- 6 weeks ago
Some reunions don’t just tug at the heartstrings — they completely shatter them. Join us as we count down the most moving moments from “Long Lost Family,” from hidden relatives and long-awaited answers to life-changing discoveries that brought tears, healing and unforgettable emotional payoffs. Which reveal hit you hardest? Let us know below!
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00:00What does that mean to you, Sharon?
00:04It's me. That is me.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most heart-wrenching moments on long-lost
00:11family that had us reaching for the tissues.
00:14Oh! Joanna!
00:16Oh my god, what are you doing here?
00:18Oh my god!
00:20Number 10. Nicholas meets his mother and half-sister.
00:23So when did you start looking for your mum?
00:25Well, I've always, you know, even when I was a kid, you know, I'd ask questions, I'd ask who my
00:31mum is.
00:32But I've always had the worry that I was going to upset somebody else's life.
00:37Nicholas Rhodes had every clue he needed to find his birth mother, her name, and the house where she lived
00:42when he was born.
00:42He even drove there, sat outside for half an hour, and almost knocked.
00:47But fear won the battle, and he left.
00:49We found somebody there who told us where your mother was, and that is your half-sister.
00:55No!
01:00Well, joking.
01:03I was sat outside my sister's house.
01:05When long-lost family took over the search, they uncovered an incredible twist.
01:09Behind that very door lived his half-sister, Kaylee, who'd spent decades hoping he'd one day come home.
01:15That's my sister.
01:17Oh my gosh, Nick.
01:19She's lived in the same house all these years, waiting for me.
01:22She's got married, and she's stayed there, and she's brought her kids up in that house just in case I'd
01:26come back.
01:26No!
01:28Oh my god, darling.
01:29Their mother, Jacqueline, had placed Nicholas for adoption, believing he'd have a better life.
01:34Watching Nicholas realize he'd been so heartbreakingly close all those years before embracing the sister who'd waited 30 years for
01:40him was almost impossible not to cry through.
01:43A couple of months back, I was humming and r-ing whether or not it was the right move to
01:47make work.
01:47Number 9. Simon's biological parents save his life.
01:51Most reunions on Long Lost Family heal emotional wounds.
01:54Simon Days literally saved his life.
01:57All these years of wandering, wanting, feeling shameful of what we did.
02:02It's just a wonderful feeling.
02:04I still can't believe.
02:06I'm just sitting here looking at my son.
02:08Adopted as a baby, Simon reunited with his birth parents, James McDonnell and Marion, after decades apart.
02:13James had one urgent reason for finding his son.
02:16A hereditary heart condition had already claimed several relatives, and he'd recently undergone major bypass surgery himself.
02:22I did have two uncles.
02:24I had a cousin of 43 and my father.
02:27All of them had a heart attack and died instantly.
02:31They didn't get a chance.
02:32So I knew it's so important to find you.
02:35He immediately urged Simon to see a specialist.
02:38The results were life-changing.
02:40Doctors discovered four severely blocked arteries and rushed Simon into emergency quadruple bypass surgery.
02:45I had severe coronary heart disease in four arteries.
02:50They were almost completely blocked.
02:52They said that if he did not have bypass surgery, he would be dead within a matter of weeks.
02:59It was terrifying.
03:00Without that warning, he might have never known until it was too late.
03:04Simon himself acknowledged how extraordinary that moment was, and he was thankful to his birth parents for saving his life.
03:09I found my son, and then literally two to three months later, I could lose him.
03:14He could be gone.
03:15I couldn't sleep that night.
03:17I was just so worried about him.
03:19I woke up early the next morning, and I went to hospital, and he woke up.
03:25Number eight.
03:26Unknown soldier's identity is finally revealed.
03:29Colin knew nothing about his past because he grew up in care.
03:31But thanks to the war detectives, he recently discovered not only that he had a great uncle, but that Frederick
03:39fought and died in World War I.
03:42And today he's here with his wife Carol and daughter Lara to find out whether Frederick has been found.
03:49Long Lost Family doesn't only reunite the living.
03:51In 2019, ITV aired a special first World War edition that left viewers completely speechless.
03:56Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell joined a Ministry of Defense team working to identify soldiers buried as unknowns.
04:03Well, I have got the result.
04:04One of you.
04:09And it is him.
04:11I can't do that.
04:16Among those cases was Private Frederick Foskett, whose identity remained a mystery for decades.
04:22DNA testing through his living descendants finally confirmed who he was.
04:25To be able to see his gravestone gone from unknown soldier to Frederick Foskett would be, well, overwhelming.
04:34His family watched overcome with emotion as his headstone was updated with his actual name while poppies were gently placed
04:40into the ground.
04:41The moment carried extra weight because one of Foskett's descendants was a man serving in today's British Army at the
04:46exact same age Foskett was when he died.
04:49He was so young.
04:5027, the same age as me.
04:52I mean, I've got my first child on the way.
04:54All my life to look forward to, and he's out here.
04:58Number 7.
04:59Francesca meets her birth mother as her true self.
05:02I'd like to just shout it from the rooftops to tell everybody that my mom's been found and she wants
05:06to meet me.
05:09In a way, it's like it's being born all over again.
05:12For Francesca Barnes, the search for her birth mother carried a deeply personal layer of vulnerability.
05:18Assigned male at birth and adopted when she was just six months old, the 43-year-old care assistant from
05:23Aldershot had been living as a woman for two years before turning to long-lost family.
05:27I'm wearing a blouse and my trousers are female and must also have a pair of knee-high boots on
05:32as well.
05:35It makes me feel more feminine and it gives me that extra confidence to go out like this.
05:43To avoid overwhelming either of them, the production team shared news of Francesca's transition with her birth mother, Norma McKay,
05:49before filming.
05:50Norma's response was everything Francesca had hoped for.
05:53She warmly embraced her daughter, saying she hadn't lost a son because Francesca was simply living as who she truly
06:00was.
06:00It felt so special for her to accept me as I am.
06:06I loved hearing her say I love you.
06:09It felt like a second chance.
06:12And I have Francesca to thank for that.
06:15That simple act of unconditional acceptance made for one of the series' most uplifting reunions.
06:20Need a breather after all these emotional reunions?
06:22Scan the QR code on your screen to join Miss Mojo's 24-7 live stream.
06:26There's always something worth watching.
06:28My good God, really?
06:30Yeah.
06:30And she's got family and...
06:32Well, there's a lot to tell you.
06:33Number 6. Claire's search for her parents in Hong Kong.
06:37This is a newspaper article from when I first came to the UK.
06:42And that's me, sitting on the lap of the air poster.
06:46Abandoned as a newborn on a stairwell in Hong Kong, Claire Martin's story is one of the most heartbreaking the
06:51show has ever told.
06:53She spent months in a local orphanage before being adopted by parents in the UK.
06:57After losing her adoptive mother at just 12, Claire was determined to find her biological family.
07:02It's a huge void not knowing who you are and who your parents were.
07:07However, it's very difficult to survive without roots.
07:13Longloft's family took her back to Hong Kong, where she revisited the stairwell where she was found and the orphanage
07:18where she once lived.
07:19Though her biological parents were never identified, she met a man whose family had lived in the building when she
07:24was discovered.
07:25The baby was crying a lot, so my mother called the police and a police car came and picked up
07:32the child and put her into the police car and drove away.
07:36Oh, that's extraordinary. And nobody saw my mother.
07:40No.
07:40She also learned through DNA testing that her friend Joanna Battershell, who had flown into Heathrow on the same night
07:46as Claire as a fellow adoptee, was actually her relative.
07:49Finding out Joanna and I are related to each other, it's just unbelievable.
07:55We've always said we're sisters, in spirit.
07:58Number 5. Martin learns the truth about his birth mother.
08:01Martin Smith carried one painful question throughout his life, why didn't his birth mother want him?
08:06Longloft's family finally gave him the answer.
08:09When you've spent your life assuming that you were rejected, as Martin has, it must be very hard to change
08:16those perceptions of yourself.
08:19But now that Martin's mum's been found, I can tell him just how hard she fought to keep him.
08:25His birth mother was just 16 when she gave birth and struggled through being unhoused, desperately trying to care for
08:30her baby while sleeping rough and begging for food.
08:33She'd held on for six months before making the heartbreaking decision to place him up for adoption.
08:38She just woke up one morning and just thought, I can't keep doing this.
08:44That's horrible.
08:46That she should ever be put in that situation.
08:48The show presented Martin with the first photograph ever taken of him as a baby, along with a deeply personal
08:53letter explaining that she had loved him all along.
08:56I never wanted to let you go.
08:58It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make.
09:01I've lived with regret ever since.
09:04It broke my heart.
09:05The only thing that got me through was that you were safe, warm, and loved.
09:09Their eventual reunion washed away decades of rejection, replacing them with understanding, forgiveness, and the reassurance that he had always
09:16been wanted.
09:17It's like going home to the home that you didn't know you had.
09:21I just want you to know that you were never not wanted.
09:23There just wasn't anything.
09:25If there had been, I would have took it.
09:27If there was a way to have kept you, I would have done it.
09:29It's fine.
09:32I'm complete.
09:33Number four.
09:34Adrienne and Sharon are finally reunited with their mother.
09:36She really wants to see you both so much.
09:43And she has a lot she wants to explain.
09:46She'd even thought about running away from her husband to just come find you.
09:52For decades, Adrienne and Sharon had no idea why their mother had never come back for them.
09:56Because their placements were never properly formalized through adoption, there was almost no paper trail for long-lost family to
10:02follow.
10:02Because she never let them formally adopt you.
10:06There was no way of finding you.
10:08You weren't on a record anywhere.
10:10No record of what your name was.
10:12It wasn't out of not loving you.
10:16She always loved you.
10:17The breakthrough came after social services uncovered long-lost records, and electoral roll searches finally led the team to their
10:24mother, Anne.
10:25Her letters also revealed that she'd never stopped loving her children, and had even tried to stay in touch.
10:29There are no words that can tell you how so sorry I am for not being in your lives.
10:36Not a single day goes by that I have not thought about you both, and that I love you both
10:42very much.
10:43When the siblings reunited with her in Bradford, Anne tearfully apologized for the years they'd lost together.
10:48Hearing her say she'd thought about them every single day gave Adrienne and Sharon the answer they'd been waiting a
10:54lifetime to hear.
10:55I wanted to say sorry before I died.
10:59That's better.
11:00I loved you anyway.
11:02That never changed.
11:05It was wonderful.
11:06And I love you for it.
11:08Number three.
11:09Christine Rose finds her sisters after 63 years.
11:12When you think about your upbringing, what are your hopes for your sisters?
11:16I just thought they'd both gone together to the same people, because I was the oldest.
11:21At least if they were together, you know, they would have each other.
11:24Christine Rose never forgot the terrifying night she was taken away from her family at just four years old.
11:29After her mother was prosecuted for neglect, Christine was separated from her two younger sisters and placed in a different
11:35children's home before eventually being adopted.
11:37Here they are, a little bit older.
11:40Oh, and they've got a bow in their hair.
11:43So Catherine's the youngest and Carol's older.
11:46Carol's older.
11:47They don't have any memories of your birth month.
11:51For more than six decades, she wondered whether they'd survived, whether they'd remembered her, and whether she'd ever see them
11:56again.
11:57Long Last Family finally uncovered that her sisters had remained together and had spent years hoping to find her too.
12:03It sort of feels unreal that this is all coming together now.
12:07It's 63 years, and that's a long time, isn't it?
12:11I've always known that those two were out there somewhere.
12:14Their reunion after 63 years was filled with tears, hugs, and laughter, as the three women finally discovered that despite
12:21losing their childhood together, they'd each gone on to build loving families of their own.
12:26Just overwhelming.
12:28As soon as I'd given them a hug, all nerves went.
12:32Just so nice to see them.
12:34She's fantastic.
12:36She feels like family.
12:38Yeah, blood will out.
12:42Mark Chesterfield spent most of his life believing he'd been abandoned.
12:46Raised in the Foundling Hospital, where affection was scarce and discipline was harsh, he grew up convinced he was an
12:52orphan nobody wanted.
12:53There was a lot of bad times.
12:56Very bad.
12:59We didn't have love.
13:01We didn't have care.
13:05No sign of affection at all.
13:07Everything changed when, at 74, he received his childhood file.
13:11Inside were birthday cards, Christmas cards, and heartbreaking letters from his birth mother, pleading for news about her son and
13:18asking if she could ever have him back.
13:20Mark could barely read them through his tears.
13:22I read them sometimes when I'm sort of feeling low, you know, because it showed me that she cared, and
13:32I had always thought that they're thrown to the wolves, you know.
13:37Those long hidden messages shattered a lifetime of painful assumptions, proving he'd been deeply loved all along.
13:43Armed with that truth, long lost family also helped him trace maternal relatives, allowing him to forge precious new family
13:49connections.
13:50It means so much to me and all the other lost people to be accepted.
14:15Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's Adia, Songs from Iran, reimagining Persian melodies as modern rock,
14:23metal, and pop songs.
14:24Check out the full track and album below.
14:26Call it madness if you must.
14:30I came back because my soul came back to you.
14:42Number one.
14:43Viv and Julie reunite with their big sister.
14:46Have you found her?
14:46Your sister's been found.
14:48Oh.
14:49I'm going to cry.
14:51Really?
14:52Yeah.
14:52Oh, is she well?
14:54Is she happy?
14:55She is very happy that you have found her.
15:00Few long lost family stories have carried as much emotional weight across generations as Margaret's.
15:06As a young Royal Navy servicewoman, she became pregnant after being deceived by a married man and was forced to
15:11give up her baby Helen.
15:12And she lives in Wales.
15:14Really?
15:15Yeah, and I know that your mum had told you about this issue that she was a little bit worried
15:19about Sian and her health.
15:22Decades later, now living with moderate dementia, Margaret could still remember singing lullabies to the daughter she never stopped loving.
15:28With Margaret unable to make the journey herself, daughters Viv and Julie continued the search and found their sister, now
15:34named Sian.
15:35It's so good to see you at last.
15:37A long, long time.
15:37It's been a very long time.
15:39No.
15:41You look very happy.
15:43This is our big sister.
15:45Diagnosed with cerebral palsy after her adoption, Sian was delighted to learn her birth family had never forgotten her.
15:50Viv and Julie then shared family photos, stories, and their mother's enduring love with Sian, bringing their remarkable search full
15:57circle.
15:57Thank you, Viv and Julie, for coming to find me.
16:01Thank you for being here for us.
16:03We've got three sisters all together now.
16:05I am very super excited to meet my birth mum, Margaret.
16:10I am not sleeping again.
16:12Which of these moments hit you the hardest?
16:13Let us know in the comments below.
16:15.
16:16.
16:16.