[2025/10/3] By Sophie Parker and Ben Prater / BBC

 

A daughter reunited with her biological father 50 years after she was adopted has described how they were "just meant to find each other".

 

Kevin Jordan, from Royal Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, applied to the ITV 1 show Long Lost Family for help finding Hilary Campbell Smith, whom he discovered lives just 40 miles away (64km) in Salisbury.

 

"She was always on my mind," said Kevin, explaining he and his late wife Jackie had the baby as teenagers and their parents had made the adoption decision for them.

 

Jackie, who died in 2013, spent 10 days in hospital looking after Hilary before she was adopted.

 

"Back then it was really disgraceful," Mr Jordan explained.

 

"We had no option, our parents made the decision that we should have the baby adopted. So it was out of our hands really.

 

"Of course it was painful. On the 10th day, Hilary was taken. I didn't even really get to say goodbye to her."

 

The couple later married and had three more children - but never forgot Hilary.

 

Mr Jordan said his wife had been reluctant to find her, not wanting to upset anyone.

 

But when she died, he decided to track down their lost daughter "before it's too late".

 

Ms Campbell Smith had been close to her adoptive parents until they passed away, but had always wondered about her biological family.

 

She would talk herself out of it, but when she found an unusual handwritten envelope laying on her doormat, said: "I was always going to follow it through, it wasn't even something I needed to consider."

 

"When you reach the grand age of 50, you think that any chances of meeting your biological family maybe have disappeared," she said.

 

"The fact we've been reunited after is really quite special."

 

 

 

 

News from: BBC