An 87-year-old man, who has spent most of his life thinking he had been orphaned as a baby, has finally found out the truth surrounding his birth - that he was probably born following an affair. The story of Mark Chesterfield features in the latest epsiode of ITV's Long Lost Family on Monday, July 11. The popular ITV show, presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, has shown some highly emotional moments and in a recent episode, two adopted Welsh siblings, met each other for the first time. You can read more about that here.
Proud father-of-five Mark has been trying to reclaim his identity ever since he found out at the age of 74 that he wasn’t an orphan, as he’d always believed, but had a mother who’d wanted to be part of his life. Having traced his Welsh mother's side of the family, he went to Long Lost Family to find out about his father’s side, but was in for a shock when he discovered the truth.
Fourteen years before contacting the Long Lost Family team, Mark uncovered letters from his mother that the Foundling Hospital in Hertfordshire where he spent a large part of his childhood had never shown him. “She wrote to the Foundling Hospital and enquired about my living,” said Mark, as he teared up, reading his mother’s letters. He added: “I was shocked when I saw these. I read them sometimes when I’m feeling low but it assured me that she cares. I’d always thought that I’d been thrown to the wolves.”
