WASHINGTON: Tests based on DNA are rewriting history. At times they prove what many doubt and, at others, disprove what many thought was true.

One DNA test, revealed on Friday, shows that a former US president, Warren G. Harding, fathered a child out of wedlock with his long-rumoured mistress, Nan Britton.

According to AncestryDNA, a division of Ancestry.com, genetic analysis has confirmed Ms Britton’s claim.

She set off a scandal when she went public nearly 90 years ago with her tale of forbidden love in the White House.

The findings — based on DNA results from Ms Britton’s grandson and descendants of President Harding — are 99.9 per cent certain, AncestryDNA claimed.

Warren Harding (1865-1923) was president from March 1921 to Aug ’23. He was a senator from Ohio when the affair began. It ended with Mr Harding’s sudden death during his presidency in 1923.

Ms Britton published her story in a 1927 best-selling autobiography, “The President’s Daughter”. But historians have long questioned her claims.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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