The new episode of Long Lost Family will air on ITV tonight (22 July) at 9pm.
Presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, Long Lost Family is a programme about people tracing their long-lost family members with the help of the show’s team of expert researchers.
In tonight’s episode, viewers meet 53-year-old Melanie Mackney from Hampstead. Melanie was adopted and only learned about her birth family when she accessed her records as an adult.
Melanie’s birth mother Maria was from Yugoslavia and fled the Communist regime after the end of the Second World War. She initially sought refuge in Australia, before moving to Britain.
Melanie discovered that she has two older twin sisters, Kathleen and Rosemary, who were born a year before her. They were also adopted. She also learned that Maria suffered from mental health problems that appeared to be schizophrenia. This put her off having children of her own.
Before appearing on Long Lost Family, Melanie did a DNA test. She didn’t match with Kathleen and Rosemary, but she was astonished to find two more sisters she didn’t know existed.
While she was living in Australia, Maria married and had two daughters, Helen and Mitza. She left them behind as young girls when she came to England.
Melanie has now been able to talk to her sisters via video calls. They’ve sent her photos of Maria and told her more about her. Sadly, Maria died in poverty at the age of 43. All three now want to find Kathleen and Rosemary.
“What happened to the twins, a year before?” Melanie says. “I wonder, have they had children? I think it would bring a lot of peace and comfort to me, to find out.”
The Long Lost Family researchers manage to track down Rosemary, but tragically, Kathleen died in a road accident in 2021, aged 52. However, she has a son, 24-year-old Liam.
Liam was taken into foster care when he was seven because Kathleen struggled with mental health issues. But he says Kathleen was “a good mother” and they always stayed in contact, while he had a loving upbringing with his foster parents.
He’s very excited to learn about Melanie: “This was my mum’s dream to finally meet her siblings, her biological family, and myself to meet my auntie and mum’s lost sibling, I think it would be really emotional and exciting.”
The Long Lost Family team also meet Sue Stalley from Bedford. Sue became pregnant as a teenager. She wanted to keep her baby but her parents refused to allow her.
She gave birth to a son, who she called Richard, and was forced to give him up for adoption.
“I was told to pack my bags, leave the baby in the nursery and just go,” she says. “So I didn’t get to say goodbye. I just cried all the way through it. It wasn’t what I wanted, but then what I wanted didn’t come into it, I don’t think.”
Sue then got pregnant again, but refused to give the baby up for adoption. She now has five children, who she brought up largely as a single mother, but she has never stopped thinking about Richard.
Long Lost Family’s researchers discover that Richard, now called Steve, is living in the Netherlands. He has served in the army and has a son, a daughter and three grandchildren.
Steve is thrilled to learn that his birth mother wants to meet him. “Deep in my heart I always had a feeling and a hope that she would come and look for me,” he says.
Steve and Sue are overjoyed to finally meet, along with Sue’s daughter Stephanie.
“There’s my son right in front of me,” Sue says. “I’ve longed for that. My family is complete. I’ve got all my children and that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Melanie is also thrilled to finally meet Liam.
“It does feel like belonging somewhere,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to belong. And he’s really mine.”
Since the programme was made, Melanie, Rosemary, Helen, Mitza and Liam have spent their first Christmas together as a family. Sue, Steve and Sue’s other children are planning to go on a caravan holiday together.