzzle together," Jordan told Cornwall Live.
"Charles never actually lived in the estate. He lived in one of the estate’s farmhouses as his mum lived here, so he never got the chance to inherit it," Jordan explained.
"They died two weeks apart and his brother was also in line to live in the estate before him."
"It’d got to the point when he gave up on himself and was living in his car instead of his house as it was such a mess," he said of the father he never knew.
Jordan has thought a lot about what led to Charles' struggle with addiction.
"There was always a pressure of him trying to match expectation. His brother was a RAF pilot and his dad a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy so he had big shoes to fill. He was under huge pressure taking it on, but he was different and a free spirit," Jordan told Cornwall Live.
"Charles served in the Army in Northern Ireland and I think this affected him greatly along with the death of his brother Nigel from cancer who he was very close to."
Jordan did try to connect with his father over the years, but he was never successful.
"He offered to do a DNA test when I was younger but it didn’t happen and then when I was 18 I knocked on his door and asked if I could have the test and he told me to do it through the solicitors," he recalled. "I was 18 so had other priorities at the time."
"I wrote more letters in my twenties but never got a reply, then three years ago I got in contact with power of attorney Philip Care," Jordan continued.
"Philip said Charles didn’t want to do the test, so I wrote one final letter with a DNA test kit enclosed and that was when Philip rang and told me Charles was dead."
Finally, Jordan got the DNA test completed, and it was confirmed that Charles was indeed his father.
In addition to being the new lord of the manor, Jordan reportedly now receives a $1,300 per week income from the Rogers trust fund.
The Rogers family gifted the estate to the National Trust historical charity in 1974 in exchange for a 1,000-year lease to continue living there.
It's now a public destination with trails, gardens, and holiday cottages.
The Rogers Family Trust produces income for the life tenant.
Jordan says he wants to use his new wealth to help people.
"I don’t need to work anymore so want to set up a charity and help the Porthleven and Helston communities," Jordan said of the two nearby towns, one of which he grew up in.
"I’ve been at the point of worrying about the next bill and have had a tough start in life but now I’m here I want to help people. I’m not going to forget where I’ve come from."
It's not as perfect of an ending as you might think, though. He says he'd trade it all to be able to have a relationship with his father and perhaps steer him away from his life of drug abuse.
"People say I’m lucky but I would trade anything to be able to go back and for Charles to know I was his son," he said. "Maybe then he might have taken a different path."
