A mother breaks down in tears as she meets her son for first time in 51 years – and reveals the heart-wrenching reason why she walked out on him at just five years old during an upcoming episode of Long Lost Family.
The 15th series of the much-loved ITV series, which sees Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell try to reunite loved ones, returns to our screens on Thursday evening.
Thursday’s instalment of the programme will see Davina help car salesman Alan Parker, 56, who now lives in County Meath in Ireland, reunite with his mother, after she left him, his brother and sister with their dad in Reading many years ago.
Reflecting on his mum and dad’s relationship, Alan says: ‘My dad was not always easy to get on with. I think that is what turned it into such a bad relationship.’
So he gets in touch with Long Lost Family to hear his mother’s ‘side of the story’ and build a relationship with her again.
The team manage to get in touch with his mum Anne through a distant relative – and she reveals the real reason why she had to leave.
A mother breaks down in tears as she meets her son for first time in 51 years – and reveals the heart-wrenching reason why she walked out on him at just five years old during an upcoming episode of Long Lost Family
Thursday’s instalment of the programme will see Davina help car salesman Alan Parker, 56, who now lives in County Meath in Ireland, reunite with his mother, 51 years after she left him, his brother and sister with their dad in Reading
Alan wanted to find his mother to find out the real reason why she walked out in him and his two siblings
Alan tells Davina: ‘‘I want to know what she’s been doing for the last 51 years really and I want to know if she’s happy.
‘But I don’t even know if my mum is still alive.’
Anne, who has thought about getting in touch in the past, but ended up not going ahead with it, admits that she had to leave because ‘the situation was not good’.
She says: ‘It wasn’t happy and it got to a point where I thought it was safer for me not to be there.
‘I got a bedsit and it was very small. No place for young children.
‘What I had always hoped to do was get sorted out and then to have the children but within a year he had moved and I had no idea where he had gone.
‘Nobody would divulge in it.’
Despite not seeing each other for years, and Alan admitting that he couldn’t remember what his mother looked like, their mother-son dynamic still appears strong.
Anne tells her son: ‘Let’s get to know each other better. It doesn’t feel like I don’t know you.
Alan pictured with host of the show Davina McCall, who helped him find his mother after 51 years apart
‘That bond went on and on.
‘I have got my son back.’
Long Lost Family originally hit our screens in 2011.
Series 15 first aired in September last year.
Fans will be over the moon to know that the second half of the series will be back on Thursday.
The fifth, sixth and seventh instalment of the season will air for three consecutive weeks.
Back in October last year, ITV shared an advert asking if there was anyone looking for a missing family member, and if they wanted to appear on the show.
The ad writes: ‘Imagine meeting your twin sister for the first time at the age of 60, or setting eyes on the father you’ve never known, or being reunited with the son you gave up for adoption on the day he was born.
‘Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present this compelling and moving documentary series.
‘The programme will follow the stories of people who have, for one reason or another, experienced long term separation from members of their family and are seeking to be reunited with them.
‘The programme hopes to help people who are struggling to find enough information to move closer to a reunion.
‘The programme will aim to track down lost relatives and follow the stories from the search through to the reunion.’
Watch Long Lost Family Thursday on ITV1 at 9pm or stream on ITVX.
