‘Ditched dad’ speaks of torment at losing Daisy Lowe

There’s nothing like an appearance on Strictly Come Dancing to get a whole load of skeletons tumbling out of the closet.

This week it’s Daisy Lowe’s turn, with the man who believed he was the model’s dad for 14 YEARS coming forward to tell the tabloids about his heartache at not seeing her for over a decade.

Bronner Handwerger helped bring up Daisy until she was 14-years-old – and then discovered that her real dad was actually musician Gavin Rossdale of Brit rockers Bush.

The Voice judge Rossdale, who recently divorced from singer Gwen Stefani, had a fling with Daisy’s mum Pearl while she was dating Bronner. Pearl and Bronner, and American doctor, later had a short lived marriage which led to Pearl being raised in the UK with frequent trips to see “dad” across the Pond.

“For 14 years Daisy was my daughter,” he told The Sunday Mirror. “I doted on her like any father would. Things didn’t work out between me and Pearl but I was determined to be a huge part of Daisy’s life.

“Although separated by the Atlantic I moved heaven and earth for her. She would spent summers in America and I would regularly fly to the UK.

“Like any daughter, she was a huge part of my life, a huge part of my family’s life. She still carries my family name. Lowe is my mother’s maiden name.”

Bronner and Pearl met in 1988 on a kibbutz in Israel, but later split when he tired of her infamous partying and drug use. When Pearl found out she was pregnant, she gave Bronner an ultimatum – get married or she’d have an abortion.

They returned to London, where he built up a fashion business, but split amid claims he’d slapped Daisy – which he vehemently denies. When Daisy was 8, he claims Pearl demanded £50,000 – then took her out of his life when he failed to stump up the cash.

After 5 years, Daisy tracked him down, still believing he was her dad. “The meeting did not go well,” Pearl Lowe claims in her autobiography. “For so many years she had imagined him to be something he wasn’t.”

Finally the truth came out in 2004, when Daisy discovered Gavin Rossdale was her real dad when she found out she didn’t share a blood group with her mum.

“I knew before Daisy,” Bronner explains. “I didn’t have the heart to tell her there and then. I was too shellshocked.

“I have three beautiful kids of my own but I still look on Daisy as my daughter. I’d be happy to see her again. I still love her dearly.”