Woman who was reunited with Sri Lankan birth mum on Long Lost Family

Adopted woman who was reunited with her birth mother in Sri Lanka via video call on Long Lost Family admits they haven’t spoken since as her existence is being kept a ‘secret’ from other relatives due to ‘shame’

  • Yasika Fernando, from London, only discovered she was adopted at the age of 18
  • With the help of Long Lost Family team, she found her Sri Lankan birth mother
  • They reunited via video call two years ago but haven’t spoken to each other since
  • Yasika told tonight’s Long Lost Family: What Happened Next that her birth mother is keeping her existence a ‘secret’ from other relatives due to ‘shame’

A woman who was given up by her Sri Lankan birth mother when she was just three months old before finally being reunited with her on Long Lost Family has told how they haven’t spoken since.

London-based Yasika Fernando met her biological mother – who didn’t want to appear on camera – via video call after she travelled to Sri Lanka to find her.

But despite her parent eventually agreeing to chat, Yasika explained on tonight’s Long Lost Family: What Happened Next that her birth mother is keeping her existence a ‘secret’ from other relatives due to ‘shame’.

Yasika – who only discovered she was adopted at the age of 18 when her adoptive parents revealed she had been taken from a convent in Colombo – added that she hasn’t spoken to her birth mother since their first video call. 

She explained that it’s been difficult for her birth mother to contact her because she had to do so in her own mother’s house – due to the secrecy of their relationship – which she was unable to travel to during the pandemic.

Scroll down for video 

London-based Yasika Fernando, who was given up by her Sri Lankan birth mother when she was just three months old before finally being reunited with her on Long Lost Family, has told how they haven’t spoken since

Yasika has always been close to her adoptive parents, Donald and Yasantha, who moved to the UK from Sri Lanka in the 1980s – but after having her own children, she longed to reunite with her birth mother.

With the help of the Long Lost Family team two years ago, Yasika visited where she was born. She was unable to find her mother and returned to the UK, but just five days later the team found the relative. They couldn’t reunite in person due to the pandemic.

Recalling the moment she discovered she was adopted, Yasika said: ‘It was a shock. I was sad to know that I’m not theirs.’

The only memory her adopted parents can recall is that they heard a woman crying in one of the back rooms when they collected Yasika and believe this to be her mother.

She met her biological mother – who didn’t want to appear on camera – via video call after she travelled to Sri Lanka to find her (pictured, speaking to her for the first time)  

After finding out about her adoption, Yasika was haunted by thoughts of her birth mother, explaining: ‘All I know is her name… and that she was thirty-one when she had me.’  

She said: ‘I need to find out what happened to my birth mother. I want to know why did [she] give me up?’ 

Co-presenter Nicky Campbell contacted an expert in Sri Lanka, Siri Silva, who has helped reunite Sri-Lankan birth mothers and their children for over twenty-five years. 

He agreed to take on the search but advised that it can only legally happen in Sri Lanka if Yasika is present to receive any information. Yasika and her husband made the journey and the pair visited where Yasika was born. 

London-based Yasika Fernando (pictured) met her biological mother – who didn’t want to appear on camera – via video call after she travelled to Sri Lanka to find her last year 

However on tonight’s episode, Yasika explained that her birth mother is keeping her existence a ‘secret’ from other relatives due to ‘shame’

Davina met up with Yasika a year after she met her mother via video call, when she explained the relationship hadn’t grown  

She also visited the Good Shepherd Convent, where her adoption was arranged.  

Thankfully, the nun there confirmed that the convent had some information, but that she needed to search for Yasika’s birth mother first and see if she was willing to meet Yasika. 

As such, Yasika had to return to England without meeting her birth mother – but just five days later, she was told her mother and grandmother had been found and that her birth parent wanted to meet with Yasika.

However, although Yasika intended to fly to Sri Lanka to meet her birth mother in person, the reunion had to be put on hold due to the outbreak of Covid-19. 

Eventually, although her parent does not want to appear on camera, Yasika met her birth mother via a video call. 

She explained that it’s been difficult for her birth mother to contact her because she had to do so in her own mother’s house – due to the secrecy of their relationship – which she was unable to travel to during the pandemic 

However, in tonight’s programme, Yasika admitted to co-host Davina McCall in October 2021 that she hadn’t had contact with her birth mother since.

‘It’s been a year since Yasika met her birth mother online. But things haven’t turned out quite as she hoped,’ explained Davina.

‘How was meeting your birth mother online?’ the presenter asked Yasika, who said: ‘It was just amazing, we were both crying, because she didn’t think she’d ever see me again. I got to see my grandmother.

‘But it was just so frustrating not being able to actually be close and hug.’

Yasika then went on to explain: ‘[My birth mother] has a son, but he does not know about me. It’s been hard, because she wants to keep it a secret from him, that I exist.

‘On the video call, I could tell they weren’t very open because they don’t want other relatives knowing,’ Yasika said, with Davina asking: ‘Because their would be shame around her giving a child up?’

Elsewhere in the programme, Yasika met with a woman, Thilinie Horne (pictured together), who was born just six days apart from her in Sri Lanka and spent time at the same convent

‘Yes, exactly,’ replied Yasika, who then admitted that there has been no contact since. ‘Nothing,’ she confessed.

Yasika added: ‘Obviously with the whole secrecy, she has to go to her mother’s house, because of the whole lockdown situation they couldn’t go anywhere, so it’s one obstacle after another. It’s just been hard.

‘Hopefully [I’ll] go out there, finally meet her, have her meet the kids. She gave me hope on the video call, that we will be able to meet.’

Elsewhere in the programme, Yasika met with a woman, Thilinie Horne, who was born just six days apart from her in Sri Lanka and spent time at the same convent.  

‘We would’ve been babies together, I’m just gobsmacked, this is my story she’s saying,’ said Thilinie, who contacted Yasika after watching her on Long Lost Family two years ago.

Source: Read Full Article

Previous post Cops swoop on girl, 8, who opened lemonade stall without a license
Next post Love Island’s Luca Bish appears to take swipe at Michael Owen as he’s left out of pic