An award-winning film maker and television presenter has candidly revealed the dark family secret he discovered as a child by hiding a recording device under the couch when he went to bed.
Todd Sampson appeared on Anh Do’s latest episode of Brush With Fame on Tuesday night and revealed that the girl he believed was his cousin for most of his childhood was in fact his older sister.
As Do painted his portrait, Sampson revealed his mother grew up in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada, in an extremely religious family.
Before he was born, she moved out of home, got a job behind the till at KFC and was pregnant by the time she was 15 years old.
Todd Sampson appeared on Ahn Do’s latest episode of Brush With Fame on Tuesday night and revealed that he believed his older sister was his cousin for much of his childhood. His mother (left) gave her away after she gave birth to her
‘At the time and in the area, it was quite religious. She was basically told she had to give up the child. She gave up the child to her sister – and she was raised as my cousin,’ he revealed.
Sampson went on to say the decision haunted his mother in the years to follow.
‘[It was] the biggest regret of my mother’s life,’ he said, before adding that he had no idea his cousin, Wendy, could have actually been his sister.
Do was completely flawed by the admission, and stopped painting as he asked how Sampson eventually came to learn the truth.
‘I was such an investigative kid – also known as a little sh*t,’ he confessed.
‘I used to record my parents’ conversations when I would go to bed. I got a recorder for Christmas, and just before I’d go to bed, I would hit record under the sofa where my parents were, then go off to sleep.’
As Do painted his portrait, Sampson revealed his mother grew up in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada, in an extremely religious family
Sampson now has two daughters of his own and said he could never imagine giving them up
The following day, Sampson would quietly retrieve the recorder and listen back to what his parents discussed after he was asleep.
‘That day, I’m listening to the recording and I’m like, ”Wait now, did they just say that Wendy’s my sister?”,’ he said.
During the conversation that he had recorded, Sampson’s parents were debating whether or not they should share the secret with he and his biological sister.
‘They were debating at night whether they should tell us, and whether we were old enough to comprehend what had happened. But Wendy had been in and out of our lives as our cousin,’ he said.
Rather than sit around and wait to see if his parents ever told him, Sampson simply decided to confront them himself.
‘I remember her face – it was just shock and relief,’ he recalled.
Sampson appeared in Anh Do’s Brush With Fame documentary on Tuesday night
Sampson, himself a father-of-two, said he personally couldn’t ever fathom giving a child away
‘She said, “yes, she is”.’ Then, it was only as an adult, many many years later, that I reconnected with her as my older sister. Now I’m super-proud that she’s my sister, and all that she’s done in her life.’
Sampson, himself a father-of-two, said he personally couldn’t ever fathom giving a child away.
‘But I’m not 15,’ he added. ‘She had Wendy in a room all by herself.’
In spite of the enormous family secret and the incredible way in which he learned the truth, Sampson said he had a great childhood.
‘It was filled with fun, adventure, danger, stress… I remember my mum worked at KFC,’ he said.
‘I’d wait for her to come home, but I couldn’t do it because I was so tired… I was just a kid. She wasn’t getting home until like 11, 12pm.’
In spite of the enormous family secret and the incredible way in which he learned the truth, Sampson said he had a great childhood
Sampson moved to Australia in the 1990s and had become a familiar face on programs such as Gruen and The Project.