I WAS SWITCHED AT BIRTH

Shirley Munoz Newson, 65, felt like an outsider until a DNA test revealed the shocking truth

- KATE GRAHAM

With trembling hands, I handed my boyfriend Scott the DNA results, and asked him to read them. As I heard the words: 'Jim Morgan has a 0.00% chance of being Shirley's father,' it felt as though my world was being torn apart. I drove straight to my mum Jean's house to confront her. Her response was as cold as ice. If Jim wasn't my dad, she said, then she wasn't my mum either - and she'd take a DNA test to prove it.

Ever since I could remember, I’d felt like I didn’t fit in with my Irish-American family. My parents and seven siblings were all tall and fair, while I was small with brown eyes and olive skin. As a child, there were constant comments from people in our small town. Was I the postman’s daughter? Did I have a different dad? Confused and humiliated, I pushed the hurt down and pretended I was fine.

Growing up, my family never showed me much love. Mum recoiled from holding my hand and Dad didn’t hide his dislike. with my siblings either, except for my brother Bill, who was three years younger. I sensed my other siblings resented me, and that my arrival had changed the family in some unspoken way.

As the years went by, I got married, built my career as an accountant and raised my children, Chris, Lindsay and TJ. brief marriage from September I started dating Scott.

DNA DEMAND