Woman teased by siblings as ‘postman’s daughter’ recalls shock when DNA test revealed her long lost family in Egypt
A woman who grew up believing she was 100% Portuguese and spent her summers with her father during school holidays when he visited her and her siblings in Portugal was stunned when she took a DNA test years later and discovered he is not her biological father – and she is actually half-Egyptian, with other siblings living in Cairo.
Kate Valerio, 31, who works in a bank, recalled growing up in Pombal, Portugal, and how her brothers and sisters mostly had blue eyes and blonde hair while she had dark locks and green eyes.
After taking a MyHeritage DNA test at the age of 28, she got a message on the genealogy website from an unknown relative the day before her 30th birthday, telling her they knew the identity of her real father.
Travelling to Egypt in February 2023, Kate met her two biological half-brothers and half-sister and is learning about her Egyptian father’s culture and Islamic traditions.
Kate, who is now based in Luxembourg, told PA Real Life: “Sometimes it’s hard to believe this all happened and still is happening. It feels like a movie, not my life.
“But it did open a lot of my horizons and it’s connected me to learn a lot about Muslim traditions, and I had the privilege to share a lot of moments with my biological father’s family.
“I was shocked because, for the first time in my life, I was looking around and thinking, ‘This is what it feels like to see people who look like you’.”
Growing up, Kate always wondered why she had dark hair and green eyes while most of her siblings were blonde with blue eyes.
She said: “People would often be surprised to find out that I’m Portuguese. They would often think that I’m Saudi Arabian or Lebanese.
“I am number three out of 10 siblings and my siblings would tease me as kids, telling me that I was found in the trash or that I was the mailman’s daughter or that I must have been switched at birth because I look nothing like them.”
Kate’s journey to discovering her biological heritage began by chance when she decided to buy a DNA test with her friend just before her 28th birthday.
She said: “I had seen a popular video on the internet of complete strangers who think they are 100% from a certain country and they are very patriotic and they do a DNA test and find out their origins are actually from other places.
When the results came back, however, Kate was stunned to discover that she was only 36% Portuguese and 14% Italian, while the other 50% was split between different North African countries and the Middle East.
Kate said: “Portugal was under Arab rule for over 700 years and, not really knowing how DNA works, I thought that maybe my ancestors could have been from North Africa.”
Kate did not question her DNA again for another two years until she received an unusual message through MyHeritage.
She said: “I got this message while I was getting my nails done and I started laughing and even joked with the lady about it.
“I thought it was a scam so, for over a month and a half, I was ignoring those messages.”
It was not until the woman trying to contact Kate found her on LinkedIn that she started to take the messages seriously.
When she replied, the woman explained that in the ’90s Kate’s mother had been in a relationship with her uncle – Mustafa, Kate’s biological father.
Kate said: “When she told me information about my mother, that was when I knew she had to be telling the truth. I was shocked. It was not a scam, I was uncovering something huge.”
Meeting up with her mother at a restaurant, Kate revealed what she knew and recalls how her mother “turned white”.
“She explained to me the reasons why she was hiding this story from me for all my life – because the relationship hadn’t worked out with my biological father and that she wanted me to have a more tranquil life.
“I was upset, and I still am, to be honest, but it answered a lot of questions for me.”
Now armed with the truth about her identity, Kate faced heartbreak again on discovering that her biological father, Mustafa, had died in 2008.
He died not knowing about his long-lost daughter but had three other children who lived in Egypt who Kate was able to connect with.
Kate said: “I’ve struggled to be able to communicate with my sister because she does not speak English or French but we managed to talk with our hands and then her kids would translate anything we wanted to say.
“My cousins and my uncle were able to translate parts, too.
“Despite the language barrier, we did bond, and my brother speaks English so it was easier to talk to him.
“It’s been a rollercoaster, but going there, people welcomed me with open arms and I think for them, it’s like they found a piece of my biological father that’s still alive.
While the revelation has been strange for Kate and her family, she said her siblings are supportive of her finding her Egyptian roots.
She said: “I think at first it was very confusing and hard for them to accept because it was like I was being taken away so I had to reassure them that they are still my brothers and sisters.
“They are the ones I grew up with and shared the most memories with and no one will ever be able to take that away. I do understand that it was tough but they have accepted it and they support me.
“I’m still very sad that my mother hid this from me most of my life because, by the time I found out, my father had already passed away without knowing I existed, but I’m trying to understand her reasons and I’m sure that she did what she thought was best for me.”
She said: “If I could, I would move there for a year or two to learn the language and spend some time with them but that’s not possible right now. If everything goes well then I will be going back to visit at the beginning of next year.”
For more information on Kate’s journey, visit: www.instagram.com/my_dna_secret/ and for more information on MyHeritage DNA tests, visit: www.MyHeritage.com.