Long Lost Family’s Nicky & Davina: “We try to keep our emotions in check”
As a TV special hopes to reunite relatives of babies abandoned at birth, Closer speaks to presenters Nicky Campbell and Davina Mccall, and two of the foundlings trying to get answers
When Alley Lofthouse and W Jamie Duffy were told in their teens that they’d been adopted because their birth parents had abandoned them as babies, both foundlings were desperate for answers as to why their start in life was so precarious. But with recent statistics suggesting that as many as 50 babies are abandoned by their birth parents in the UK each year, many of these children will never know the reasons why.
In their new Long Lost Family special, Davina Mccall and Nicky Campbell are hoping to finally give some of these people answers about where they come from.
The emotional show is on a “different level” to previous series that have gone before, explains Nicky, with a dedicated team of researchers using special DNA techniques to try to trace relatives of people who have been abandoned.
“These people thought they had no hope and no chance [of finding out where they came from],” says Nicky, 57, who is himself adopted. “Having spoken to other adopted people, there is always hope because there is documentation. For foundlings, it’s the difference between having an emptiness in your heart and a total desert. The sense of rejection is unrelenting throughout your life; it’s with you every single day.”
The 90-minute special, which airs on 25 February, recounts the stories of three people who have spent decades trying to get answers about their past. Viewers might remember the case of Jamie Duffy, who was left outside of a hospital in 1988 before being found by a group of young girls. The now 30 year old, along with Alley, 52, whose mother abandoned her in the doorway of a flat in Scotland, and Karen, 60, who has spent 20 years looking for her family after being left in a cardboard box in Manchester at just five days old.
Sometimes though, relatives have passed away – and the detective team may have to pass on the devastating news.
Davina, 51, tells us, “On Long Lost Family, these searches can take years. Sometimes you’ll send a letter to somebody and two years later they will contact you. The time might not be right; they need to process it and maybe they need to see the whites of Jamie’s [foundling Jamie Duffy] eyes and see him talking on camera, to see he doesn’t seem angry. All the foundlings I’ve met are really lovely people. They’re like, ‘I’m not passing any judgement; it’s just amazing to have any information.’ Though it’s heartbreaking for us [when relatives can’t be traced] because obviously we’d like to get him more.”
When they do get a breakthrough, the presenters explain that the excitement can be overwhelming.
Davina says, “It’s really exciting when you do find a relative and when you find an extra element that you weren’t expecting.”
Both Davina and Nicky have had to keep their emotions in check while filming. Nicky
❛ I WATCH IT BACK SO I CAN CRY – AND I SIT THERE JUST SILENTLY WEEPING ❜
explains, “No matter how emotional our reactions are, it’s on the cutting room floor.”
For both presenters, it takes time to process what they’ve witnessed. Davina admits to a good weep in the comfort of her own home. She reveals, “I watch it back so I can cry – and so I can sit there silently weeping, and I text Nicky to tell him how much I’m weeping. I don’t get to see what Nicky’s doing [during filming] and he doesn’t get to see my bit, so it’s nice when the two sides come together and it adds a whole other layer of feeling.”