A woman’s life was catapulted into a ‘tailspin’ after she discovered that the man who landed her in the foster care system at 14 wasn’t her real father.
Christie Werts, from Ohio, had always lived a seemingly rocky life – from being the only little blonde girl in her family, to becoming a foster child at 14 due to her parents struggles with addiction – she always knew she was different.
But it wasn’t until she was 50 years old that some of her long-lingering questions were answered through a DNA test – proving that life isn’t always what it seems.
‘My whole life flashed in front of me. I was like “My God, this guy was crappy to me, and he wasn’t even my dad,”‘ Werts told People in an exclusive interview.
‘My whole life, this man, who landed me into foster care and was just so terrible to me growing up, wasn’t even my dad.’
Her dysfunctional upbringing began as a young child when her mother abandoned her and her brother in daycare, only to turn back up years later in scattered appearances.
Parental responsibility landed on the man she’d only ever known as her father, who Werts never felt fully connected with. She was more sensitive, more driven and had difficulty relating to his acceptance of their life that consisted of so little.
But the most obvious difference was her looks – her cleft chin and lighter skin tone weren’t shared by any other relatives within her Hispanic family.
Christie Werts, from Ohio, was catapulted into a ‘tailspin’ after she discovered at 50 that the man who landed her in the foster care system at 14 wasn’t even her real father
Werts had always felt different as a child – most notably in regards to her lighter skin tone and blondish hair that wasn’t shared by any of her relatives within her Mexican family
‘I just grew up in a very Mexican family and I was like the random White kid,’ Werts told the outlet.
‘Even going to playgrounds when I was a little kid, my dad would have the cops called on him because I really looked nothing like my dad.’
She ultimately landed in the system as just a 14-year-old girl – leading to developing trauma that ultimately seeped into her adult life and then into motherhood.
Her father treated her differently up until the very end of his life – even going as far as cutting her out and leaving everything to her brother while he was on his death bed.
It wasn’t until he died in March of 2024 that she finally decided to reevaluate their rugged relationship, despite still feeling love and grief for the person who she had always believed to be her dad.
Nevertheless, she bought a 23andMe DNA test.
‘I was like, “man, I’m curious if he’s even my dad.” He just treated me crummy my entire life,’ Werts said.
‘Also I was just curious about what other family was out there on my dad’s side… We only knew a selective amount of people,’ she added.
She began to re-evaluate the rugged relationship she had with her father after he still treated her differently while he was on his death bed – even cutting her out of his life and leaving everything that he had to her brother, who always looked more like him
Werts knew she always looked more like her mother, who claimed to be half-Mexican, but she abandoned her in a daycare as a young child and only turned back up in her life occasionally as she struggled with addiction
‘So I guess it was a little bit of curiosity, but I still didn’t expect what showed up.’
Her mother had always claimed to be half-Mexican. So when the DNA test revealed that she was actually Italian, British and French, she was left with even more questions.
A month after her father’s death, she came out with a book called ‘Life’s Sad Story, God’s Love Story: Transforming a Child’s Adversity Into a Tale of Love’.
But her new success led to yet another twist in her life after an estranged aunt called her upon its release.
‘She called me when my book came out, and she was like, “I hate to tell you this, but you’re not full Mexican. Your dad might be Mexican, but there is rumor that your mom wasn’t our dad’s kid,”‘ Werts recalled.
That call made her doubt her mother – who only got sober when she was an adult and passed away when Werts was only 28 – and left her wondering what she was hiding.
With both of her parents now dead, she knew that she needed a more thorough DNA analysis to find out more about where she came from and decided to send her sample to Ancestry with the hopes of connecting with more relatives.
But the second test revealed what she had always suspected but never actually expected to learn – turning her life upside down overnight.
It was only when Werts decided to send a DNA sample to Ancestry that she discovered a stranger in his 70s, whom she had never met, was her real father all along
The unexpected chapter of her life opened fresh wounds and closed old ones as she recalled her ‘heart coming out of her chest’ when she discovered where she really came from
Early one morning, she opened the results to discover that a complete stranger, who was now in his 70s, was her real father all along.
‘It showed “parent-child relationship” and gave the name of this person who was not my father,’ she said. ‘My heart came out of my chest when it popped up.’
Werts proceeded to call the man with no hesitation – just with a goal to discover her own backstory.
‘He does not remember my mom. It was a one-time one-night-stand back in the end of 1973. They met at a bar,’ she said. ‘And then he was married. He’s been married for 50 years now.’
As if the discovery of her real father wasn’t complicated enough, she found out that she had blood siblings – her biological dad ended up having kids nearly 10 years after she was conceived.
‘He is completely screwed up over it almost, because he was a good dad to his kids,’ Werts added.
But his newly-found existence, though sudden, affirmed so much for her and helped her to understand the trauma that she had spent years working through.
‘My biological father and I have so much in common. He’s very sensitive and he’s very caring,’ Werts shared. ‘We were both in the military, and nobody in my other family were in the military.’
Werts thought about whether or not knowing her real father sooner would have taken away her childhood pain, but she said: ‘If I knew what I had now and had to relive all that, I would probably do it again’
After swearing off the foster care system as an adult after being a child in the system herself, she ended up adopting the baby of her now-husband’s ex-wife just before his second birthday so he didn’t end up in the same place she was
‘I always thought I looked like my mother, but now that I see pictures of him, I look more like him than I do anybody,’ she added, noting how he also shared her cleft chin.
‘It’s just crazy to see these people that you didn’t even know, and you look like them.’
It took her awhile to divulge the news to her brother and the other relatives that she had grown up with her entire life.
But when she finally did, she was met with love and acceptance from all – even her brother, who reassured her that she was still part of the family.
‘In a sense, it’s a little bit healing after wondering why I always felt a little different,’ she continued. ‘I feel the validation, but then I also feel sad… Like what if he knew and I was raised differently?’
The unexpected chapter of her life opened fresh wounds and closed old ones, but made her rethink several aspects of her life, including the ‘little relationship’ she had with her mother.
Werts remembered the way her mother used to make jokes about her paternity – leading her to come to the ultimate conclusion that she must have known all along.
‘She just left me with a man that wasn’t even my dad,’ she said. ‘And then I landed into foster care, and it turns out he wasn’t even my dad.’
His mother sadly died from struggles with addiction issues, which Werts understood first-hand
Werts finally realized that her biological father had the same cleft chin she had, noting: ‘It’s just crazy to see these people that you didn’t even know, and you look like them’
Her cultural identity also greatly shifted after she realized she had to come to terms with the inaccuracy of her Mexican heritage.
‘I identified everything with being Mexican,’ she said. ‘I had a very large Mexican family, even though I didn’t look like everybody. Then all of a sudden, you have to mourn a little but of that identity.’
The tailspin only continued when she thought about whether or not knowing her real father sooner would have taken away her childhood pain.
But even though she remembered the hurt of being rejected as a child – which included swearing off the foster care system as an adult – her past had a funny way of creeping back into her life again and helped guide her to do something good.
She ended up adopting the baby of her now-husband’s ex-wife just before his second birthday in 2023 after she sadly died from struggles with addiction issues.
Werts understood first-hand the monster that addiction could become, and she didn’t want the innocent child to end up in the same system she had ended up in.
‘It was a little bit of a healing and emotional time having to become a foster parent when you were a former foster kid,’ she reflected.
After it all, she hopes to one day meet her real father in person.
‘It’s a very strange place to be, for sure,’ Werts said. ‘If I knew what I had now and had to relive all that, I would probably do it again.’
