Woman stunned as DNA test says she’s not part of her family
Trena and Laurence thought they were brother and sister. They were wrong.
A show promising to “uncover the truths behind family mysteries” was always going to be full of stressful moments.
But this recent revelation on The Secrets In My Family was especially explosive.
The siblings had enlisted the help of the UK show to track down their father, Clive.
He left their mother when Trena was only one. After this, she told them little about him.
“She is not forthcoming with all the information,” Trena said.
This sense of a missing link had inspired her and Laurence’s search.
Due to Trena’s now-fraught relationship with her mum, she wanted to reconnect with Clive, to make sure her children had a relationshipwith a grandparent.
But on receiving the results of a DNA test, Trena discovered that Clive wasn’t her father at all – and that Laurence was in fact her half-brother.
Their older sister, Jean, was furious.
“The lies that have been told and the deceit that has gone on could have split us all apart,” she told the show.
“But we’re lucky that we are stronger than that.”
A tearful Trena began to put the pieces together, saying she’d always felt her mother was holding something back.
“I knew it though. She must have known it. It’s the lies. She must know,” she said.
Despite being on a show premised on startling family disclosures, Laurence was just as thrown.
“I didn’t think that was going to be one of them,” he said.
Nevertheless, they both decided to go ahead and meet Clive.
And the emotional reunion made it all worthwhile.
Clive said he didn’t remember why he’d left the siblings’ mother, but was overjoyed to be given a “second chance” to be their dad – biological or not.
And though the meeting was bittersweet for Trena, she realised ultimately she had discovered what she’d been looking for.
“I know he’s not my biological father but at the end of the day he’s the nearest I’ve ever had,” she said. “And the nearest I’m ever going to have.”
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