The new episode of Long Lost Family will air on ITV tonight (12 August) 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 Tracey Boyle from Port Talbot, Wales. Tracey is one of four siblings and had a happy upbringing with her parents, Denzil and Diane.
When Tracey was a young woman, Diane suffered from a serious mental health breakdown. She told Tracey that when she was just sixteen, she gave birth to a son, who she named Richard. Her parents made her give him up for adoption. Diane continued to miss Richard and always seemed sad in October, the month he was born.
Diane died in 2015. A year later, Tracey suffered another loss when her 25-year-old son Ady unexpectedly died of heart failure in his sleep. Now, she wants to find Richard.
“It wasn’t ‘til I lost my son that it really hit home for me how my mother felt and that’s why I felt determined to find Richard,” Tracey says. “I just need to tell him that my mother really loved him… I want to find him for mam and for me.”
Long Lost Family’s researchers find that Richard had his name changed to Keith. He is now living in Essex and is married with children and grandchildren.
Keith previously tried to trace his birth family when he was eighteen, and is excited to hear about Tracey and see a picture of her.
“Now I’ve seen the picture, I need to know the person,” he says. “That’s what I really want now.”
The episode also features Liz Allward, a part-time hairdresser and counsellor from North Somerset. Liz was adopted as a baby and had a happy upbringing with her adoptive parents. But in the run-up to her wedding in 1986, she suddenly started getting a “funny feeling” that she had a birth sibling. She asked her adoptive mother, who confirmed that her birth mother had another daughter who was two years older than her.
Liz’s adoption paperwork told her her sister’s name, Deborah, but nothing else. Now, Liz says she wants to meet her: “I’d hope to find a kindred spirit and have someone else in my life and her life hopefully, that will enhance both of our lives.”
The Long Lost Family researchers found that Deborah was adopted within the family, by her birth mother’s sister.
Deborah, known as Debbie, now lives in Yorkshire. She always knew she had a sister and is pleased to finally be able to meet her.
“I wish it had happened years ago,” she says. “I’d love to know her.”
Tracey is delighted to meet Keith and give him a “cutch” (Welsh for “hug”).
“A big weight has lifted from my shoulders,” she says. “We’re all back together again now, so let the parties begin!”
Liz and Debbie are also delighted to meet.
“It was amazing to meet her,” Liz says.
“As soon as she walked in the room, I felt a connection,” Debbie says. “I felt, yeah, she’s my sister!”