In the latest episode of ITV's Long Lost Family, presenter Nicky Campbell helps Naomi trace the twin sisters she was separated from at birth, leading to an emotional reunion with one of them.
Naomi, who lives in Gloucestershire with her husband of 30 years, was adopted as an infant and raised by her adoptive parents in Plymouth. She always knew she had been adopted, but it was not until her teenage years that she discovered a remarkable detail about her past.
A letter reveals hidden sisters
Her adoptive parents showed her a letter they had kept since the time of her adoption. It revealed that Naomi's birth mother had been just 19 when she gave birth and that she had also had twin girls who were subsequently adopted elsewhere. The discovery left Naomi stunned. She said on the show: "I was obviously very surprised when I found out that I had sisters. It was shocking."
Following the deaths of both her adoptive parents while she was in her 20s, Naomi's determination to find her biological family continued to grow.
Search leads to heartbreaking news
The Long Lost Family team eventually located her birth mother before turning their attention to her twin sisters, discovering they were called Gail and Elaine. However, the search brought heartbreaking news when they learned that Gail had died. The team then tracked down Elaine, who lives in Manchester, allowing Nicky to arrange a meeting with Naomi's long-lost sister.
Elaine revealed that she and Gail had enjoyed a happy childhood together with their adoptive parents. Gail was later diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in the 1990s and died in 2020 after her condition progressed.
An emotional first meeting
Elaine also told Nicky that she had recently lost both her mum and her adoptive mother, making the prospect of meeting Naomi particularly significant. The sisters eventually came face to face, with Elaine telling Naomi: "I'm so glad you found me. You've looked for so long, long, and I didn't even know you existed."
The reunion is the latest in a long line of emotional family discoveries featured on Long Lost Family, which has become one of ITV's best-known factual entertainment programmes since it first aired. Fronted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, the series has spent years helping people uncover information about relatives they have lost contact with or never had the chance to meet.
Its enduring popularity has seen the programme return for multiple series and specials, with each episode focusing on the personal stories behind families separated by adoption, estrangement and circumstances beyond their control. Long Lost Family continues on Thursday 1st October at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.
