DNA test uncovers 62-year-old family secret for Montville woman
Gayle Worath discovered she was the product of a sperm donation in 1971. She went from a life with no aunts, uncles or cousins to having 227,000 potential relatives.
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A Montville woman uncovered a 62-year-old family secret after using a DNA Test kit from Ancestry.com.
Gayle Worath, 53, says she discovered that Dr. Michael Loss was her biological father after being contacted by a woman named Francesca Loss.
Francesca Loss explained that she was Worath's half-sister and that Dr. Michael Loss was their father. Worath says she was told that Michael Loss raised Francesca Loss and explained to her before his death that he had used a sperm bank in the Newark area in the 1970s to help pay for classes at Rutgers Medical School.
Worath says she then learned that her mother used sperm donation because the man who raised her as her father was sterile after contracting the mumps. She says it was a fact that was kept a secret for 62 years due to the stigma that was carried with being sterile and using artificial insemination.
"Two people, Francesca and a man, showed up as half-siblings. I believe he’s a donor-conceived man. Another man showed up as a first cousin," said Worath about her Ancestry.com findings.
Worath says she went from a life with no aunts, uncles or cousins to having 227,000 potential relatives. She says she is convinced there must be more siblings after learning her biological father donated numerous times.
"Based on that number of partial connections, I have to believe that there are many more siblings," said Worath.
Worath has also met her biological father’s sister and family, which has broadened her family tree.
She is currently telling her story on TikTok, where she's averaging 800,000 views a month. She says she is also writing a book and getting interest from Hollywood agents.
See the full interview below
