Woman discovers sister she never knew living 10 miles away after dad lets her in on 'family secret'

A woman has been reunited with her secret sister who, without her realising, had grown up just 10 miles away from her.

The ITV show Long Lost Family specialises in bringing together family members who, as you can probably guess, have been lost for a long time.

Last week, this saw them bring together a man and his sister for the first time in 60 years after he discovered as a kid that his ‘older sister’ was his mum and his ‘parents’ were his 'grandparents’.

Now, the ITV show is once again bringing an estranged family back together with the case of retired teaching assistant, Mandy Irvin.

Mandy’s mum died in 2018, leading her to become one of her father’s carers and move back to Hertfordshire, where she grew up, from her home in West Sussex.

Mandy's Mum and Dad had a daughter at just 17 and 18, but were pressured to give her up (ITV)

Speaking in the episode, Mandy recounted how her dad informed her that they had a ‘family secret’.

She said: “It was a Sunday morning, I went into the kitchen to put the kettle on and then just randomly out of the blue he said, ‘I just want to make sure mum told you the family secret’. I was like ‘no…’”

“He said they were 17 and 18 and mum got pregnant; they were very happy about it they didn’t tell my mum’s mum.”

Mandy explained that she thought that ‘deep down’ her mum knew her mother wouldn’t approve, adding: “I don’t think she liked my dad very much.”

After the baby was born, she said her nan ‘took charge’, saying: “My dad said that my nan made them put the baby up for adoption.”

Jenny and Mandy were reunited with each other in the episode (ITV)

She stated that she believed her nan hoped that, by having the baby taken away from her, she would split the pair up as she thought her dad ‘wasn’t good enough’.

Her father died in 2022 and, before he passed away, he gave her his permission to try and find her.

Whilst she found a birth certificate on ancestry.com that confirmed her name was Jenny, that was all she had to go off.

In an exclusive clip provided to LADbible though, you can see the moment Mandy finds out through Davina McCall that they have not only found her sister, but that she is open to meeting her.

She says in the episode: “I’m really excited now, yeah, really excited. There’s just been so many questions going round and round in my head.”

When she is shown a photo of her sister Jenny, she replies saying: “She looks like my mum.

“She looks like my mum’s side of the family, yeah. 100% my mum. Oh, my goodness.”

Mandy not only discovers that her sister Jenny is open to meet, but that she lives less than ten miles away from where her family grew up in Hertfordshire.

The episode shows the emotional reunion between the pair, with Mandy saying when asked to rate the experience from one to ten: “100! It’s been absolutely amazing.”

Long Lost Family airs tonight, January 29, at 9pm on ITV 1.