Back On Karamo To See If We Found My Father! | KARAMO

Keyonna was on my show recently searching for her biological father. Take a look at this.

When I was 16 years old, I went to Arkansas where I was born to be with my father for the very first time. But then outta nowhere, the drama started and he sent me back home with my mom. Years later, he started denying me as his daughter and it made me feel ashamed and it made me feel like, why?

Why do you feel like she's not related to you?

I'm sorry now. You think a person will let you go 18 years without paying child support and not put you on child support if you're the father?

Do you want her to be your child?

If it's my child, I don't want no extra child that ain't mine. I want a child that's mine.

And I agree.

Kiana, my producers say that you brought a letter.

Dear Dad, I'm writing you because there are so many unanswered questions I have. I feel as though as I'm the monkey in the middle chasing after you to gain closure on if I'm yours or not. But whatever the results are, just know regardless, I'll always love you.

It's been 36 years of misinformation where you had no idea. Keonna, are you ready for the truth?

Yeah. Here goes nothing.

Hmm.

He's not. He's not.

It is what I knew all along.

Yeah. I knew it.

Well, we don't wanna do that. Because in this moment right now, she's still a child.

She's still a child.

She's still a child.

I'm sorry.

It's all right.

She's still a child. She's still a child.

It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Tim, the reason I said to you, don't do that, is because at the end of the day, we're all here because everyone is adults. You, the kid, everyone made these decisions for years and she's just been stuck in the middle. And what you need is out there and we gonna find it for you, okay? Would you allow us to help you to get your answers? All right, we gonna be here for you, all right?

Breathe, breathe, breathe.

You gotta breathe.

Come on, breathe.

I'm having someone come.

We need a medic. Medic in 10. She's having trouble with the panic attack.

I'm gonna be here. I promise.

Listen everyone, Keyonna is back today with a different man who could potentially be her father. So everyone, please welcome Keyonna back to the show.

Hi everybody.

So I gotta tell y'all, there's some guests that stay on my mind and my heart, and Keyonna, you are one of them. Like I told you in that show that we would do anything we could to help you. But what really struck me about you, why I've thought about you, is because you just were so vulnerable and open and sweet. You weren't being mad and I could tell that you were devastated and especially after the show, what happened there? You couldn't breathe?

I just went into a state of panic and it was just like, wow.

Yeah.

You know, so yeah.

Yeah, you didn't deserve that. You didn't deserve that. And what got me upset is Tim, when he was like, "See, I knew it." Because I was just like, why? You were not being mean to him. You were not being rude. Why do that? And so I told my producer, I said, "Whatever help she need." Whatever she want, give it to her.

And now we're back. Absolutely.

Yeah.

And so I appreciate it.

Whatever.

Whatever.

Whatever. So you called your mom right after the show.

I was on my way back to the airport and I called my mom.

Yes.

And I was so upset. Of course. I was so upset. I'm like, hey, we need to figure this out.

Yeah.

Because this is gonna give me closure. I need to heal a childhood wound.

Yeah.

She called me back. With my potential aunt on the phone. And she stated, "We've been looking for you, and if you give us the chance, we could just start from here." And I said, "I accept that." The connection was made from there to my potential aunt, yes.

Got it. I was like, "Okay, well." And so that somehow connected you to your alleged father, Gary, correct? Mm-hmm. Okay, tell me about that.

Well, at the time, he wasn't available 'cause he was going through some things. So I'm like, "Okay." I would reach out like, mm, sometimes here and there. And then when I found out that he was out, I'm like, where is he? You know what I'm saying? I wanna talk to him. And we FaceTimed for the first time and it was just like all smiles. And they told me that I was the oldest of 3 girls. So he has 4 girls, I'm the oldest. So I was like, wow.

And you also, you said that when you found out that you potentially could have sisters, you were like, I wanna reach out. Did you connect with any of the daughters?

All three, well, kind of all three of 'em, but two of 'em for sure, yeah.

Okay then. And my producer said that one of the daughters you started building a connection with, and that's his daughter, Shy.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, tell me about the connection.

Well, I reached out to her and I'm like, "Hey, I might be your big sister." I wanna talk to you.

Yeah.

Please gimme a call, this is my number. Add me on Facebook, whatever you gotta do. And she immediately reached out and then just from there, we can't stay off the phone.

Got it, all right, that's good.

So yeah. Yeah.

So from your interactions, do you believe Shy is your sister? Sister?

Yeah, 'cause we do some of the same things.

You do, you do some of the same things.

Yeah.

How long have you been talking now?

Probably a few weeks now.

Few weeks now.

Yeah.

Yeah. So do you think you two look alike?

We got our own distinctive look, you know what I mean? I think she looks like Gary. I think I look like my mom.

Got it.

By the eyes.

But from here down.

Yeah.

And stuff like that, I think Gary.

Very similar.

Yeah.

All right, for the record, everyone, you and Shai have never met in person, right?

Never met in person.

Well, I think it's time for you to meet your potential sister, Shai. So everyone, please welcome Shai to the show.

Oh my God, she is so beautiful. You're so cute. Look at you.

Look at you, but we short.

I know, right?

Let's take these shoes off.

Hi, Shai. Hi, Karamo. Thank you for being here. You look very nice.

Thank you.

So what does it feel like for you knowing that you're meeting your potential sister?

It feel good. It feel amazing.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yeah. So do you believe that you two are sisters?

I have no idea.

You don't know.

But we do kind of look alike, so— Favor.

Yeah. Yeah, I see the favor. So was your father Gary in your life? No. Oh, so he wasn't in your life? No, he wasn't there. Okay, okay. So Shai, you've never met Gary either? Uh-uh. Never met him either.

Okay.

So who did you believe was your father growing up?

Well, I always knew it was Gary 'cause my mother told me about him.

Mm-hmm.

It's just that he never came to see me.

Mm, wow. And when you were a teenager, you searched for Gary. Tell me about that.

Ooh, plenty of times. Okay, so, When I was 8, probably younger than that, I used to call this information number, 311. And when I called—

All of us who are of a certain age, we all giggled. 'Cause we all knew. We all know the line.

So when I called, it gave me his mother number, which is my grandmother. She told me that he wasn't there at the time. And so, I'm gonna say about a month later, he called me back and he was like, "Hey baby girl, how you been doing?" Throughout the years, due to me being young and him not being stable, we kind of lost contact with each other.

All right, well let's meet Gary and hear his side of the story. So everyone welcome Gary to the show.

Hey. Hey daddy.

How you doing, baby? Hey, how you doing? Hey.

I'm sorry.

It's okay, love.

Hello. How you doing? How you doing? All right.

I'm fine.

Yes, indeed.

How you doing, girl?

How you doing? Nice to meet you, sir. Thank you for being here. You look sharp.

You want to sit in the middle?

Yes.

Yes. Look at you. Look at you. I messed up.

Y'all sweet.

So I got to ask you, how do you feel seeing Shai so emotional?

Well, today's the first time I've seen both of 'em ever, you know? Well, her as a child, as a baby, her as a baby, but never since then. As an adult. So I feel good right now. I mean, 'cause I mean, I've had some ups and downs, some stumbling blocks in my life, but I always been a man that if I got a child, you know, I'm gonna be there for my children, you know?

Got it, got it, got it. I do wanna hear your side and your perspective, but you said something that was a little conflicting for me. You said that I'm the type of man that's always in a child's life, yet she's saying that you weren't in her life.

Okay, only reason why I beat up for these here, I lost contact with her mother and also with her. It's a long story, but I lost contact with her mother. I don't know if her mother got locked up or what, but I just lost total contact with her. I was not available because I was going through so much in my life, you know, trials and tribulations. Ups and downs. But you know, I'm here for them now.

I wanna say something. You say you lost contact with my mother. You knew I was in Houston.

Yes, but I wasn't—

It's like how I put that, the same energy calling 311 to find you, you could've did the same thing.

I was just, I was out of pocket at that time.

So tell me now, when did you learn about Keyonna?

Actually about maybe 3 weeks ago, not even a month.

And, uh.

Recent? Yeah, just recently. Well, she reached out, her mother reached out to my sister. Uh-huh. And she said that I could possibly be the father. And I'm like, you know, this is, I just, I don't know, but I didn't believe it. But then again, I thought about it. I was there at the time. So I immediately reached out to her.

But what about when my mother brung you to my grandmother, brung me, excuse me, to my grandmother's house and presented me to you.

I told her then, now, at that time, see, I was young and I was in the military and I just didn't believe that she was my daughter and we lost contact since then.

If you had any doubt when it pertained to me, y'all could've got that DNA test when I was a baby. And then we could've got it over with.

Yeah, you right, you right.

You know what I mean?

Speaking with Kiana on the phone, do you believe she's your daughter?

I got a gut feeling, but I don't know for sure, but my soul tell me that she is.

Your soul tell you that, okay.

Yeah.

And so when did you first learn about Shai? At what age? Were you there when she was born?

As a baby, like I said, as a baby, I seen her and I knew she was my daughter. But like I said, I lost contact with her mother. I don't know if her mother got locked up, but like I said, I'm not trying to make no excuses, but we were just not in no contact for so many years, so many years. And I was going everywhere around the country and everything. It was hard to catch up with me.

Got it. It looks like we got a ping and my producer telling me that the ping is from Shai's mother, Annette.

Shai is going on 30 years old and he's never tried to contact Shai. Shai tried to contact him, but he keep lying to her saying that he's gonna come down here, this, that, whatever he gonna send for and he never have. He's never been a good father. He never saw her at the hospital. He never came and saw her. He mess with prostitutes. That's why his marriage broke up, because he love crackheads. That's all he mess with is crackheads. He's a liar. Karamo's not gonna never get his life straight because he tell them girls one lie after another. He's a no-show. He's a no-show. He take no responsibility raising his girls, and he just don't care. It's like he just a sperm donor. He make babies and don't take care of 'em. Me and him dated for 2 years. I couldn't take his shit no more, so I said, "Fuck it." He didn't wanna take responsibility of taking care of his child. I hated the way he did Shy, and I hated that I had a child from him. I hated that he came into my life.

Well, I'm glad. That's how she feel.

I'm glad I'm here. Your mother's still hurting, which I understand why. She's still grieving that relationship you had.

Yeah.

You must have did her bad, 'cause it's been 30 years and she still feels that pain. Yeah, yeah. You remember that relationship being a little bit toxic?

Yeah, I remember that relationship and it was a wild one.

It was a wild one. Yes. Yeah, I can tell. So what is your response to that message?

She don't know what I was going through all this here. And matter of fact, while she's talking, you know, me and her met as doing the same thing. We were both on drugs and alcohol, so that's how we had actually met, you know? And it was like that for a long time. I was out of reach, out of contact, out of pocket. I was with the, prison and everything, I wasn't stable. So it was hard for her to catch me. And besides, I had no knowledge or even knew how to contact her any type of way.

I hear you. Okay then. Well, Keyonna, hearing all of this, how do you feel about Gary potentially being your father?

I'm just excited to know. And then hopefully we could just go from here 'cause I'm a forgiving person. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Keyonna, you're a very, very special person. Very special person. Like I said before, Some guests stay on my heart and in my mind. I'm glad that you came back, but are you ready to find out the truth?

Yeah, I am.

All right, here we go. Come with me. All right, Keyonna, we have been here before. You believed that another man was your father. He was not. Your mother gave you your aunt's name and said, "This is your aunt," which connected you to a potential sister and father. They're here today for you to get the truth of if Gary is your father. This is your truth to open, not mine. Good luck, okay?

Yes, we gonna do it again. Oh, okay. Same thing as last time.

Oh Lord, have mercy.

Really?

Yeah. Wow.

Yeah.

It's okay, Kiana. I'm all right, it's okay. We still sisters though.

Yeah, it's okay.

We still sisters.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.

It's all right, it's okay. 'Cause look, I bonded with y'all. I know, right? And it's okay.

Yeah.

It's all right.

Kiana, come take a seat for me.

Yeah.

My friend, I'm so sorry.

It's fine.

I'm sorry too.

Yeah.

Gary and Shai, what are y'all feeling this moment?

I'm feeling a little disappointed 'cause I was hoping that she was, you know, 'cause I had a gut feeling. But you know, it's good to know the truth. Yeah. You know, the full facts.

The truth is all that matters.

The truth is all that matters. Yeah. I'm sorry that you all are not family members. I do think that this was important for y'all to meet. Yes. For you two to have an apology.

It was.

And for, this could maybe be a first step in there being some mending of this relationship. Yes. Before I get back to you, Karamo, I'm gonna tell you this. If you have an opportunity to talk to her mom, I know that you said we were both young, we were both on drugs. Both y'all memories gonna be blurred, but a sorry and putting her first can start to heal that relationship.

Okay. Absolutely.

And Tiana, you said earlier when you were talking about your mom, that your mom was a woman of perseverance and integrity.

That's all I knew.

That's all you knew. But I think it's time for your mom to be a person of the truth. And this is no disrespect, but your mother now needs to be here with you. Mm-hmm. Because you deserve to have every person rallied around you, particularly your mother, to get the answers. And so I wanna make sure that she knows that we are not here to judge her. We're there to make sure that you are healed, that you get your closure. So again, like I told you before, I told you if I saw you on the street, you was gonna be a cousin to me, okay? And I mean this, I mean this with all my heart. Any help you need, and if you allow me to talk to your mother to get to a place to really give you the answers, we gotta get there 'cause you deserve it, okay?

Yeah.

I wanted to say one more thing.

Yeah.

I am happy that I was able to bring Gary and Shawna together.

Yes, you did.

Amen. You know what I mean? Because it needed to happen. Yeah, you did. You know what I'm saying? Even if, you know, the results are what they are.

And the same way you were there for them, I'm gonna be there for you, okay? We gonna figure this out, all right? All right, Keyonna, I love you, girl.