OTTAWA — Suspended senator Mike Duffy admitted he's the father of Peruvian woman Karen Duffy Benites, her mother says.

Yvette Benites Ruiz and her daughter Karen, 32, were reached by QMI Agency's French television station TVA in Peru on Wednesday.

Ruiz said from Lima that her daughter has had two conversations with Duffy this week and a third was planned for Wednesday night.

"He wants to talk to her every night," Ruiz said. "Yesterday (Tuesday) was the second day they talked together and tonight they are going to talk again.

"He said to her things are going to change for them. I think they are going to meet some day," she said in a telephone interview.

Asked if Duffy has acknowledged he's Karen's biological father, Ruiz said: "Yes."

"He is the father. He is the only man I had in three years. He is the father."

Asked again if Duffy admitted that he is the dad, Ruiz said: "Yes, he told her that he recognized that ... he knew that she was his daughter. He told her he was going to do the papers and whatever."

Karen didn't want to go into specifics about the conversations, but confirmed the Conservative appointee to the Senate did reach out to her and that they had communicated at length and would continue to do so.

When reached via e-mail, Duffy told QMI Agency to "leave it alone. This is a good thing."

Benites said she met Duffy in 1981 in Canada after serving time in Kingston, Ont., for smuggling cocaine.

In court documents filed in Lima seeking to have Duffy legally recognized as Karen's father, the mother recounts her relationship with the former television journalist when she was finishing her sentence at an Ottawa halfway house.

She met Duffy by chance through his sister, also serving time, who asked her to deliver a gift to her brother when she arrived in Ottawa, she said.

Benites said she hid the pregnancy from Duffy before returning to Peru, but later attempted to contact him over the years, to no avail. Her daughter sought him out when she was 14-years-old, but also had no luck in getting a response, she said.

Last week when Maclean's broke the story, Duffy denied any relationship.

"The Maclean's story contains untrue allegations, made by a convicted narcotics smuggler, and which go back more than 30 years," he told QMI Agency at the time.

It was a challenging week for Duffy.

The RCMP charged him with 31 offences in the ongoing Senate expense scandal investigation, including fraud, breach of trust and a count of bribery.

The latter is related to a $90,000 payment he accepted from former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Nigel Wright, who was not charged.

Duffy is set appear in court Sept. 16. He denies any wrongdoing.

mark.dunn@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @MarkDunnSun