What secrets are hiding in our DNA? And what happens when we uncover them by accident?
Tonight on SBS Insight, Alice Matthews speaks to people who have made life-changing discoveries about their paternity.
South African-born Fiona Darroch, 57, shares the shocking revelation that her OB-GYN godfather, who delivered her, was actually her biological father.
By total accident, she discovered that he had replaced a medical student’s sperm donation with his own and done the same thing to numerous other families. She estimates she has between 200 to 300 half-siblings around the world.
Now living in Australia, Fiona made the discovery six years ago when she was looking for books her godfather had written. During this process, she came across a strange review on Amazon. It was left by a woman from Ireland and said, “Dr Walker was my biological father and sperm donor,” and that she was trying to get further information about him.
“At that stage I had absolutely no idea of my true story, but I did have a lot of letters that he had written to me when I was a child,” Fiona said.
He had also given her all his war medals and lots of photographs. Fiona wrote back to the woman and said: “Hey I’ve got all this stuff that I’m happy to share with you.” The more information she exchanged with this woman made her start to wonder if he may be her father as well.
“When I fished out his letters, I found a driver’s license of his that he had given me from when he was 16. And I showed it to my husband and said, ‘Who does this look like?’ and he just laughed, because it looks exactly like our youngest daughter.
“I went and had a chat to my mum and I said, ‘Look, somethings going on here and I’d like you to tell me the truth.’ My mum came clean and told me that they had used a sperm donor, and that Dr Walker was her gynaecologist and he said that they just usually used medical students.
“I was absolutely devastated. It made a lot of sense, but at the same time I was really angry that I’d been lied to. It was a bit of a rollercoaster, I’d be thinking it was pretty cool one moment and then pretty horrible the next moment. It’s been like that ever since,” she said.
Fiona’s mother didn’t know much about the donor process as Dr Walker did not go into much detail with her. She has asked her mother if she suspected that he was the donor, and she has never given her a straight answer.. Fiona received confirmation that Dr Walker had used his own sperm in the donation when three years ago her daughter took a 23andMe DNA test.
“When the results came out, she had matched with lots and lots of people and she didn’t have a clue who they were. It just so happened that one of my donor (half) siblings had given his entire family ancestry tests for Christmas that year, and we all matched at the same time.”
From there Fiona and her half-brother were able to start putting the pieces together. They were able to speak to one of the clinic staff who worked with Dr Walker, who confirmed that Fiona was not the first.
“My youngest most recently discovered (half) brother is 14 years younger than me, so he must have done it for at least 15 years perhaps longer. So we’re thinking maybe 200 to 300 (half siblings),” Fiona said.
The siblings she has identified are in the United States, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, South Africa where Fiona was raised and Australia.
“It was like losing my own father who raised me all over again. You experience the same grief and loss, because you’re no longer connected to the person who you thought you were connected and then find out you’re connected to all these new people. It’s quite tumultuous. It’s a very difficult path.”
Dr Walker took his own life when Fiona was 15-years-old, so many questions remain unanswered.
