Two brothers who had no idea each other existed have met for the first time after a drunken revelation at a party brought their lives together.
Lee Langton, 55, was at a party with his aunt when she made an off-hand comment about his older brother. Not knowing who she was referring to at the time, it sparked a journey of discovery that has changed his life ever since.
“I was at a party quite a few years ago at my auntie Liz’s house in south London,” Lee, who lives in Staines-Upon-Thames, told the M.E.N. “I thought she meant my younger brother, and I said ‘no, I haven’t seen him in a long time’. She turned to me and said ‘no, I mean Richard’.
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“She had drunk a bit of red wine at the time and I had just thought she was talking nonsense but it stuck with me.”
Lee then reached out to his aunt’s daughter to see if she knew anything more about the drunken comment. A few days later, he was told that the revelation was true.
Lee’s mother, Annie, died in 1999 at the age of 56 from breast cancer. On her deathbed, she had made her sister promise not to divulge the family secret. He’d learnt that older brother Richard, who now goes by Stephen, was born four years earlier than him in 1963 and was put up for adoption after their mum struggled to look after him as a single parent.
“I was quite a bit mad about that at the time but I now look back that my auntie was being loyal to my mum,” Lee explains. “I think my mum was a little bit embarrassed about it. In the 60s, things were different. There was no welfare system, there was no support for single parents.”
Lee, who works in props design, then underwent a journey to track his older brother down. After obtaining his birth certificate and working with an adoption agency who helps track down relatives, he was contacted by the BBC about a new show they were working on.
Reunion Hotel, which kicked off on BBC Two this week, sees presenter Alex Jones give people a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be reunited with someone pivotal from their past. Their episode aired on Thursday (April 6).
In the show, Lee met brother Stephen Dearden, 59, for the first time. Stephen, from Salford, whose adoptive parents have both now passed away, said the entire experience has been surreal.
“I was told by my adoptive parents that I was born out of wedlock and that my mother didn’t know who my father was so gave me up for adoption,” Stephen, who works as a taxi driver, explained. “This, of course, turned out to be fake.
"In 1995, my adoptive parents said they were going to surprise me at my wedding by inviting my mum to the reception without me or my wife, Lorraine, knowing. Sadly, they couldn't make contact with her and we have since found out that she passed away four years later."
During the show, the brothers learnt that their mother would often wait by the window or front door every year on Stephen’s birthday in the hopes that he would come back. They learnt that she had little financial support and was 'left with very little options' but to put him up for adoption, despite trying hard to look after him.
“I was quite taken aback by that,” Stephen said. “I thought she didn’t care and it was a revelation to me to find out that she did. It must have been so painful to have given me up after so many months of trying to keep me.”
Lee said he believed their mother just ‘never found the right time’ to explain to him about his story. It was sadly something they were never able to discuss together.
“When we both met for the first time, I thought that was a moment I was ready to handle,” Lee said. “As soon as (Stephen) walked in, it wasn’t as straightforward as I expected. It was very emotional. It was like being hit by a hammer.”
Of that first encounter, Stephen added: “I really could not tell you what I was expecting. Maybe not all of the hair, the Sammy Hagar look as I call it.
“It was a bit weird at first but once we started chatting, it was like we had gone out of one door and in through the next. It was as if we had never been apart, it was so natural.”
The brothers discovered they were, in fact, very similar to one another and had even very nearly met each other on numerous occasions in the past without realising it.
Lee explained: “When we sat down at the table, I realised he’s very similar to my mum in terms of his outlook and personality. We’re both into the same bands, he went to art college like I did.
“Weirdly, there’s been a few times where we’ve actually crossed paths with each other. I went to a KISS concert in Manchester a few years ago and he was at the same show wearing KISS makeup.
“I lived in Manchester for two years and I lived just ten minutes away from where he lived. There’s been a couple of moments where you wouldn’t believe it yourself unless you knew it’d happened to yourself.”
Of his brother, Lee said: “It’s really odd because it’s like two pieces of a puzzle. There doesn’t seem to be any loss of decades. We’re very similar to each other.
“I speak to him and see him all the time, it just seems to be completely normal. He’ll call me up and it’ll be like we’ve known each other for 30 years but it’s only been a year.”
While the brothers say they wish they had this experience sooner - and that they were able to share it with their mother - they are just grateful to now have each other in their lives.
“It’s something I wish I’d done sooner,” Lee said. “We can’t dwell on the past, we have what we have now and we need to make the most of it.
“My auntie, who instigated all of this really, died a month ago. She’s the one who started the whole journey off and wasn’t able to really see how it’s come together today, it's a real shame.”
Speaking about the journey of discovery they’ve been on together, Stephen said: “I know it does not work for everyone but I would encourage people to try it and get the answers to those lifetime nagging questions.
“It’s such a natural fit between us both, it’s like we’ve been together all of our lives and it just feels so good.”
Reunion Hotel airs on BBC Two on Thursdays at 8pm, and is also available on iPlayer.
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