Long Lost Family — Season 13
7 Episodes · Premiered July 3, 2023 · Ended August 14, 2023
Episodes
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of two men, both of them born in Ireland to unmarried mothers at a time when having children outside of marriage was seen as sinful and the Catholic Church went to great lengths to cover it up. When Arthur Fitzharris's adoptive parents died he decided to find out about his birth family, and was dismayed to discover that his birth certificate falsely recorded early foster parents as though they were his biological parents. Bernard McGrath discovered his adoptive parents were falsely named as his biological parents on his birth certificate and no other records seemed available to him.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell tell more stories of people desperate to find missing family and answer questions that have haunted entire lives, beginning with two men searching for the truth about their beginnings. Paul Connolly had a brutal childhood and was put out with the rubbish as a baby in east London and raised in care, while Shaun Lawrence had a happy adoption with wonderful parents but was always curious about his birth parents.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell meet Sara Hathaway who, after losing her adoptive mother and older brother in the space of just a year, is desperate to find her birth family. Plus, Diane Kerridge shares her story of being forced to give up the child she gave birth to as a teenager in the 1960s. Over 50 years later, she is hoping to find her long lost son.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell report on two more cases. More than 40 years ago, Caroline Kinsey was pregnant, alone and unable to provide the kind of family and upbringing she believed all children deserved. Burdened by her heart-breaking decision to give her son up for adoption, Caroline longs to find him, to hear that he did have a happy childhood, and to know whether he can forgive her after all these years. Raised as an only child, Paul McFarlane's beloved mother died when he was nine, but years later, a single piece of paper threw all his assumptions about his small family into question.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell follow the stories of two more people. Rachel Burch grew up in a white family and stood out in the small, West Sussex village where they lived, and is searching for her Jamaica-born birth father. Sue Davis is on the hunt for the half-brother her mother gave up for adoption after his American serviceman father went home and off the radar following Second World War.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell follows the stories of two women looking for siblings given up for adoption, but for very different reasons. Jeanette Woodyatt wants to find the brother she has never met and who was turned away from the family by her grandmother, while Karen Turnbull yearns to let her twin siblings know that their mother gave them up for adoption so they would have a better life.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of two men hoping to find birth family. Joe McGregor was adopted as a baby in Bermuda in the 1970s and grew up in Norfolk in a loving family, yet he still yearns to find his birth family. Simon Miller's mum's dying wish was that he should find the daughter who she gave up for adoption just a few years before he was born.