Teaching assistant Mandy got help from Davina McCall and ITV show to find older sister who had been adopted
Jenny and Mandy were reunited thanks to Long Lost Family.(Image: ITV)
Teaching assistant Mandy Irvin was putting on the kettle when her dad dropped a bombshell. He said out of the blue: “I just want to make sure Mum told you the family secret”. The secret that Mandy’s mum took to the grave in 2018 was that Mandy, 56, and her brother had an older sister who had been adopted.
Mandy’s mum and dad became teenage parents but kept the pregnancy a secret from Mandy’s nan, fearing she would not approve. Mandy says: “Nan didn’t like my dad or think he was good enough… Once the baby was born my mum had to tell her.
“The baby was taken away and Mum was never given any more information about her. She was gone. I was just so shocked by this. I’d never in a million years have thought they would have had a baby and wouldn’t have told us. It’s very surreal knowing you have a sister when you are 56 years of age and you have no idea what she looks like.”
Mandy, who grew up in Hertfordshire with her younger brother, searched website ancestry.com and found a birth certificate revealing that the baby, called Sandra, was born in 1965 – two years before her. A photo of her parents in 1965 shows her mum hiding her belly.
Mandy’s dad, who died in 2022, and her brother gave her their blessing to search for her sister. But after drawing a blank she turned to Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell for help on ITV ‘s Long Lost Family. The ITV team discovered that Sandra Feasey was adopted by a Hertfordshire family, living just 10 miles from her birth parents.
Long Lost Familt host Davina McCall with Mandy(Image: ITV)
She was given a new name – Jennifer or Jenny – and stayed in the area. She works as a school office administrator. Davina and Jenny, 58, was who searched stunned by the news that she has two siblings.
She knew from the age of four that she had been adopted but had very few details about her past or any other family. “I thought my birth mum was a single mum but she was with my father when she had me,” she said.
“It comes as a surprise to hear they got married. That means my sister is my full sibling. Oh, wow. That’s a bit of a shock. “And I have a younger brother, too. I feel for my birth mum a bit. She did what she thought was best then and I’m OK with this. She hasn’t done anything wrong. I had a good life with my parents.”
Jenny was eager for good news after some very tough years coping with loss. She said: “I lost my first husband Barry when he was 35.
“He had a heart attack. He dropped dead in front of me and the boys. That was pretty hard.” She lost her dad that year. She said: “Seven years later I got together with my second partner Paul. The kids adored him.
“But sadly 18 months later he passed away so I went through it all again. You start thinking ‘This isn’t fair. What have I done wrong to deserve this?’ “Now I’ve got my partner, Martin, and I have been with him for about 16 years. It will be nice to have something nice in my life.” It is an emotional encounter when the sisters meet on the show. When shown photographs of her birth parents, Jenny sobs: “Wow. We have the same eyes.”
Mandy, who lives in Selsey, West Sussex, with husband Malcolm, said of her sister: “She looks like my mum. She’s got her smile and love for big earrings.” Jenny said: “You’re my little sister. It’s surreal. It is so amazing to meet you. It’ll be a new chapter in my life. I can’t change the past?” “But we can change the future”, adds Mandy.
“We can make new memories. This is the best thing I’ve ever done. I hope it is the beginning of a long and happy relationship.”
