Our Dad Kept Us All Separate, Are We Really Siblings? | KARAMO

So how did you first find out about Matthew?

Matthew, he reached out to my mom.

Okay.

He said he came across a piece of mail with me and my mom's name on it. He reached out to my mom and then he reached out to me telling me, "I could be your brother, Matthew, and I believe you're my older sister." Did you have any idea you had a brother on your father's side? I did because I've heard it from other family and I've also saw a picture of him, my dad, and another sibling of ours.

Got it, got it. So what's your relationship with your father like?

Oh, there's no relationship at all.

None? None. Why? What's going on?

It's a lot of he say, she say as far as the past with him and my mom. She's really not here to like kind of defend herself, so I really don't want to talk too much on her.

Got it.

But her story never changed. My dad, he's more or less what you say, the type of person that doesn't wanna take accountability. If he doesn't feel he needs to take accountability, he's gonna just push it to the back.

Got it.

And he'll deal with it when he wants to.

But regardless if they had miscommunications between them, how did he treat you?

Oh, that didn't matter. It was miscommunication, I was not in the picture.

Got it.

My dad is the type—

That's the problem.

Yep, my dad is the type of person where If it wasn't about my mom, it wasn't about me.

Sorry to hear that. Have you ever met your father?

Oh yes, I have. I know exactly what he looks like. He's a gospel singer. I've heard his music. I know a couple of 'em by heart.

Somebody we all know?

Yeah, I can say that. He took up for someone that used to be very famous.

Oh, okay. Girl, you know I'm nosy. I'm gonna be on Google right now after this. You already know I'm gonna be on Google.

Well, I'll tell you the name after.

I'll tell you after.

Okay, good. Good, good, good. Does Matthew have a relationship with the father?

Matthew, he has a relationship with him. He can get him on the phone if he wants to, but I'm not gonna say their relationship is perfect, but he has one.

Got it, got it. So when Matthew came into your life, did you hit it off right away?

Oh, you would've thought that was my twin. You couldn't tell us nothing. We like the same thing. We don't like pickles, we don't like onions.

Yeah.

He like lasagna, he like fried chicken. And he loved for me to cook it all. So it was like we never missed a beat.

You also have a potential sister, right?

Unfortunately.

Okay, I hear that. And her name is what?

Sharonica.

Sharonica. And what happened when you first met her?

When I first met Sharonica, we were in the same high school and I heard the name and the name automatically clicked because my mom has always told me I had a sister named Sharonica. So when I heard the name, I said, I was with a group of my friends, she was with a group of her friends. I said, listen, y'all, that name sound familiar. I need to go over there, but y'all watch my back 'cause I don't know these people. And I don't know how they gonna move. So I said, is your name Sharonica? She said, yeah. She said, what's your name? I said, Shaniqua. I said, do you got a father name? We both instantly said it and jumped on each other like we've been looking for each other forever. And we stayed with each other the whole day in school. We even walked home together. She decided she wanted to pick up the phone and call him. Told him, "Oh, I'm with my sister, we walking home." "Oh, that's not your sister. She has an aunt that looks like another family member, so this is why they say that this is your sister, but that is not your sister." After that, I hit Sharonda up on Facebook, I wanna say a week or two after that incident. Oh, you're not my sister. My dad said you're not my sister. Stop calling me your sister.

How old were y'all at this time?

Well, we're 3 months apart, so I wanna say maybe 16.

So y'all are kids.

Yes.

And so y'all have a natural bond and really see each other and like, oh my gosh, feel the love. She has one conversation with him and all of a sudden—

That goes out the window.

And now she's done. She's done. And y'all still to this day haven't reconciled.

Last time we talked, It was a forceful conversation.

Similar to your relationship with, okay.

When I talk to her and my dad, I do it for Matthew.

Sharonda, how do you feel about what was just said?

Some of that stuff is a lie.

Please tell me again.

About a picture that I was supposed to be tagged in.

Some of that stuff is a lie and Matthew's the one that told me you called Matthew up.

I have no idea nothing about no picture, girl.

You're never gonna have an idea about nothing.

No, don't do that.

You don't do that. I have nothing to do, at the end of the day, this camera don't mean a damn thing to me.

It really don't.

It don't.

He's barely there for you. He's barely there for you or Matthew. So how can you not understand that? But at the end of the day, Sharonda, you're irrelevant to me. The fact that my father is the one I wanna find out about is all that matters. So the fact that we're sitting here, I don't care. I could leave 'cause I don't care. This is what I told them, I did not wanna bother with her.

I saw that the explosion of emotions right there. And so that's not just from this moment, that's years of someone feeling rejected. That's years of pain and anger that I think is a bit misplaced on both of your end, to be very honest with you. I think it's misplaced on hers and I think it's misplaced on yours. But what did your father, I wanna ask you, what did your father say when you told him you'd meet her, you'd met her?

Okay, from the start.

'Cause y'all were in school, right? Y'all were 16 in school.

Yes, I've been knew about Shaniqua. I've been hearing stories about her through my mother, through my dad. I've been hearing stories about her.

Uh-huh.

From the jump, both of them been saying, "That's not my sister." Point blank, period.

Okay. But in that moment, she said that in that moment when y'all connected, you thought she was.

Yeah, because I thought like in the back of my mind, my dad might have been lying. So I did wanna join, I wanna have a bond with her. Of course. I love all my brothers and sisters. Everybody I have love for. I never had no love for nobody until people started lying, doing me wrong, and then wanted to act innocent.

Got it. Are you trying to say that your sister Shaniqua started lying and doing you wrong?

Yeah, she did lie to me in school. She surely did.

What did she lie about?

She told me she talked to my grandmother And she really didn't 'cause I called my grandmother. She thought I wasn't close to my family.

Got it. Y'all would not be having this fight. Y'all would not be having no issues. Y'all wouldn't be having no arguments is if your father years ago would've handled and did what he needed to do.

Thank you.

To make sure.

And that's exactly what I've been saying.

I've said that forever.

I'm sure you both have said it to some degree, but because of time and confusion and because of one little thing here, one little thing that, mixed feelings with like Matthew being in the middle sometimes or whatever the case may be, it's caused y'all to get into this place where it's unfortunate because what y'all both needed was more support from each other to solve, figure this out. Unfortunately, y'all became frenemies in a sense because y'all are fighting about somebody. You're fighting for your father's, you're both fighting and it's your father's fight. It's not y'all's fight.

It's his fight. If y'all want to fight.

He put us in that predicament to fight.

If he's not gonna fight, he's not gonna step up and take care of us.

He put us in that predicament.

I get it. I understand why y'all been fighting. I'm just saying it's wrong and it's hurtful because y'all the only ones that are getting hurt. So I gotta ask you point blank, will anything change if you find out that Shaniqua is your sister?

Me, genuinely from my heart, I love all my siblings. I love all my blood. She's related to me. She's gonna get love too. I mean, I'm not gonna sit up there and just throw her out the way. That's my sister. That's my blood. I'mma love her regardless.

I think it's time that we hear from Shaniqua's potential brother. So everyone please welcome Matthew to the show. So I gotta ask you, how's your relationship with your father?

With that, man, it's okay.

Yeah.

We talk whenever we do talk.

Yeah. So you don't have the best relationship either?

Yeah, it's not the best.

Okay then. When was the last time you've seen him?

Within the last 5 years, twice.

Twice? Got it.

The most recent time was last year.

So what was it like when Shaniqua got on FaceTime with him?

It was a little awkward. It was just like she was staring at him, he was staring at her, and I'm like, "Uh, somebody talk." And he just said, "What's up?" Does he have another family?

I don't know.

Do we speak to him?

Like, I don't know where he lives.

He's just, he's different.

We don't know what city, town, state, nothing. We don't even know how many of us it is.

This is crazy.

He's very secretive.

Yeah. What has your father said about Shaniqua?

He denied her, of course. And he said it may possibly be a cousin of his.

Mm-hmm.

That's what he said. But he lies so much, so much. It's ridiculous.

It's time.

Yeah.

Well, listen, this is your DNA truth to open, not mine. We're just here to support you no matter what.

You got this. Can we just wait like 2 seconds?

Yeah, sure.

2 seconds.

I'm nervous.

Yeah.

I'm scared.

I'm just ready to know. I just wanna know if she my sister. I've been waiting on this.

I'm assuming I know what it says. What does it say?

He's my biological brother.

Yes.

Look at Sharomica crying like that. Y'all, that's crazy. I already knew. I already knew.

What's going through your mind right now?

I've been waiting so long.

Yeah.

I've been fighting with so many people and my main thing was my mother's story never changed.

Yeah.

It never changed. Nothing never changed.

Everything she said, it was the same.

Yeah.

And it's just a good feeling.

Yeah.

Hopefully nobody won't deny me no more.

Well, they have no, they can't.

They can't.

They can't.

Awesome. There's no more.

I can show them?

There's no more. You're living in your truth now. Sharonda, what are you feeling? Yeah.

So it's been so many years, man. Yeah. So many stories and the groundwork I had to do, like to reach out, it's crazy.

Yeah.

I'm trying not to get emotional, you know what I'm saying? But it's crazy.

Yeah.

You my sister, you my sister.

I can't say it. That's your sister. I know y'all fight like sisters too. I got sisters at my house, okay? Don't think what y'all got going on right there is unique to y'all being, that's sisters fighting like that, okay? But what you do know is that you are family and I think it's time for you two to extend that olive branch to each other now. It's time for you all to show each other a little bit more love and compassion because what I've seen from day one, from day one with you all is that all of this has been misguided. What happened, love?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Sidney, girl.

Can you accept that? Can you accept that?

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

Damn.

It's hard though, just a little bit because—

I love you, bro.

She was the one that my dad got to the most and the one that I thought he was gonna get to.

Yeah.

But I thought he got to, he didn't get to. So. It's just, I'm just glad I know now.

[Speaker:KARAMO] Yeah, but what she knows now, the truth too. And like your brother said, y'all have all had a father who unfortunately has told lies to y'all. And as kids, you don't know which lies or which things are truth. You have to try to figure that out on your own. You're deciphering it as kids. And she was trying to do the best she could to decipher it. And that's why I said all of this has been misguided since day one because all the pain y'all have had, all the hurt, all the fighting was supposed to be towards him and it didn't spread out between you all. Because at the end of the day, think about this, the same way you were 16 and were so happy you saw her sister, she was 16 and then things went to her head. I started hearing stuff, I started hearing stuff. And every single one of y'all trying to decipher what the truth is. But what I do appreciate as a woman is that she apologized without anybody needing to prompt her. [APPLAUSE] And I'll tell you this, doing this show, I've seen many, There's many times where people can give real apologies and where people are told to, are prompted to give an apology. That's a real one that came through. So if you can do anything, just know that that was a real apology from another kid to another kid, to her sister to sister saying, "I'm sorry for that. I didn't know no better." You feel me? Sharonica, you feeling good now?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

I'm still the older sister. I love you.

Only by 3 months.

It don't matter. I still love you.

I love you too.

Be good.

OK. So y'all continue to be patient with each other, OK? If I give y'all any advice, Be patient with each other, be loving towards each other, and remember you are all kids that were having to decipher adults' lies. Y'all should not have had to ever play that game. So next time you wanna get mad at somebody for like, look what you did when we were kids, remember that first part, we were kids. We were kids. And I promise if y'all can start from there and build a relationship from that, y'all will be okay.

Okay.

Okay?

Yeah.

I wish y'all the best of luck and I'm so happy you got your life. Thank you. I really am. Thank you. And good on you for being that strength, all right?