56 Year Old DNA Mystery, Are You My Brother?! | KARAMO

You're my favorite color green. How you doing? Nice to meet you. Oh, I see somebody on it. Tell me about this outfit.

This is my dad. I had this outfit made for him before he passed away. And this is his favorite color, and it's also your favorite color.

Yes, it is.

And now it's my favorite color.

That is so sweet. First of all, I'm sorry about losing your father. How did you find out that you may have a potential brother though?

I called my dad's sister, and she had told me that I have a couple of different siblings. I had to go down that list to call every sibling.

Oh wow. Okay then. But how did you find out about Jeffrey?

Well, when I called that list, he was the only one who wanted to deal with it. He was like, "Well, if I never met you before, or if Dad never told you about me, why should I even bother to deal with it?" Oh wow.

Okay then. Had you ever heard of Jeffrey before your father had passed?

No, I have not.

You had not. Okay then. And did your father have other children?

He had others. Papa was a rolling stone.

Okay. How many children?

About 7, 8.

7 or 8 children. Okay then. And you had a health scare recently. What happened?

I had breast cancer.

Okay then. And how are you doing right now?

I'm doing fine.

Okay, good.

I beat it.

Okay, good.

It could come back, but not in that same spot. Yes.

So any of these 8 children, do you know any of them, the other children? None of them?

Did you know any of them?

I knew—

Two of 'em.

Two of 'em. Okay then. And were you close to them?

I'm close to one.

One of them. Okay then, perfect. And did you live with your parents growing up?

I lived with my parents growing up off and on. Then I was passed down to family members.

Okay then, okay. And what happened in your childhood that you were passed down?

Father, parents was in and out of jail time.

Okay.

Was there addiction?

Addiction, yes.

Okay, got it. Okay, that makes more sense. Okay. Yeah. And so when did you become close with your father then?

I say it was, we always been close, but as he got older, he got sicker. So I was the baby child, so I always had him under my wing to take care of.

Okay then. Did his addiction go into his older age?

Yes, that was some of the reasons that was denying his health.

Got it, okay, got it. So have you ever met Jeffrey?

I met Jeff after our father passed away. He was the only one that welcomed me to come to his home. He was the only one to talk to me on the phone. So by me not—

None of the other siblings wanted it?

Mm-mm.

Wow, okay then. And how did you feel when you finally met him?

I felt okay, but it's always that doubt. So I wanna know by me being sick, so I need somebody. I know that I can count on him because he was there for me after my father passed away.

Got it, okay then. And this makes sense as well with your health conditions, you know, knowing that like life is precious and also knowing like if you want family member just to make sure like if something happens, you have somebody you can talk to about like health issues and or get that support.

Yes.

Got it, makes sense to me. So why do you have doubts that he is your brother?

I never met him before, I never heard of him.

And so that's why. So it's like, even though he was there to support you, it's like, I've never heard of you, I don't know you. So could you, could you not be?

Right.

Understand. Well, I wanna meet Jeffrey and hear what he has to say about all this. So everyone please welcome Jeffrey to the show.

Hey sister.

Hey brother.

How you doing?

Hey, Jeffrey, how you doing, sir? Nice to meet you.

All right.

Nice to meet you. I ain't gonna lie to you, I know that looks can be deceiving, but I had looked down at your t-shirt and I looked up at you and I thought that was you on the t-shirt for a while.

Everybody say we look alike.

Oh my gosh, yes.

Everybody always told us that.

Yeah, now listen, I've been fooled on this show before. I said the same thing and then I'm like, oh, y'all not related. So, you know, we don't know for sure, but you've heard your entire life that you look like this man?

Yes, sir, I have heard that and it's just been, from random people, but I ain't really met the gentleman or nothing like that.

Yeah, I hear that. How did you feel when Shanika reached out to you?

I was happy to know it's a loved one that reached out to me, and I was sad for her end because she was losing her father, a gentleman I never had a chance to meet, but just seen photos of.

Got it, okay then. So did you know anything about your father?

No, I just know that people told me here and there that I ran into that he was my father, Never had a chance to just know much about him. It was always just people telling me here and there.

I understand. Who raised you?

My adopted parents.

Okay, your adopted parents. Yes. Are you close with your adopted family?

They have passed. They passed away when I graduated high school.

Okay then, okay.

At the same time, and I didn't have no sense of trade and stayed on the bottle for a year.

Okay.

And got up and said I was gonna get my life together and move on.

Oh, that's amazing.

I'm glad you did that. That's why I did that. Yeah.

So did you reconnect with your mother? Your biological mother?

I tried that and it was back probably about 20, 25 years ago. Tried to get to know her and everything. And I just came out one day and asked her, "Why you give me up for adoption?" She told me she didn't want me. So therefore I stopped pushing towards getting to knowing someone who don't want to have no dealings with me.

Oh wow.

Wouldn't give me no answer about who my father is, whatever, you know, like that. And I said, "Well, who is the family? Do we got brothers and sisters?" I don't know.

Got it.

Everything was quick, short, straight to the end. No conversation about it.

So do you have a relationship with any of your biological family?

Only one up in Minnesota. Me and him keep in contact quite often over the phone, chit-chat about the games and stuff like that.

Got it. And did you ever look for your father, your biological father?

No, because I heard hearsay. I didn't know who the gentleman was because I heard he was here, I heard he was there, and I never know what city he was basically nailed down in at the time.

Got it, makes sense to me. So what does this DNA test mean to you?

It mean a lot because she's the one who done reached out and put her effort in and took her effort to come to a stranger house. You know, that's my house. And we just seem like we got the same type of little crates about us. We silly cornballs and happy together, you know? It would mean a lot. Even if she's not, we still also decided to be friends. She done met my wife and stayed in my house and all, so. And we up here and turn out not to be, you know, how some folks is. But no, my wife is more understanding of she's not that type.

Yeah, of course, of course.

So she's happy for me to come up here and see what the results is too.

Do you want Shanika to be your sister?

Yeah, I would love it. I really believe we are.

You do believe it?

I kind of believe it.

And Shanika, do you want Jeffrey to be your brother?

I do.

You do, you do, you do. Well, listen, knowing the fact that, you know, you had a life where you were denied and that you met somebody who let you in, I want you to have this closure as well. So I think it's time to solve this 56-year-old DNA mystery. Shanika, you come with me, okay? Shanika, in this envelope is the truth. You have reached out to this man and said that he could potentially be your brother. You hope that he is your brother. This is your truth to open, not mine. Here you go.

All right. Dad, I'm doing this for me and you, so whatever the outcome is, we gonna be happy with it. Jeff, you gonna always have a spot in my heart if you my brother or if you not my brother. Shaniqua and Jeff, you are your baala.

I love you, man. I love you. I love you.

Thank you.

I see. Don't cry.

Here you go, Jeffrey.

Here you go.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Jeffrey, how are you feeling right now?

I'm glad she's a part of family, and I'm glad she's a Black female that stepped up and wasn't one of these ones that I didn't step up to get identified just so in case because everybody basically on social media and you never know who you meet and our children could meet one another and don't need no disasters.

Yeah, okay.

That's the truth.

And thank you for allowing me to come to your home as a stranger.

Yeah, a stranger came to my home and we done had fun ever since. Yeah.

I'm also happy for you that you have answers. Biologically this is where I came from. And I think it's important for you to get that closure as a young man and to also to have a sister that you can bond with and have that relationship now that you can build and it could be stronger. You deserve that. You deserve that more than you know.

Yes sir.

Yes sir.

Y'all both got a big head. And it is, I don't know if you know from what she's told me, but the addiction issues, so it sound like, there's a large part of that of why you couldn't have a relationship or why there wasn't one because of addiction issues. Did you know that?

No, I didn't know he had an addiction until what she was telling me.

Would I bother you?

Yeah, until what she was telling me about it. Because it's no disrespect to you, but I didn't know the man at all. So she know more about him and I never know nothing.

He had an addiction all his life.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I mean, you know, at least now you know where you came from. You got some closure. And I look forward to you all building this relationship.

And we're gonna build it.

Yeah, I already know it.

We already tell our audience, fans, I'm coming back to this city.

I, I love that.

I love that.

I love that. Listen, congratulations again. I'm so happy for you both that you have your answer, that you have each other. All right, good luck with everything.

Karamo is the best.

All right.

Yes, sir.