Woman only discovered she was white at age of 70

A woman discovered she was actually white at the age of 70 – after believing her whole life she was black.

Verda Byrd, 75, appeared on GMB and reveals she found out she had an entire family she was unaware of, including siblings, after being adopted by a black family.

The Texas native grew up in Missouri to two loving parents, but only found out she wasn’t their biological child when she was 70 years old.

Her birth parents, Daisy and Earl Beagle, had their family collapse after Earl left his wife and their five children, before Daisy was injured in a severe accident when Verda was just five months old.

Originally born Jeanette, Verda was renamed by her adoptive family, and her past was never mentioned until she discovered the documents once her parents passed away.

But rather than be stunned by it, Verda has embraced the whole thing, and has now written a book about what happened, titled 70 Years of Blackness.

Speaking to Susanna Reid, she said: ‘It’s a mental thing – how do I except what these words on this paper is saying. Mentally, it’s an acceptance of what you are and what you didn’t know you were. But it hasn’t changed me because I still love me!

‘I identify basically as whatever you want me to be. It doesn’t matter.’

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.



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