These true-life stories take viewers on an emotional rollercoaster, offering moments both heartwarming and heartbreaking.
Yet there’s so much more to know aboutLong Lost Familythan what viewers see on their TV screens.
Long Lost Familymade its debut on U.K. TV connection ITVin 2011.
The GuardianTV critic Lucy Mangan explored the appeal of the show in her 2011 review.
“Of course, you wept buckets.
“Answers on a postcard, kindly, because I sure as hell don’t know.”
“For hosts Chris and Lisa, the painstaking search for answers is familiar territory.
Both Chris Jacobs and Lisa Joyner returned as hosts.
“There is no simple path to find the missing loved ones,” declared TLC in itsannouncement.
“With tightly held family secrets in their way, the odds are stacked against them.
But what they discover, and who they find, is anything but expected.”
She noted, “I had this sort of primal wound in me that needed to be filled.”
Jacobs also reunited with his birth mother.
“It’s been a great experience,” he said.
“I have half-sisters and cousins and nieces now.
We all get together for holidays.
My adoptive family knows my birth mom she comes over to our house at Christmas.”
According to Jacobs, finding his birth mother was actually “very easy.”
They put us right together.”
It was 23 years ago now, and we still talk almost every day.”
“Once discoveries are made, we can’t undo them.”
The company noted, “At Ancestry, we empower journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives.”
That experience led Joyner and her husband, actor Jon Cryer, to adopt a child (viaPeople).
“Who’s going to be my family?
Not because I couldn’t have biological children, because I could.
Curious about adopting?Here’s what it’s really like when you decide to adopt.
One of these,Adoption & Birth Mothers, shared Shed Media’s call for participants.
“Are you looking for a long lost relative?
Do you need assistance with your search?”
She shared, “After that, I say give me all your documentation.
Joyner offered one final piece of advice.
The spinoff, noted TLC, “follows the journeys of what happens with participantsafterthe reunions.”
What Happened Nextdemonstrated that not all the show’s reunions ended happily.
“There’s a part of us intimately that wants to be genetically bound to some other being.
It’s bigger than we want their love and acceptance.
It’s just a common thread.”
Recalling the emotions he experienced at the time, Jacobs added, “I think it was mostly anticipation.
I think it would have been more emotionally impactful for me later in my life.
It’s been a learning process for both of us.
You’re essentially meeting someone who is a stranger, who you’re biologically connected to.
“Our show is about hope.
Our show is about family.
Our show is about forgiveness.
It’s about second chances.
And I just hope that people feel more compassionate for people,” she explained.
“There’s no mom, dad, two kids and a German Shepherd.
You look around the playgrounds and you see what we’re living in.
We have same-sex marriages.
There’s no sort of quote ‘normal’ family.
What we’re seeing are these modern families.”
Ultimately, Joyner is hopeful that TLC’sLong Lost Familywill foster acceptance.
“When you take away the mystery, then you take away the shame,” she added.
