In this episode of The Karamo Show, host Karamo facilitates a live reunion between Barbara, a woman who has spent 33 years searching for her biological father, and Elliott, a man who may be her dad. Barbara grew up with her maternal grandmother and has always felt like a "black sheep" because of the mysterious Dial/Dowell surname. Through social media, she connected with two of Elliott’s children, who hinted at a shared family name and a hereditary skin condition (vitiligo). After multiple attempts, Barbara finally contacts Elliott again, prompted by her fiancé’s encouragement. Elliott shares his own traumatic past, mental‑health struggles, and the enormity of his blended family (15‑17 children). The show reveals a DNA test result confirming that Elliott is not Barbara’s biological father, prompting an emotional reaction. Despite the negative result, Elliott offers emotional support, promises to walk Barbara down the aisle, and encourages viewers to seek help for depression. The episode blends personal genealogy, family dynamics, mental‑health advocacy, and the show’s signature supportive resources.
Chapters
So tell me, what did you know about your biological family growing up?
I grew up with my mom's mom.
Okay.
And I always felt like the black sheep because their last names was Daniels and mine was Dial. And couldn't nobody really tell me, you know, anything about my last name.
So it was your grandmother who raised you?
Yes.
Okay then. And tell me about the first encounter you had with one of Elliott's children.
I was in college doing the meet and greet. After the meet and greet, I was sitting there minding my business and this boy came up to me and was like, your last name Dial, you gotta be family. And I'm looking at him like, ugh. I don't know nothing about you.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, yeah.
Yeah.
But whatever. But he was cool. He was like, you know, cuz, we cousins. I don't care what you say, how you feel. We text on Facebook. We met up a couple times. He's really cool.
Yeah.
Still to this day, we still talk.
And so that was the first time you heard about it?
Yes.
This side of it. So did you have any idea that this could be your brother?
No. We was cousins.
Just cousins.
Mm-hmm.
Okay then. And how did you end up contacting another one of Elliott's children?
They reached out to me. Again, minding my business, I get a Facebook message. Messages like, your last name, Dow, know nobody had his name, is legendary. And I'm like, I heard this before, okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, what you want me to say?
Well, we had that message. I wanna see it real quick. The message said, I was looking at your last name and it's legendary. I met him when I was 15 and got DNA done and found out it's 17 of us already. But more so, it's a lot of us with skin defections, heritage from him. Okay, so skin infection, what's going on?
Vitiligo.
He got vitiligo.
Yeah, and like they said that everybody got it and I got it. It comes and goes.
Oh, so you have it as well?
Yes.
Okay then. Did you try and reach out to Elliot after you got this message?
Yes, I did. I reached out to him and he just ghosted me. I was over it. Like he said a couple of things, but it didn't go nowhere.
Can I see that conversation as well? 'Cause I think you gave it to my producers. I wanna see that. Good morning, my name is Barbara. Blank reached out to me and told me you may be my dad. Good morning, my apologies, but who is blank and who is your mother? If you don't mind asking me. Oh yeah, pleasure meeting you. Okay.
Then that was pretty much it.
That was it. Okay then. But he has 17 kids, is that what I heard?
So I heard. I don't know.
17?
Wow.
Yeah. Okay. What happened when you met your fiancé last year?
Of course he knows my last name and he was like, oh, you a Dowell. Here go this Dowell again. I'm over it.
Yeah.
Don't know nothing about it, can't tell you. My fiancé's aunt married my alleged dad's aunt.
Yeah.
And he was like, this is your dad. I'm like, I reached out to that man already. Don't wanna do it again. I'm over it. Like my feelings, I'm real, my feelings get invested. And once he didn't say nothing to me, I was over it.
Like I'm not doing it again. Yeah, yeah, you're not doing it again.
Yeah.
Did you know your last name was so unique?
Apparently it is, but no, I didn't.
Yeah, okay then. What made you reach out to Elliot again then?
My fiancé kept badgering me. Well, I ain't gonna say badgering, but he like, you know, just do it, just do it.
Yeah.
And I did it again on New Year's and the response was better than the first.
Got it, okay then. And how did Ellie respond the second time?
Welcoming. We talk, text every day. We were supposed to meet up, but we never got a chance to meet up, but it was way, way better than the first time.
So why is this DNA test important to you?
For 33 years, I've been the black sheep and I've been wondering where I come from. I have children, my grandmother died, and once she died, you know, all the family died. I don't have nobody but me and my kids and my fiancé.
Got it, okay then. Are you pregnant, my producer told me? I am.
Congratulations. 5 months.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
And when are you getting married?
I was supposed to, but the baby came. So if he my dad, he can walk me down the aisle after the baby.
Oh, okay. Have you ever met Elliot?
No.
Just on the phone you've only talked?
Yes, on the phone.
Okay then. Well, it's time for you, Barbara, to finally meet her potential father, Elliot. So everyone please welcome Elliot to the show.
I give hugs.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Hey, woman.
Hi.
Hey, woman. Mwah.
How you doing, sir?
How you doing, my brother?
I'm good, thank you. Thank you for being here.
It's a pleasure.
So how did you first find out about Barbara?
Pretty much like she said. She reached out to me before, but you know, I have a pretty main stable, so.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, it happened to me before. I was kind of bamboozled.
Okay.
Somebody sent the message, then got DNS, it wasn't it. But you know—
So that's happened to you before?
Yeah.
But at the time, you know, I was going through tragedy 'cause I just lost my entire family. 21 up until 25 was just straight tragedy. You know, so I was in, I've been in a dark place, you know? It's been real hard for me to get my feet planted back. And you know, it's scary. You got somebody blindfolding you, walking around trying to feel where you at. You know, so it was traumatic for me.
I'm so sorry to hear that, sincerely. 'Cause I understand how like trauma back to back like that can really affect somebody.
Yeah.
And so that's why you responded that way.
You were a little sort of withdrawn. Yeah, actually when she responded back to me the second time, which was on New Year's Eve, just recently just passed, I was in the house mourning, crying again, you know, wallowing in depression. So it just happened, I had my phone bing and I see the message. I'm like, yo, who is it? Here we go again.
Yeah.
Like she said, the Dial Gang, here we go again, you know? So, but this time she caught me when I was in a more vulnerable state.
Yeah.
And I was really, I needed something to close that gap with my darkness 'cause I'm trying to really find my way back into life.
You got it.
And by me being a prideful person, you know, when you the hero and the go-to guy in the family, you know, you don't want people to know that you're that weak.
Yeah.
And my kids, you know, they my world. You know, they have a, we a real tight unit, the Dial Clan. We real tight, you know? So.
And it's hard for men to show their emotions.
Yeah, that part, you know?
Thank you for sharing that because I think a lot of times men, there's somebody watching this at home.
That's a fact.
And there's a fella watching this who could be in that dark space like you and he's being prideful, not talking about his feelings, what would you say to him?
I would say get help.
Yeah.
No, get help. It's okay to cry.
It's okay to cry. Yeah.
Yeah, I hid it for a long time. I hid it for a long time. And just recently I was discussing it with my kids, you know, and I came clean with it, you know, and they knew it was something wrong 'cause I wasn't eating, losing weight, not sleeping. I'd just go to work, go in the house and shut the doors. You know, you locked off from the world. When you're in depression, It's like a hole. You don't wanna see nobody, you don't wanna talk to nobody. You just close yourself in. And I was doing that. So working at the hospital where we was working at, I wound up losing that job because of depression. Got it, okay. Definitely that, it was real.
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Can I ask you this? What do you remember about her mother? Nothing.
That's like me asking about your childhood.
Yeah, yeah, you don't remember anything about yours.
I don't remember my childhood.
Okay.
Did you ever even know that her mother was pregnant? But you don't remember her, so how could you know?
No, I didn't. But her mother was special though. She had to have been to know my last name.
Uh-huh.
'Cause coming from Detroit, Michigan, what up though? Pony down. Detroit, you know? But I was a swinger, you know?
Yeah.
My parents was real strict. So when I got that college scholarship, I'm away from home, you know, you get a chance to really see life and express yourself. So I was doing a lot of expressing back then.
Got it. A little bit too much.
Yeah, right. So I always, when I went from home, from Michigan to Buffalo. That's where I'm at now, in Buffalo, New York, Bills Mafia. I chose to go by an alias.
Yeah.
And I was using the heck out of the aliases. Then once that name got dirty, I switched the name again.
Ooh, that got dirty.
Another alias, okay.
I was switching it up.
So the fact that her mother knew your real name, you saying she had to have been special.
Yeah, she was special. I mean, very special.
Yeah, she was special.
Yeah, you can see that though, right? But she was very special. And to get my government, that mean I took a liking to her.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, 'cause my trust issues is very high.
Got it. So do you believe Barbara is your daughter?
Yeah, I feel, look at her, she's beautiful. You know, I'm a handsome, pretty guy, I think so.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, definitely.
And she's strong. She's strong and she's resilient like me and my mom. God bless my mom. I wish she was here, but she's just like me, strong, resilient, you know, she's not gonna give up.
Did your son tell you about Barbara after he met her in college?
Yeah, but he likes to pull my leg sometimes, you know?
Got it.
He said the same about you?
My kids like to play jokes on me, you know? They do it to me a lot, you know? So I just thought he was pulling on my big toe instead of the pinky toe this time.
'Cause how many children do you have total?
I have, what, I have 8 girls and 7 boys.
Got it.
Yeah, they's all raised together. Tight unit. Real tight unit.
Okay, got it. Yeah.
Yeah, that's all they hang with.
So are you open to adding Barbara to your family?
You better be.
Why not?
Come one, come all.
I got it.
Yeah.
So if you are Barbara's father, will you walk her down the aisle at her wedding?
As many times I got to.
No.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, Barbara, are you ready?
I'm nervous, but I'm ready, yes.
You ready? All right, come with me.
Damn. Here we go.
All right, Barbara, in this envelope is the truth of who you are. You have had years of questioning. You've had people come up to you randomly in different situations telling you about your last name. Saying that it meant that you were part of this family. You felt rejected. You said, no, I'm not gonna go for it. And then your fiancé encouraged you to actually seek out where you come from, which has led you here. So in this envelope is the truth of who you are. It's your truth to open, not mine.
So good luck.
Okay.
For 33 years, we about to find out if I got a dad so I can my dad to death. Okay. It says he's not my dad. Ah.
Oh, damn.
And I said I didn't wanna cry on TV.
Oh, God.
Sorry, love.
Well, I'm still— you still got me. I'm still your daddy, girl.
I love you. I ain't going nowhere, okay? I'm here. I'm gonna walk you down the marriage thing, all right? I promise you that, okay? All right?
Okay.
It's gonna be all right. Trust me, I'm here with you, okay?
Okay.
It's gonna be all right, trust me.
Here you go, love.
Thank you. Damn.
Here you go, I'm so sorry.
It's okay.
Are there any other men from that time or in your family with the same last name that might've been around?
No.
None?
Damn, I didn't see this coming.
Yeah.
I just felt everything was, All the dots connected, everything aligned up properly.
Yeah.
I will say this for you. We will give every resource here at the Karamo Show to support you, okay? So I'm so sorry it didn't work out like this today. I'm so sorry for both of y'all.
I cry on your show a lot of times too, brother.
You do?
I do, man. I ain't gonna lie. I watch your show. Me and my daughter-in-law, Winky, Lizetta, she watches, we watches your show. We be commenting, he about to come on. And I'm gonna tell you something. This go for anybody that's watching this. Use this man as a source, as a tool to get anything you need done in your life, especially depression.
You know, definitely.
Thank you, brother. I appreciate that.
Thank you.
I got a lot of love for you, my brother.
Thank you, man.
I ain't gonna lie. I used to think it was all scripted. I love you to death, man.
That she love your brooches and to tell you that. She said you be dressing no salad.
Let me try.
Definitely.
I appreciate both of y'all saying that.
Thank you for being here. And then my barber back in Buffalo, he said come see him when you come by.
I'm coming.
Listen, I'll come through.
I'll come through.
Definitely that, bro.
Listen, thank y'all for being here.
Thank you, Mr.
Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank y'all. Any support you need, okay?
Thank you.
Make sure to come back next time, friends, when we keep talking and growing.
