Childhood friends discover they are half sisters after 50-year search

A woman was delighted to be told her inseparable childhood friend was in fact her half-sister, following a five decade-long search for her biological father.

Cara Jane Farrar Peterson, 52, says she finally feels like she ‘belongs somewhere’ after being reintroduced to her childhood friend Karen Smith, 51, as her step-sister.

Mum-of-seven Cara had complications in finding her real dad because her mum was married six times and hospitalised with a mental disorder during her early teens.

But 50 years late, she finally found solace in the knowledge her childhood best friend, Karen, was her half-sister after a friend created a family tree.

However, the pair reconnected via Facebook in 2015, which spurred Cara on to find out if the pair were related because she believed they looked similar in pictures.

A family friend managed to secure Cara's official birth certificate while compiling a family tree earlier this year, and the father's name was listed as 'Christopher Archer'.

Cara believed the man wasn't her dad, and took a DNA test on The Jeremy Kyle Show to find out once and for all if they had the same father, Michael Farrow.

The tests confirmed Cara's suspicions and her dreams were finally realised - she was indeed part of the family.

"It’s just changed who I am, I always felt like a lost soul and I finally feel like I belong somewhere.”

"I just wish I could go back and have stayed close to my half-sister because I really had nothing.

"It’s like we always had a connection, even though we didn’t know we were actually sisters."

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Cara's newfound biological father Michael Farrow, 75, had been told by her mother Linda Powell, 74, in 1966 that he was not the father to their second child.

The couple had already had firstborn Melanie Webb, 54, but Linda explained she was having an affair at the time of conceiving Cara and told Michael he wasn't the dad.

Cara and Melanie, who Cara believed was her half-sister for 52 years, ended up "in and out of" children's care homes after their mother had a mental breakdown.

But on Cara's 16th birthday, Linda took her to the local boozer in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and pointed 'a drunken man in the pub' called 'Christopher Archer'. 

But DNA results revealed Michael Farrow was her dad and Melanie was her full sister and Michael's other daughter Karen was her half-sister when they appeared on the Jeremy Kyle show.

"There was someone else on my birth certificate - I was 30 by the time I could get a bank account, driving licence and passport," she said.

"No one knew who I was and in them days you needed that sort of stuff. DNA wasn't around, was it? It was different times.

"I felt like a bloody alien or something, and that's what I would tell people."

After Linda's affairs, Melanie and Karen's father Michael didn't believe Cara was his own daughter, but is overjoyed with the DNA result.

Presenter Jeremy Kyle praised the sisters for their strength and the bond they share and was pleased to announce to them that they were full sisters.

"My mum never wanted me at all and I say I do not have a mother," Cara, who volunteers at a charity shop, said.

"I don't call my mother Mum anymore - she's dead to me.

"I also have a new half-brother and half-sister - my mum hid it from me all that time.

"I've missed out on a lot of things. I missed out on Karen's wedding and other family events.

"I have loads more nephews now, a family wedding is a family event and I wish I had been there.

"I just feel like after 52 years I finally know who I am. It's changed my whole life."