What is Long Lost Family: The Mother and Baby Home Scandal?

Long Lost Family: The Mother and Baby Home Scandal is the latest special from ITV’s family history programme Long Lost Family, following Long Lost Family: Shipped to Australia and Long Lost Family: The Spanish Baby Scandal. It looks at the scandal of mother and baby homes in England.

When is Long Lost Family: The Mother and Baby Home Scandal on TV?

Long Lost Family: The Mother and Baby Home Scandal will air on ITV at 9pm on Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 September 2025.

What were the mother and baby homes?

Between the 1940s and 1970s over 200,000 pregnant unmarried women and girls were placed in homes, often run by religious organisations, where they gave birth under cover of secrecy. Their children were adopted, often at just six weeks old.

What is Long Lost Family: The Mother and Baby Home Scandal about?

In Long Lost Family: The Mother and Baby Home Scandal, Long Lost Family presenters Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell investigate the mother and baby homes and the often traumatic treatment of women who were placed there.

They help three people with connections to the homes track down their relatives. They hear from Jean, now aged 85, who gave birth to a daughter known as Maria at the age of 16. Maria was adopted via the Southwark Catholic Rescue, and Jean now wants to find her.

They also meet Viv and Julie, two sisters who know that their mother Margaret gave birth to a daughter when she was 20. They want to find their long-lost sister.

Finally, they meet Ann. Her mother Cora gave birth to a son, Martin, in a Highgate mother and baby home in 1962 and they want to find him. Martin’s birth would have been particularly stigmatised because he was biracial, as his father was Sri Lankan.

Davina and Nicky also find out about the campaign to get the British government, which funded many of the mother and baby homes, to apologise to those affected, similar to the apologies issued by the Irish, Scottish and Welsh governments.