After her mother revealed the traumatic way in which her first-born was taken from her, Jayne Hadlow spent 30 years on a mission to find her long lost brother...
15:20, 26 Sep 2025Updated 08:12, 27 Sep 2025
Cast into shame for falling pregnant when she was just 20 and unmarried, Kathleen Lacey was sent away from her strict Catholic home to have her baby alone and in secret. When she returned with her baby boy, after several months of bonding with her beloved son Jeffrey, she came home from work one day to find he was gone.
Her parents cruelly had the baby adopted without even telling her - and she never saw him again. In heartbreaking scenes to be shown on ITV hit show Long Lost Family, Kathleen’s daughter Jayne Hadlow tells how she has been searching for her brother ever since her mother’s dying wish over 30 years ago for her to find him.
Just before she died from cancer aged just 53 in 1994, Kathleen, originally from Liverpool, told Jayne: “When I’m gone can you please find him for me? Can you please tell him what happened and tell him that I loved him and that I didn’t want to let him go. Jayne, 60, from Chelmsford, Essex, says: “She held my hand and she said please, please make sure that you do it.”
Jayne, who has three children and four grandchildren with husband Alan, grew up in Essex with her two brothers Stephen and Jamie and their adored mum Kathleen.
She explains: “Mum was 21 when she had Jeffrey. He was born two years before me. She went home one day and he wasn’t there. My grandparents had the baby adopted. I can’t imagine the pain of that. She carried that every single day."
She adds: "On Bonfire night my Dad always used to take us out. We were super excited to see the fireworks with Dad, but always wondered, ‘Why’s mum not coming?' She wasn’t her usual bright self. We’d come back and she’d be in the bedroom and we wouldn’t see her until the next day. We could see that she had been upset and crying.”
It wasn’t until Jayne was 19 that she discovered the reason behind her mother’s sadness. Jayne says: “She just said to me one day, ‘I need to tell you something, you’ve got a brother, his name is Jeffrey, and I had him adopted. Well, I didn’t have him adopted, he was adopted.’
Jeffrey was born on November 6th, 1962 so Bonfire night would bring back all those memories. Now I understand why she was so upset at that time of the year.”
In the episode, Jayne returns to her grandparents’ old home. She says: “Looking at the house, I can feel mum’s pain. My grandparents were not happy at all about mum being pregnant and not being married.
They were very strict Catholics so having a baby out of wedlock was shameful. “She was sent to the Isle of Wight so that she could hide her pregnancy. I think she did have him for quite a few months, she had that time to bond with him.”
After Kathleen had the baby, she returned home with her son, despite her parents telling her that ‘We don’t want another mouth to feed.’ Jayne says: “I think she fought it as hard as she possibly could, she wasn’t going to let him go. But one day she returned home from work and he was gone. All they said to her was, you don’t need to worry, he’s been adopted.
“I still know that it hurt Mum from the depths of her soul to let him go.” Jayne’s search was halted in 2011 when she was diagnosed with head and neck cancer aged 45, but now she is in remission and has been determined to find him.
Fortunately, the Long Lost Family team manages to track down Jeffrey, who is now named Andrew and was adopted by a couple with a biological daughter who lived in the Lake District. Andrew, 62, who lives in Bristol, had not tried to trace his birth family out of respect for his late parents.
After discovering the circumstances around his adoption, he says: “I can’t imagine what that must have been like. Awful.” He chokes with emotion when Nicky Campbell says: “It was your mother’s last wish that you were found and told that you were loved.”
Andrew then finds out he also has two younger brothers, and after seeing a photo of Kathleen, he says: “That’s where I get the nose from. My goodness, incredible. I was hoping there would be a resemblance.”
There are tear jerking scenes as Jayne comes to Bristol to meet Andrew for the first time. After a big hug, Jayne gives him a second hug. “This hug is from mum,” she says, before all four siblings are reunited.
Andrew says: “The connection and instant warmth is there. Let’s get on and try and fit in what we’ve missed for the last 30 years.” Jayne says: “As soon as I walked in the room, I just knew instantly that he was part of our family. I’ve answered mum’s request so she’ll be looking down and she’ll be so happy.”
Long Lost Family continues on Thursday 2nd October, on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm
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