Long Lost Family viewers were in tears tonight as a pair of siblings who were finally reunited discovered the heartbreaking reason as to why they were abandoned.
This evening, David McBride and Helen Ward appeared on the programme in a bid to find out who their parents were after 50 years.
David had been left in the front seat of a car on the outskirts of Belfast in January 1962, while Helen was found on the other side of the Irish border in a telephone box in Dundalk six years later.
Each time, they were discovered in a tartan bag but their cases weren't connected until now by the Long Lost Family team.
After both took a DNA test, David and Helen discovered that they were full brother and sister.
Meeting each other for the first time on the programme tonight, the pair enjoyed an emotional hug.
"It's absolutely wonderful," David gushed. "She's more than I expected."
"It's been unbelievable. Sitting there opposite my brother... it's a miracle," Helen added.
The team managed to trace their parents and discovered their father was a married man who was in a secret relationship with their mother spanning many years.
Sadly their father, a shop manager from Dublin, died in 1993 at 82-years-old, while their mother passed away in November 2017 at the incredible age of 90.
Having always thought their mother was young, they were surprised to hear she gave birth when she was 34 and 41 respectively.
David and Helen discovered the heartbreaking story behind their parents' affair.
Their father was a married protestant with 14 children, but their mother was 17 years younger and a Catholic during a time of huge sectarian conflict.
Before he died in 1993 they were seen together in Dublin, showing they had an affair for around 40 years, and their mother never married or had any more children.
They realised that their parents "had no choice" as a relationship between a Catholic and a Protestant with kids out of wedlock would have been a major taboo.
"That's sad. Its' not a one night stand or a fleeting thing. They must have really loved each other for it to go on for that time," said David.
*Long Lost Family: Born Without A Trace returns tomorrow night at 9pm on ITV
