During Monday’s episode of the ITV show This Morning, a guest shared shocking discoveries she made after undergoing a DNA test for medical purposes.
Victoria Hill appeared on the show alongside Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard via live video from her home in Connecticut, where she discussed revelations regarding her biological father and former boyfriend.
The guest was keen to look into her background to get some answers about her health and was also curious to learn more about her genetic heritage.
After receiving the test results, Hill learned that she had half-siblings, a fact she initially dismissed until she started receiving emails from a woman who turned out to be her half-sister.
Victoria said: ‘As she continued to push, she said “did your mother go to Yale Fertility Treatment Clinic to get help for fertility”… when she had said that, it got my attention because I did know that much.
‘My parents had struggled with fertility…’
A This Morning guest revealed the sickening discoveries that she made after having a DNA test for medical reasons during Monday’s episode of the ITV show
Victoria Hill joined Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard live from her home in Connecticut to talk about she found out the truth behind her biological dad and ex boyfriend
She added: ‘She had my attention and she gave me the rest of the information – this doctor, my mother’s fertility doctor, was in fact my biological father.’
When asked how she felt about the shocking news, Victoria explained: ‘It was pretty surreal. It took a while to set in.
‘I have to say growing up I felt a part of me was different or distant, we used to have a joke, between my father and I, that the only thing that was similar was our hands.
‘In some weird ways, it clicked. But it seemed too bizarre, throughout the different stages of it.
‘Not only is it the man who raised me not my biological father, but my mother’s doctor that she went to for over eight years of treatment trying to conceive, then kind of bringing her the news, sharing that with her.
‘She was not aware of this as well. We sat through it together.’
Victoria explained that more 80 doctors have done the same as Doctor Caldwell and wanted to share her story to raise awareness.
Victoria told the presenters: ‘She had my attention and she gave me the rest of the information – this doctor, my mother’s fertility doctor, was in fact my biological father’
She then went on to share an even more shocking element to her story.
Victoria is known to have 25 half-siblings and the number has continued to grow over the years.
During a conversation with friends, she realised that her ex-boyfriend had been through the same thing as her.
Victoria explained: ‘We figured it out, there was a high school reunion, we started sharing info with close friends and fast forward to a dinner and it was at that time that as I’m telling this story, my high school boyfriend, now friend, looked like he was turning something over in his head.
‘His mother had recently told him that the reason why him and his brother, who is also a really good friend of mine, that his mother went for fertility treatment with his father.
‘So we just kind of assumed that she must have gone to the same place.
‘He ultimately called his mother and his mother confirmed that the same doctor had performed the same procedure.
‘So then it was a waiting game.
‘We sat there in disbelief that this was something we were entertaining.
‘We made jokes but it felt very surreal. Then in a couple of weeks, he sent me the screenshot that you are my sister.
‘The mind-boggling thing about it was as he sent me the screen shot, I had the notification from my phone on 23 and Me that you have a new half-sibling.
‘So just that realisation… I felt like I was on the Truman Show.
‘It was just one next thing that hits after another. We still don’t know what is to come.’
During the interview Cat and Ben noted that Doctor Caldwell had recently passed away.
The guest, who is trying to get the laws around fertility treatment changed, also explained that she went to confront him about what he had done.
Victoria said: ‘When I asked him “Why?”, he said “It was in the business of making babies”.’
She added: ‘There wasn’t a lot of remorse, there wasn’t a lot of concern.’
‘The impression I got was just “your mother wanted a baby, she got a baby.”
‘I believe he was a big part of founding Yale Fertility Clinic, so this was his life and I can only imagine, the extreme measures to make this programme work, which creates this cognitive dissonance, because on one hand, everyone asks “Aren’t you happy to be alive? Your mother wanted a child, and she got a child”.
‘But on the other hand, I didn’t want to be a product of fertility fraud, my mother didn’t consent to his sperms and I didn’t consent to having a growing number of siblings that will continue to grow.’
This Morning airs weekdays on ITV1 from 10am and is available to stream on ITVX.
