Now engaged again, the three-times married man keeps track of their names with an ever-growing family tree tattooed on his back.
His relationships have broken down because of his drinking and womanising, and the recovering alcoholic says 16 of his children have been taken into care at some stage in their lives. If they had completed just one year in care each, it would leave the taxpayer with a bill for £2.4million.
Mr Holpin or the children’s mothers would also have been able to claim at least £500 000 in child benefit and a further £800 000 in child tax credits. On top of this, he has claimed at least £675 000 in benefits himself.
Yet the feckless dad, of Ebbw Vale in South Wales, said: “I’ll never stop [having children]. Never stop. In the Bible, God says go forth and multiply. I’m doing what God wants.” (And what does your Bible say about drinking?)
He was the subject of a Channel 5 documentary this week, but last night former friends said Holpin’s claim to 40 children aged between three and 37 was nonsense. And as 40 Kids By 20 Women aired, his ex-wife Petrina told of her embarrassment on Facebook, writing: “Feeling Asshamed” (sic).
Mr Holpin, who lives in a council house and claims benefits, said he was a changed man who no longer drank alcohol. But he still wants more children. He added: “I’m as fertile as sin. I don’t believe in contraception and I love sex. Most of my kids have gone through the care system. It makes me feel like s*** because they’ve suffered. They [social services] took them from me because I’m an alcoholic. I’m still an alcoholic – I just don’t practice it.”
TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Jonathan Isaby said: “It is the lack of shame that really sticks in the throat and taxpayers will be furious.
It is sheer arrogance to keep having children as if they were hot dinners and expect other people to pick up the bill.” But former friends say Mr Holpin’s boasts are off the mark, and that he has fathered as few as 16 children with three women.
One said he had “padded” his numbers by including his ex-partner’s stepchildren. He added: “He’s no angel after a drink but he isn’t the big ladies” man that he likes to think he is. He’s definitely had a football team’s worth of little “uns – maybe 16 – just because he’s not fussy and not careful. But no way has he got two rugby teams and all the subs to make it up to 40.”
Mr Holpin and his family are infamous in the former mining town of Ebbw Vale, where locals have launched petitions to stop him moving in their street. He now lives with his fianceeDiane Morris, ten years his junior, in a council house in the village of Cwm.
Mr Holpin’s daughter Rhiannon, 19, said on Facebook yesterday: “You can all hate but it doesn’t matter, there’s plenty of us to stick up for each other and we can take on the lot of you.
“I feel like I can’t even leave my house without people judging. Get off my back, I didn’t ask my dad to do what he’s done with his life.” Mr Holpin’s brother, David, 59, said the former fairground worker’s “shocking” behaviour had brought “shame” on the family.
David Holpin, from Erith, Kent, added: “I lost touch with Mike when I moved to Kent 18 years ago – he didn’t have a phone so we couldn’t keep in touch.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he had 40 children, the way he carries on. His behaviour is shocking. I’m not ashamed of Michael, but I’m upset about the way our family name has been tarnished.
“He has brought shame on us, and we are a good family.”
