Kerry Washington has revealed that the man she calls dad is not her biological father.
The 46-year-old actor opened up in her new memoir, Thicker Than Water, where she said that her dad, Earl Washington, is not her biological father. Though the shocking revelation prompted unanticipated questions about her background, Washington has since been on a path to dive into her family history to realise herself.
However, finding out she didn’t share DNA with the man who raised her wasn’t an easy piece of information to digest. Washington was only told the truth after she’d mentioned to her parents that she planned to be a guest on Finding Your Roots, the PBS series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr, in which Hollywood stars find out more about their ancestry.
Speaking to People, she admitted: “It really turned my world upside down.”
Before Washington’s debut on the show, her mom, Valerie, and dad spoke with Gates to preface their situation. The host then expressed the importance of talking with their daughter beforehand to avoid further emotional shock.
With that in mind, Valeria and Earl messaged Washington and asked to talk with her in the spring of 2018. When they candidly spoke to her, exposing the truth about her biological father, Washington confessed she felt a sense of clarity.
“When I got this information, I was like: ‘Oh. I now know my story,’” the Scandal star told People. “I didn’t know what my story was, but I was playing the supporting character in their story.”
“I think that dissonance of like: ‘Somebody is not telling me something about my body,’ made me feel like there was something in my body I had to fix,” she continued, alluding to her past mental health struggles stemming from the sense of dishonesty from her parents.
For so long, Washington said she had assumed her parents weren’t being honest with her, keeping information to themselves. But, rather than demonstrating anger during their discussion, she said she showed them patience and asked questions.
The truth was Valerie and Earl supposedly opted to use a sperm donor to conceive because they’d experienced a myriad of fertility issues. Allegedly, they’d made up their minds on not telling their daughter the truth.
Upon learning this, Washington was motivated to share her story in her own words. “This is really kind of me working to understand my life up until now, given this new information that I have that, in many ways, felt like sort of the missing puzzle piece,” she proclaimed.
“My parents were not thrilled about me writing this,” Washington noted of her memoir. “This really is a book about me. I now get to step into being the most important person in my life.”
However, the actress said her relationship with Valerie and Earl is as stronger and honest as ever.
She pointed out: “I really started to have so much more love and compassion and understanding for my parents.”
“Taking this deep dive into our family history made me put myself in their shoes and think about the things that they’ve had to navigate and what they’ve been through and what they’ve sacrificed,” Washington went on. “And it really made me feel closer to them.”
Thicker Than Water will be available beginning 26 September.
