I grew up thinking I had no biological siblings then DNA bombshell uncovered my secret TWIN separated at birth

HEARING her daughter shout, ‘Mum, you’ve got a brother!’ Chantal Doecke just laughed. She knew that Brooklyn loved pranks, and at 2am, this was a pretty big one to pull on her mum. Chantal Doecke grew up thinking she had no biological siblings, but a DNA test said otherwise Credit: Supplied Chantal was orphaned and evacuated from Vietnam as a baby at the end of the war Credit: Supplied Then Brooklyn turned the laptop screen around and showed it to Chantal. “There, on my DNA results page I saw the name Glenn and beside it, ‘brother’”, the Border Force officer from Adelaide, Australia, then 49, remembers. Sign up for the Fabulous newsletter Thank you! “My heart stopped, my hands flew to my face and I began to scream. “But I had no idea that there was an even bigger shock to come. A DNA test revealed Chantal and her twin Glenn had been separated at birth Credit: ancestry/ YouTube Chantal (pictured with her son) visited Vietnam and says being surrounded by people who looked like her was amazing Credit: Supplied “I hadn’t just found my brother. “I’d discovered a secret twin.” Chantal always knew that she was adopted. “My parents saw an advert in a local Australian newspaper in 1975. Most read in Fabulous “It said, ‘If you’re interested in adopting a child from overseas, call this number.’ “With the end of the Vietnam war thousands of orphaned children were being evacuated, and as part of the American-led Operation Babylift they all needed homes.” Chantal was one of those Vietnamese children, arriving in April 1975 so tiny she was lying in a shoe box. “I had a birth certificate with the name Le Thi Ha and a January birth date”, she says. “I still had my umbilical cord attached, so they knew it wasn’t mine.” But in the rush to get the children to safety, proper paperwork was scarce, and there was no way to find out more. Despite her parents divorcing when she was young, Chantal had a happy childhood, raised with an older sister and three brothers. “I never asked my parents questions about my adoption, in part because I knew they just didn’t have any answers to give me. Chantal left Vietnam in 1975 as part of Operation Babylift Credit: Supplied She says finding out she had a twin was surreal Credit: Supplied “They were told that my birth parents in Vietnam were probably dead, and I was lucky to have escaped. “Otherwise, I’d have died as well.” Chantal’s teenage years were tricky. “I had to deal with a lot of racial slurs and that led me to try and hide the fact that I was Asian. “I’d constantly change my hair colour and had lots of tattoos. “Becoming a mum changed everything. “This tiny baby was the first person I’d ever met that I shared blood with.” As her first child Jade grew up Chantal had more questions about her own identity and heritage. “Where do I get my mannerisms from?,” she wondered. “Is there a relative out there who shares my hobbies or interests?” Chantal went on to have two sons, Joshua, now 28, and Jordan, now 23, and another daughter, Brooklyn, now 17. “All the time the questions about my heritage and history grew. “In 2004, when I was 29, I took my first trip to Vietnam with my mum. “Being surrounded by people who looked like me was an amazing feeling.” But alongside the joy, Chantal struggled. “It made me question things even more. “Did I have any living blood relatives? How had I really come to be on that flight? “I was no closer to any answers.” Then she made a return trip to Vietnam in 2015, to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the war. Along with other Operation Babylift evacuees, Chantal was given the chance to take a DNA test. “Even the possibility of finding biological relatives was exciting, and when the results came back with twelve cousins listed, I burst into happy tears.” Chantal was devastated when none of them were interested in connecting with her. “To me this was huge, but to them I was just a random, distant cousin. “I was so upset.’ In the years that followed Chantal often felt exhausted by her search for answers. “I’d think, maybe I should just enjoy my time visiting Vietnam and protect myself from more heartache?,” she says. “But something inside me refused to give up, an invisible force pushing me to keep going.” Then in 2024 Chantal saw that a TV show was helping people solve family mysteries. “I thought that this might be the pathway to getting some answers of my own. “The producer sent me a new DNA test, and after spitting in the tube and sending it off to the company, I waited excitedly.” Hearing that the show had lost its funding felt like yet another blow. “In my disappointment I forgot to even check my results, instead focusing on my upcoming trip to Vietnam with my daughter Brooklyn. “It was then just a few days before their trip, that Chantal remembered that she’d never actually looked at the DNA results. “I called out to Brooklyn, ‘can you log on and check for me.’ “I didn’t have any expectations at all about the results. “That’s when I heard Brooklyn shout excitedly and show me the screen.” Staring at the word ‘brother’ Chantal was unable to speak. “I just couldn’t believe that this was real, that after all these years of disappointment and heartbreak, I’d found a sibling! “Eventually I pulled myself together enough to jump on Facebook, and after a quick search of the name I was staring at a face almost exactly like mine. “It was totally surreal, I just couldn’t believe how similar we looked.’ Chantal excitedly scrolled through Glenn’s publicly available posts, trying to find as much information about him as she could. “I saw that he lived in Brisbane, which was just a 2.5-hour flight away from my home in Melbourne. “That just blew my mind. “Then I saw a post about his birthday and stopped. “Glenn was born in April 1975, the same month I’d arrived in Australia as a tiny newborn. “That meant that I hadn’t just found my brother. I’d found my twin!” Chantal’s mind was spinning. In a blind panic she contacted the producer who suggested she reach out to Glenn. Four months after she made contact, Glenn finally called her. The siblings spoke for two and half hours, sharing everything from health information to how they felt about being adopted. “I was the one who told him we were twins and he was amazed. “By the time the call ended it really felt like we’d known each other forever.” Two months later, shaking with nerves, Chantal walked towards their arranged meeting place. “I thought, how is it possible to love someone I’ve never even met? “Then I was crying in his arms and didn’t want to let him go. “Forty-nine years earlier we’d shared a womb, now we were finally reunited.” Chantal loved every minute of their two days together. “He met two of my daughters and I met his wife, and we watched a documentary about Operation Babylift together. “I found myself staring at him constantly, unable to quite believe that he was real. “I kept reaching out to touch him to make sure.” For the next few weeks, the two messaged and spoke often. Then Chantel felt something shift. “Our communication slowly started to drop away. “Worried, I asked Glenn’s wife if I had done something wrong. “She reassured me that he was just trying to process everything that had happened.” But the two haven’t spoken or met up in over a year. “That’s been very hard,’ Chantal admits. “Glenn is my twin and I adore him, but I’ve had to accept and respect his wishes. “I also need to protect my heart because constantly waiting for more contact is just too painful.” Chantal still hopes to find relatives in Vietnam. “I don’t think I will ever stop searching. “I know that my story is far from over.” You can learn more about Chantal’s story on Ancestry – Twins Reunited 50 Years After Operation Babylift Evacuation on YouTube. Comment now