Life has a way of throwing unexpected surprises our way, sometimes challenging our beliefs and shaking the very foundation of our identity. Recently, beloved actress Kerry Washington shared a deeply personal revelation: she discovered that her dad was not her biological father.
Despite the shock and emotional turmoil that turned her life “upside down,” Washington shared how she got through such a life-changing moment in her life and how she was able to cope with her new reality after learning that she was actually conceived using a sperm donor.
In her new memoir, Thicker Than Water, the 46-year-old Scandal star explains that she discovered the big family secret shortly after she told her parents she was planning to appear on Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s Finding Your Roots. It was a series on PBS where celebrities learn about their ancestors through DNA testing. “When I said, ‘Spit in this tube,’ they started freaking out,” Kerry recalled while speaking with The New York Times about her parents’ reaction to the DNA test. “My mom was like, ‘I didn’t know that this was going to happen.’”
Her father eventually decided to pull out of the show after he started to have panic attacks and began suffering from insomnia. It wasn’t until a 2018 get-together, that Kerry’s parents revealed they had used an anonymous sperm donor after they had trouble conceiving naturally.
“I’ve always had this weird disconnect with my dad, but I thought that was my fault. I thought I wasn’t a kind enough person,’ she explained.
‘But the idea that I was not his never occurred to me. It was just, “Why can’t I be better to him? Why can’t we be closer? What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with us?”‘
Speaking to PEOPLE, Washington went on to say, “When I got this information, I was like, ‘Oh. I now know my story,’” she told People. ‘I didn’t know what my story was, but I was playing the supporting character in their story.”
Unfortunately, Kerry has not yet been able to discover anything about the sperm donor.
Kerry admits her parents are not 100 % okay with her publishing a book that includes some of their family secrets. However, they are still trying to show support to their daughter.
Washing opens up about so much more in her new memoir including her eating disorder, having an abortion in her 20s, and more.