'It has changed my life'

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell reveal the impact 15 years of filming Long Lost Family has had on them

- WORDS: JO BERRY

It's been 15 years since presenters Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell first started hosting Long Lost Family, and the real life friends admit that reuniting scores of long lost relatives for the series has affected both of them deeply.

"One episode had two sets of brothers looking for each other," says Davina. "I lost my sister when I was 44 and she was 50 [Caroline died of cancer in 2012], and whenever I see siblings finding each other, I always think, 'Oh my God, imagine finding a sibling and the joy that would bring.'

"Sometimes with siblings, it's quite hard and painful, because one sibling might have grown up with their birth family, while the other was placed for adoption. There's a lot to unpack there, you know? Sometimes people are found and they didn't even know they had a brother. Imagine being gifted a sibling out of the blue, it would just be absolutely mad."

For Nicky, 64, who was adopted as a baby and found his birth parents as an adult, the series hits especially close to home, and he understands it is personal for many viewers, too.