Long Lost Family: What Happened Next? tells the remarkable story of two women who met up after they were both born in an orphanage in Sri Lanka just days part. When she saw Yasika Fernando's story on the popular ITV series in 2019, Thilinie Horne was shocked to discover similarities to her own family history. Both Yasika and Thilinie discovered they were both born in the same orphanage, Good Shepherd Convent in Sri Lanka, mere days apart.
During her original 2019 episode, it was revealed that Yasika, who lives in London with her husband Tillek and their two young daughters, only discovered she was adopted at the age of 18 when her adoptive parents told her that she had been taken from a convent in Colombo.
With the help of the Long Lost Family team, Yasika visited where she was born but was unable to find her mother and returned to the UK, yet just five days later, the team found her relative. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, Yasika was only able to reunite on a video call.
A year after meeting her birth mother online, things didn’t quite turn out how Yasika would have hoped for. Meeting up with Davina McCall once again for the latest episode on Monday, August 15, she tells her that she “still gets goosebumps”, thinking about the time she talked to her birth mother for the first time. She also reveals that her mother has a son who hasn't been told about Yasika as she fears the situation would bring shame on the family.
Since her initial video call, Yasika tells Davina that she has had no further contact with her birth mother. “That’s so hard,” Davina replies and Yasika says: “Obviously with the whole secrecy, she has to go to her mother’s house and with the whole lockdown situation, they couldn’t go anywhere so it’s been one obstacle after another.” Yasika describes her intention to eventually revisit Sri Lanka and meet her mother for the first time in person.
Despite the outcome not being what she wanted, there have been repercussions from Yasika’s search that she could never have expected. Thilinie Horne from Birmingham was watching Yasika's episode and discovered that they had been born in the same orphanage just days apart in February 1988.
Thilinie left Sri Lanka when she was three months old and grew up near Dublin with her adoptive parents. Throughout her life, she describes how her adoptive parents always made her aware of her Sri Lankan heritage.
Like Yasika, Thilinie wanted to know more about her past. In the new episode she is seen reading her adoption documents and says she believes that while the the forms define her as ‘illegitimate’, her birth mother had been in a relationship with her birth father. “She was under some pressure from her parents to give me up. It wasn’t her choice,” she says as she delves deeper into her past. Thilinie quickly discovers that she will need to go to Sri Lanka in order to find out the full truth about her family.
Before setting off on her journey of discovery, Thilinie meets with Yasika. “It really does feel like being reunited with family because she’s the closest I’ve got with the earliest of my days,” she says ahead of the meeting.
Seeing each other for the first time, the pair share their baby photos from the same orphanage. After the meeting, Thilinie says: “To see her face and to see how similar she was, it was like meeting a long lost sister.” Yasika, meanwhile, describes how happy she is to find someone who has gone through a similar experience.
Inspired by Yasika, Thilinie tells her: “The last thing to do is go out there and do what you’ve done,” and reveals: “It’s like a connection like I’ve never had before.” Walking away, arm in arm, Yasika says: “I’ve got another sister now so I’m happy now.”
Long Lost Family: What Happened Next? airs on ITV at 9pm on Monday, August 15
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