What would the average man do if he came home to find the woman he loves in bed with his 19-year-old son?
Reel backwards in speechless humiliation? Explode in anger? Faint? Maybe all three in rapid succession?
It’s a question occupying the minds of Australians who have become gripped by a real-life soap opera – and one more tawdry it is scarcely possible to imagine.
For when faced with this scenario, Levi Hilton, a builder from the Gold Coast, did none of the above – not to begin with at least – but instead reached for his smartphone.
Filming himself peeling back the bed covers, he zooms in on his 38-year-old partner Jessica Te Huia and his teenage son Lorenzo from a previous relationship, who is asleep next to her.
Bizarre enough, you might think, even for this video-obsessed age. But it’s what Levi did next though that truly beggars belief. Somehow managing to overcome his embarrassment, he decided against keeping the scandal in the family – and instead chose to share the excruciating footage with his 6,000 Instagram followers. In it, he screams at Te Huia: ‘Are you having sex with my son?’
Unsurprisingly, the footage spread faster than an Australian bushfire and everyone from Darwin to Sydney is now intimately familiar with Levi’s love triangle.
Lest there was any chance the imbroglio might subside, up popped Levi’s 38-year-old partner Te Huia to defend herself – leading some to point out that it was all beginning to feel a bit scripted, that it might be some kind of twisted prank. In fact, all three have felt compelled to address the matter publicly.
The viral video posted on Instagram, in which Levi Hilton claims he caught his 38-year-old partner Jessica Te Huia having sex with his teenage son Lorenzo
19-year-old Lorenzo covers his face in the video, which has been watched millions of times
Levi Hilton then posted videos and screenshots about finding Te Huia in bed with Lorenzo
In the clip, Hilton storms into the bedroom at 4am on June 1 – after apparently opening the locked door with a butter knife – and demands of his son Lorenzo: ‘Why are you in her bed?’
The teenager raises an arm to shield his face from the camera but says nothing. Turning his ire on Te Huia, whose eyes are still closed, Levi barks: ‘I knew you were a f****** liar.’
Te Huia responds drowsily: ‘I’m not doing anything, bro.’ She then demands he leave her house.
But Levi snaps back: ‘Are you having sex with my son? Are you? Why is my son in your bed?
‘My 19-year-old boy… here’s proof. Proof’s in the pudding. You’re in undies with my son.’
Te Huia replies: ‘I’m always in undies, bro… I haven’t even done anything, Levi.‘
Since the video went public Te Huia has endured an avalanche of hateful comments. Speaking to the Daily Mail, she confirmed she was in a ‘beautiful, healthy’ relationship with Lorenzo but insisted it only began three weeks ago, two months after she split up with Levi.
‘His son has been sticking up for me and is more of a man than he ever will be,’ she said.
‘Levi and I hadn’t been together for two months. Lorenzo and I, yes, we have created a relationship [since the split].’
Since the video went public, Te Huia has endured an avalanche of hateful comments online…
… but she has defended her relationship with Lorenzo, insisting that ‘we found comfort in one another’
Much of the online abuse Ms Te Huia suffered has focused on the age difference. She said: ‘I would never in my life look at a 19-year-old and be attracted to a 19-year-old. However, we found comfort in one another.
‘I will put my hand up and say, given the fact that [I’m in a relationship with Lorenzo] and [he is] Levi’s son, I get the perception and I will own that. I will say 100 per cent that I get from an outsider’s perspective that I know how this looks.
‘But Lorenzo has done nothing but be in my corner and defend me.
‘The way this man is portraying me is defamation of character. And it is so horrible that I am getting marked out to be a paedophile or a rapist.
‘One, he’s 19. And, two, you don’t rape someone [who] is in love with you. And we have actually a really beautiful, healthy relationship.’
Lorenzo, meanwhile, said that he ‘always hated the way’ his father treated Te Huia and that he had witnessed his dad’s turbulent relationships ‘time after time’.
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While he said his father ‘put himself first’, he insisted that, by contrast: ‘I always took good care of my family.’
Not content with simply posting the video, Levi’s compulsion to ‘share’ then went further still. He decided to publish deeply personal screenshots of texts with Te Huia, in which she initially denied a sexual relationship with his son.
‘No, I haven’t [had sex with him]. Ask him,’ she says in one. ‘We are laughing and think it’s hilarious.’
In another text she adds witheringly: ‘I’d much prefer to have him in my space than you any day of the week.’
Levi also saw fit to make public a text exchange with his son. In it, Lorenzo declares his love for his father’s ex-girlfriend, saying she ‘holds a special place in my heart’.
He adds: ‘I honestly love her more than anyone or anything in this world, Dad. I know it’s weird, but the heart wants what it wants.
‘I’m sorry this has happened to you, truly. I love you and that ain’t ever gonna change. Just don’t make this worse than what it already is.’
For his part, Levi has now issued a statement in which he appears reflective if not sorry for his actions.
He said: ‘I was completely blindsided by a situation that turned my life upside down in an instant. It was shocking, overwhelming, and something I never could have prepared for emotionally.’
