Emotional moment half-sisters meet their birth mother more than six DECADES after she gave them up as babies as her parents ‘wouldn’t accept mixed-race children into the family’

• Woman who felt ‘lost and unloved’ discovers birth mother and four siblings
• Kathleen Fraser Jackson, 62, from London, was given up at six months old
• Her white mother felt forced to give her up due to stigma of mixed race child
• Kathleen found her birth mother Kathleen senior, along with a half sister Jean
• She then discovered a brother on her birth father’s side, living just miles away

The emotional moment two women, who discovered they were half sisters during their separate quest to trace their birth mother, meet her six decades after she gave them up for adoption is shown on a fascinating episode of tonight’s Long Lost Family.

On the fourth episode of the ITV series, Kathleen Fraser Jackson, a 62-year-old community worker from Wembley Park, London, shares her painful journey growing up without feeling ‘wanted’.

Kathleen was just three-months-old when she was given up for adoption, and despite now having five children and 12 grandchildren, she admits: ‘My mother is in my thoughts all the time’.

But her quest to find her mum, who gave her up due to the stigma of having mixed race children in the fifties, leads her to find not only her mother – but another half sister given up for adoption, along with her mother’s two children, and even a brother on her father’s side. 

On the fourth episode of ITV series Long Lost Family, Kathleen Fraser Jackson, a 62-year-old community worker from Wembley Park, London, seen left, shares her journey to finding her birth mother

On the quest to find her mum Kathleen senior, 82, seen right, she also finds half sister Jean, pictured centre, in an emotional reunion

Speaking about how her mother died when she was just three, and her father put her in a boarding school at five before remarrying and having his own family, Kathleen admits:  ‘It wasn’t a happy childhood I didn’t feel part of the family and honestly thought no one cared’. 

Recalling the moment she discovered she was adopted aged 14, she broke down, explaining: ‘I was sitting opposite the counsellor when a page dropped out which said ‘adopted child’ – and I just looked.

‘I felt like I lost a mum twice. It made me feel like a nobody, like nobody’s child. So I wanted to find my birth mother’. 

When she was old enough, Kathleen accessed her adoption file to find out more.

Speaking about how her mother died when she was just three, and her father put her in a boarding school at five before remarrying and having his own family, Kathleen admits: ‘It wasn’t a happy childhood I didn’t feel part of the family and honestly thought no one cared’

Kathleen is seen visiting the West Kensington house her mother spent the first six weeks of her life with her, and admits: ‘I find it so sad that it could all have been so different.’

Davina confirms to Kathleen that she has found her mother and presents her with a picture and a touching letter from her mother, which explains why she felt she would have a better life with adoptive parents

Kathleen understood that her birth mother was a ‘society lady’ who had become pregnant by a Jamaican man studying in the UK. It was clear that her birth mother had no support from her family. 

Kathleen is seen visiting the West Kensington house her mother spent the first six weeks of her life with her, and admits: ‘I find it so sad that it could all have been so different.’

‘Apparently when I was born my grandmother, my birth mother’s mother said: ‘I’ll accept anything but I won’t accept a black child in this family’. 

The team take a sample of Kathleen junior’s DNA and put it on a database. Amazingly, almost immediately they got a hit – a match so close it could only be a half-sibling. A woman called Alison Hargreaves, living more than 3000 miles away, in Canada.

Davina McCall goes to see Kathleen junior to break the news of her sister – and mother – to her

The show reveals that Kathleen senior also had daughter Jean, now 68,  also born to a Jamaican father when she was just 18. She was adopted at six months old in Aberdeen.

Half sisters Kathleen junior and Jean meet in a touching moment where they embrace

Long Lost Family get in touch with Alison, who revealed that, incredibly, Kathleen’s birth mother was still alive. At 87 years old she is the oldest person we have ever found.

Presenter Nicky Campbell heads to Canada to find out about Kathleen senior’s life. She tells Nicky that as a young single mother she wanted better for Kathleen, especially in the face of social stigma of the time.

She says: ‘I wanted Kathleen to have a proper home with two parents and a proper life’

She remembers handing Kathleen over to her adoptive mother. 

She adds: ‘She wanted a mixed race child. I looked at Kathleen in the buggy and the expression on her face, I’ve always remembered it, it was just absolute pure happiness.’

‘I cried a lot for two months. I knew her, I held her and you can’t forget that.’

Presenter Nicky Campbell heads to Canada to find out about Kathleen senior’s life. She tells Nicky that as a young single mother she wanted better for Kathleen, especially in the face of social stigma of the time

Kathleen junior, left, and Jean, centre, make the journey to Canada to meet their birth mother, right

When Nicky tells her that Kathleen has junior has five children and 12 grandchildren, she is astounded, before poring over a picture of her. 

As she reflects back, Kathleen senior makes an astonishing revelation to Nicky. She says: ‘This makes me think about the first child I had, Jean.’

Kathleen then tells Nicky that years before she had Kathleen junior, she gave another baby up for adoption, a daughter, also born to a Jamaican father when she was just 18. She was adopted at six months old in Aberdeen. 

Nicky offers for the team to take on a search to try to find Jean too, and as the search gets underway, presenter Davina McCall goes to see Kathleen junior to break the news of her sister – and mother – to her.

Sitting down with Kathleen, Davina reveals: ‘She’s alive and well. We’ve found your mum’. 

Kathleen junior is amazed to hear about her mum. She says: ‘Oh my god I’ve got a mum. I’ve got a mum’, before breaking down and asking: ‘Does she want to see me?’ 

Davina confirms she does and presents her with a picture and a touching letter from her mother, which explains why she felt she would have a better life with adoptive parents. 

Davina goes on to reveal that it’s not just her mum who’s been found and that the team are also searching for a sister, who was also adopted, six years before Kathleen was born, and that this child also had a Jamaican father. 

Kathleen junior is overjoyed at the prospect of having a big sister.

In an emotional scene, both women are both overwhelmed with emotion to finally have a mother in their lives.

‘This feels incredible’, they all agree, as they sit around a table and Kathleen senior gives them both necklaces with their birthstones in them. Jean says: ‘To hold her hand, that’s what I always wanted to do, just hold my mother’s hand.’

Because Jean was adopted, the Long Lost Family team use a specialist intermediary to find her. Still called Jean, she’s found living in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Nicky makes the journey to see her and find out how she feels about being found. She says: ‘It’s been something I’ve wanted really all my life.’

Jean, 68, reveals a striking similarity between her and Kathleen junior. She tells Nicky that her adoptive mother left the family home when she was three years old, so she too grew up without a mother.

Explaining that her father didn’t deal with her race, she adds: ‘I’ve always felt I’ve got a mother somewhere and this wanting her and wanting to know her, It was hard.’

Jean is stunned when Nicky tells her about her sister Kathleen. She can’t wait to meet them both, and sobs: ‘Oh my goodness she looks like me’, when she is given a picture.

She says: ‘This is more than all the gold in the world. That’s my family. My family I’ve wanted all my life.’

Kathleen  senior’s other daughter Alison, seen, is overjoyed to meet her two new half sisters

Kathleen senior introduces Kathleen junior and Jean to their half siblings Alison and Graham (seen far right)

Kathleen junior and Jean make the journey to Canada to meet their birth mother. 

They decide to meet each other first, the day before being reunited with their mum.

Crying as they walk towards each other and immediately embrace, Kathleen junior says: ‘It’s like looking at myself. She’s everything that I would want my big sister to be.’

Jean says: ‘It was one of the most amazing moments of my life.’ The pair embrace in a touching moment, admitting: ‘This is us now’.

The following day Kathleen junior and Jean travel to a hotel to meet Kathleen senior. 

‘There’s a look that only your mother can give you – I’m hoping to see that’, Kathleen says. 

In an emotional scene, both women are both overwhelmed with emotion to finally have a mother in their lives. 

‘This feels incredible’, they all agree, as they sit around a table and Kathleen senior gives them both necklaces with their birthstones in them.

Jean says: ‘To hold her hand, that’s what I always wanted to do, just hold my mother’s hand.’

But this isn’t the end of Kathleen’s story – with the team coming up with yet another match from their online database – this time on her father’s side.

In an emotional scene, both women are both overwhelmed with emotion to finally have a mother in their lives

After looking into Kathleen’s birth father, a DNA match leads the team to her half-brother, four years younger than Kathleen, Teddy

After looking into Kathleen’s birth father, a DNA match leads the team to her half-brother, four years younger than Kathleen, Teddy. 

Surprisingly Teddy is found to be living just seven miles from Kathleen in Shepherds Bush.

Nicky goes to meet Teddy, who tells him that sadly Kathleen’s father passed away two years ago, and that he’d never told Teddy about Kathleen. 

But Teddy is joyful that he can welcome Kathleen into the family. He says: ‘My father was a family man, you know, and we just love family.’

Davina goes to see Kathleen junior for a second time, to tell her about this incredible discovery and to ask Kathleen what it means to have a connection to her Jamaican heritage. 

She says: ‘This is something that’s really deep. It’s like now I’ve got my own history.’

Kathleen and Teddy meet in a café in West London, and Teddy is able to tell Kathleen all about her birth father.

Kathleen says: ‘What I’ve gained this past month, officially I have a family. A multicultural family that spans continents… I’m loved.’

Long Lost Family is on ITV on Mondays at 9pm.  

In this brand new seven-part series, Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell return and, with the help of trained intermediaries, DNA experts and investigators from all over the world, they find people that previously couldn’t be traced and answer questions that have haunted entire lives.

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