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Kristin starts with a question she cannot answer from the story she grew up with. Benjamin gets a lead from documents that were previously sealed. Their searches take different routes, but both want to hear from someone who was there at the beginning of their lives. Episode listing · Drew University episode analysis
TLC aired Everything Your Parents Told You Was a Lie on April 17, 2016. It was the seventh episode of the American Long Lost Family, hosted by Lisa Joyner and Chris Jacobs. The title is blunt. The two searches are more complicated than the title lets on. Airdate and episode number · TLC on the hosts
Kristin Wants to Hear Her Mother’s Side
Kristin suspects her adoptive parents kept information about her birth family from her. The episode treats that as her reason for searching. The discovery that changes the story concerns her birth mother, Janette, who had been kidnapped and assaulted before placing Kristin for adoption. That history gives Janette’s decision a context Kristin could only learn later. Episode listing · Drew University episode analysis, case 10
When Kristin and Janette meet, Kristin has something to offer her mother. She tells Janette that she never regretted being adopted and reassures her about the decision she made. By then, the search has opened a conversation in both directions. Kristin can ask about the past, and Janette can hear how her daughter feels about the life that followed. Drew University episode analysis, case 10
Benjamin Gets a Lead From Sealed Records
In the second story, Benjamin discovers previously sealed documents that could help explain the circumstances of his birth. For him, the records are a lead into a history he has had little opportunity to ask about. They also bring the episode to Deborah, his birth mother, and her reasons for placing him for adoption. Episode listing · Drew University episode analysis, case 11
Deborah explains that she wanted to keep Benjamin away from his birth father, whom she did not trust. Benjamin, in turn, wants her to know he misses her and feels no anger toward her. The documents give him a starting point. What he wants to say to Deborah is more personal than anything he could have read in a file. Drew University episode analysis, case 11
What They Wanted Their Mothers to Hear
Kristin wants Janette to hear that she accepts the decision Janette made. Benjamin wants Deborah to hear that he misses her. The episode begins with information both adoptees are trying to find. By the end, some of its most revealing moments come from the things they already knew they wanted to say.
