A woman took a DNA test for a laugh after joking she must have been switched at birth because she's ‘nothing like’ her family – and discovered she had a half-brother.
Farrah Khilji-Holmes, 52, met her new-found sibling Steve Bolton, 62, for the first time after he travelled to the UK from Canada to see her and her relatives in person.
They had the same dad, Dr Mohammad Elijaz Khilji, but different mums and didn't know anything about each other until they sent their DNA tests off and they matched.
Farrah Khilji-Holmes, 52, met her new-found sibling Steve Bolton, 62, for the first time after he travelled to the UK from Canada to see her and her relatives in person.
They had the same dad, Dr Mohammad Elijaz Khilji, but different mums and didn't know anything about each other until they sent their DNA tests off and they matched.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 I was really, really shocked.
00:01 First, I thought it was an ancestry scam.
00:04 (laughs)
00:06 My name's Farrah.
00:12 And my name's Stephen.
00:13 So I had to start from this birth certificate
00:16 and then my wife helped me track down stuff,
00:19 but then we hit a dead end
00:21 and then we went to Ancestry and did the DNA
00:24 and hopefully was looking for some connection.
00:27 First, I thought it was an ancestry scam.
00:29 (laughs)
00:31 'Cause you know, I've been waiting.
00:32 I had one hit from a cousin,
00:35 from another cousin, a second cousin,
00:39 and I wrote to her, but she never answered.
00:42 So then I got on to log off of Ancestry
00:47 and be saying, "Okay, this didn't work."
00:49 And that's when I saw Farrah's message.
00:51 Well, I initially did it as a little bit of a joke
00:53 because it's been a longstanding running joke in the family
00:56 that I must've been switched at birth
00:59 because my family's quite bizarre.
01:01 So I did the DNA test as a bit of a joke
01:05 to sort of prove that I wasn't related biologically
01:07 to my family.
01:08 And of course I was.
01:09 And then when we got the results back,
01:12 it came back with Steve as a very, very close relative
01:15 and we'd never heard the name Stephen Bolton before,
01:18 so we didn't know who he was
01:19 and it was about piecing it all together.
01:22 - I was really skeptical and called Ancestry
01:26 and asked them if this was real
01:28 and what does it mean between first cousin
01:30 and close relative?
01:32 And they said, "More than likely with the amount
01:33 of DNA points that you had, it's your half-sister."
01:37 - I was really, really shocked,
01:39 but really, really pleased as well
01:41 because it meant that we had an extra,
01:43 we had an addition to the family
01:45 and we've had quite a lot of trauma and loss
01:46 over the last few years.
01:49 So to have a new member of our family is absolutely fabulous.
01:52 It was my mum that figured it out.
01:54 And when we looked at the timeline
01:56 of how old Steve was and mum being in London
01:59 around the same time, she sent a photograph to Steve
02:04 and he passed it on then to an extended member
02:08 of his family who actually identified dad.
02:11 But she said that, "Yes, Farrah,
02:13 this is probably your half-brother."
02:15 And then Steve again showed the photograph to his family.
02:19 First time I saw Steve on Facebook,
02:22 it was like actually seeing my dad in the flesh,
02:25 even down to the mow of his.
02:27 - Oh, thanks a point for that.
02:29 It was almost like I was relieved that finally,
02:33 you know, and to hug someone that's an immediate family
02:37 that you've never hugged before,
02:38 like you've never hugged anyone in your immediate family.
02:41 So yeah, emotional, I don't, yeah,
02:44 that's a hard answer to give you, but that's how it felt.
02:48 They have been great, open arms.
02:50 It's been fantastic.
02:53 (gentle music)
02:56 (gentle music)
02:59 (gentle music)
03:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]