Charles' former mistress agrees to grilling

Ray Charles' former mistress has agreed to be grilled by lawyers over her sexual history in a bid to establish whether her 17-year-old son is really the late soul legend's child.

Unemployed Mary Anne den Bok, however, told a court that she regretted asking for a 20-fold increase in child support payments from the late blues singer's estate to at least US$60,000 ($84,300) a month from US$3000 ($4200).

"I sincerely regret, in my initial petition, that I made the exorbitant request [for raising child support] that I did," she said.

"My sexual history, for the past 21 years, has been that I had no sexual relations with anyone other than [Charles]."