Vitkovic was 12 in 1998 when Falco died at age 40 in a car accident in the Dominican Republicon.
In her new book, Falco was my Father, she depicts the famous singer as an attentive father who taught his daughter chess, gave her piano lessons and tested her English vocabulary. Vitkovic told the Berliner Morgenpost that Falco wanted her to be “a lady.”
Whether Falco was Vitkovic’s father, however, remains unclear. In the early 1990s, a paternity test threw doubt on whether Vitkovic was, in fact, the biological daughter of the famous singer. Until that time, Vitkovic’s mother Isabella Vitkovic had raised her daughter together with Falco. But Katharina believes that he was her biological father.
The paternity test had severe consequences for then 7-year-old Katharina.
“After the paternity test, he changed his will. Before, I was the sole heir. Afterwards, I was completely excluded from the will,” Katharina told the Berliner Morgenpost. When Falco died in the car crash, Vitkovic inherited nothing.
A great deal of bad press followed the paternity test. Vitkovic took her mother’s maiden name as a way to escape teasing and harassment that followed the very public paternity test.
As to whether she will retake the paternity test Vitkovic told the Berliner Morgenpost, “I will make it when I feel stabile enough for it.” The young woman now works as an IT technician in Vienna and lives in relative anonymity, the paper reported.