Ajay Rochester shared the incredible story of discovering her birth mother during last night’s episode of I’m A Celeb.
The former Biggest Loser host, who was adopted shortly after she was born, finally found her birth mum when she was 21 — only to discover that she actually already knew her.
Rochester, 49, told the incredible tale to Gogglebox star Angie Kent at camp in scenes aired last night.
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“I spent my whole life looking for my birth mum. My WHOLE life,” she said.
Adoption privacy laws changed when Rochester was 21, and she was given her mother’s name and last known location: Kaylene Rochester, Orange, NSW.
“My best friend and I got in the Yellow Pages and got all the Rochesters in Orange. We rang them all,” she said.
Eventually they got a lead, and a forwarding phone number to contact Rochester’s birth mother.
This is where the story gets very strange.
“Two years before, my best friend and her sister worked in a theatre restaurant in Sydney, and I filled in. The lady who ran it was named Kaylene. She was blonde, and we used to joke, saying ‘She could be your mother’.”
Turns out, she was.
“I already knew her. My best friend and I were working for her.
“At the meeting, Kaylene’s standing there looking at us thinking, ‘What are you two doing here? I’m waiting to see my daughter’,” she recalled.
Sadly, Kaylene died just two years after the pair discovered they were mother and daughter, when Rochester was 23. In a 2015 Instagram post, Rochester shared a photo she took of Kaylene before she knew she was her mother, and lamented the missed opportunity:
“This photo is my birth mother and my brothers. I took this photo not knowing we were related. She was my boss at a dinner theatre I was performing in. This photo is taken from the sound booth. The sound engineer was my boyfriend. We snapped the photo and he said, “you know she could be your mother. Her name is Kaylene.” At the time all adoptees had were first names and non identifying information. Had I gone up and asked her if she ever adopted out a little girl I would have had 5 years with my mum versus the 2 I had before her life was cut short. She never lived long enough to have her story of me being stolen from her verified by the government,” she wrote.
Back at camp last night, Rochester’s fellow I’m A Celeb contestant Kent could barely believe her ears.
“That is like off the movies made-up s**t,” she said.
I’m A Celeb airs 7:30pm Sundays - Thursdays on Ten.
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