Woman, 53, is reunited with her foster brother on Long Lost Family

‘He was the closest thing that I had to a real family’: Long Lost Family reunites woman, 53, with foster brother she spent decades searching for after being separated when he was sent back to his children’s home

• Kate Brown, 53, of Portsmouth, was just five days old when her birth mother left
• Eventually, Kate was fostered by the Barter family, alongside foster brother John 
• However, Kate was eventually adopted by the Barters while John sadly wasn’t
• Despite years of searching, Kate was unable to find John to reconnect – until asking Long Lost Family for help

A woman has been reunited with her foster brother on Long Lost Family following years of searching after she was adopted and he wasn’t as a child.

Kate Brown, 53, from Portsmouth, was just five days old when her birth mother left because she suffered from a severe form of epilepsy and felt she was unable to look after her daughter.

Eventually, Kate was fostered by the Barter family, revealing on the ITV programme tonight: ‘You do feel different being fostered, you don’t feel like you’re a real part of the family, you feel like you’re an add on.’

But thankfully she connected with her foster sibling John and the pair looked out for one another – however, Kate was eventually adopted by the Barters while her foster brother wasn’t.

Despite years of searching, Kate was unable to find John to reconnect – until asking Long Lost Family for help. The team’s researchers discovered him living just seven miles from the Barter’s foster home in Fareham.

In emotional scenes airing at 9pm, John and Kate, who is also looking for a long lost biological sister, reunite.

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Kate Brown (pictured left) has been reunited with her foster brother John (pictured right) on Long Lost Family following years of searching after she was adopted and he wasn’t as a child

Kate was fostered by the Barter family and connected with her foster sibling John (pictured together as children) and the pair looked out for one another

Before reconnecting with her foster brother, Kate, who lives with her husband Ray and her son Alexander, eight, recalls: ‘At school if anyone tried to pick on me [John] was the one that would be there to stick up for me. 

‘He was the closest thing that I had to real family,’ she admits, before explaining that while she was adopted by the Barter family, John wasn’t.  

‘Unfortunately he was maybe a little bit too much for my adoptive mum to be able to handle,’ she says, after calling John ‘cheeky’.

John was moved back into a children’s home, and Kate remembers him being there one day, and gone the next.

The Long Lost Family team eventually discover John, who tells co-presenter Nicky Campbell how overwhelming it was to discover that Kate’s been trying to find him. 

However, Kate (pictured left as a child) was eventually adopted by the Barters while her foster brother wasn’t. Pictured right, Kate and her foster brother John as children

Despite years of searching, Kate (pictured) was unable to find John to reconnect – until asking Long Lost Family for help. The team’s researchers discovered him living just seven miles from the Barter’s foster home in Fareham

He shows Nicky a large scrapbook full of childhood photographs of him and his foster sister, which he has treasured for 40 years, while revealing that he too had considered Kate a sibling. 

In a heartbreaking scene, John describes himself as a ‘black sheep’, saying how hard it was when he was one of the few children not to be adopted.

 ‘All the other children around me were getting adopted and I was sort of left out in the cold,’ he admits.

When Nicky asks if anyone loved him, John replies: ‘I don’t know… It’s hard to, it’s hard to say that when sometimes you don’t know what love is.’ 

Before reconnecting with her foster brother, Kate, who lives with her husband Ray and her son Alexander, eight, recalls: ‘At school if anyone tried to pick on me [John] was the one that would be there to stick up for me.’ Pictured, the adoptive parents Jim (left) and Irene (right) of Kate

The foster siblings are reunited in a pub near where they grew up together, with Kate gifting John a keepsake which reads: ‘I smile because you’re my brother. I laugh because there’s nothing you can do about it.’

Following the emotional meeting, Kate says: ‘It felt like we did when we were children.’

Meanwhile, despite years of searching for him, Kate was unable to find out what happened to John by herself – and instead her search turned to her own past, when just two years ago she saw her adoption file and discovered she had a biological sister. 

Recalling the moment, she says: ‘Everything just stopped… I didn’t have any idea that there would be anybody else.’

Kate’s sister, Maxine, was three years her senior and adopted into a different family. 

Meanwhile, Kate also discovered just two years ago that she had a biological sister (pictured left). Pictured right, Kate’s birth mother Pamela

In an emotional reunion (pictured), sister Becky’s able to tell Kate that their mother had thought and cared about her

Upon discovering this, Kate says: ‘There’s a frustration as to why we weren’t kept in contact. It would have saved so much heartache.

‘I lost my brother and to now find that I’ve lost my sister too. They both are missing, there’s a hole. I need to find them.’ 

Researchers find Maxine, now called Becky Rhodes, who unbelievably lives in Portsmouth just three miles from Kate.

When Nicky meets Becky, she admits she had been looking for Kate too, and that she also discovered their birth mother Pamela before she died. 

In an emotional reunion, Becky’s able to tell Kate that their mother had thought and cared about her. 

For Becky, it’s the ‘start of our lives together’, while Kate says: ‘I do feel different yeah. I feel a connection with Becky and I feel a sense of belonging.’ 

Long Lost Family airs tonight at 9pm 

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