August 15, 2023 • 5 mins
Brendan Watkins, author of 'Tell No One', joins Jonesy & Amanda to chat about his exhilarating search for his birth parents.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
New Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Our next guest story is unbelievable. He was adopted as
a baby into a loving family, but curiosity of his
biological parents would start a journey that would uncover a
shocking truth. His parents were not just an ordinary couple.
They were a Catholic priest and a nun. He has
shared the story, this heart wrenching story in a new
book called Tell No One, and he joins us now,
Brendan Watkins.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
High, Brendan, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So Let's start at the beginning. What did you You
knew you were adopted, but what did you know of
your biological parents?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, in the olden days, so I was born in
feb sixty one, you had no access to birth information.
The laws were changed around the country at different stages,
but in nineteen eighty four adoptees in Victoria were given
access to their original birth certificates. So you know, it
(00:56):
was the era of closed and forced adoptions, and in
well the eighties, So when I was in my twenties,
I was legally given access to my birth information. And
it's important to note that you know, most adoptees, particularly
Catholic you've sort of given this notion of gratitude you
(01:20):
need to be you need to show gratitude to your
adoptive parents in not asking too many questions, and you know,
sometimes particularly to the church, not trying to find your
birth parents because it's a sign of disrespect. And so
I put it off and put it off. Eventually, my
partner and myself were at the stage of thinking of
(01:42):
having kids, a family, and she found out she had
this sort of birth issue that or genetic issue that
was making her or would make her and potentially our
children allergic to anesthetics. And that sort of got me
over them. So I applied for my birth certificate, and
I found out my mother's name.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
When your father wasn't mentioned on the birth certificate.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
No, and very very often not, the father's not there,
it's just the mother. So my scenario was not unusual.
But what was unusual about my original birth certificate was
that my mother's name wasn't the Anglo name I was anticipating,
and it had her age and she was twenty seven
(02:28):
when she surrendered me, which is a lot older than
you know, the stereotypical normally it's teenagers, you know, late
teenage years. Passion gets the better of them, a child emerges,
and they surrender the child. But my birth certificate just
sort of posed a whole lot of additional questions. It
(02:49):
didn't really answer anything.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, and particularly when you found out that your mother
knew of your whereabouts, was happy to hear about you,
and that she loved you, but did not want, under
any circumstances, any contact.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, that's right. And you know, the Catholic Family Welfare
bureau that managed my adoption contacted her on my behalf
and they got back to me and sat me down
and said, we've spoken to your mother. She's alive, which
was good news, but you'll never see her, you'll never
talk to her, go home and forget about Maggie forever.
(03:24):
I found it very hard to accept that, but with
the news that I had, I had her name, and
I knew where she was born, and given this this
health issue that my partner had, so my partner, Kate,
contacted a distant family member of hers, which you know,
(03:45):
suddenly became my distant family member. And it's a long story,
but the short version was the family member her sister
in law said, oh, you mean Maggie the nun.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, and that was it an you went whoa, and
then that was the shock, and then you found out
that your dad was a priest.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, well look that took essentially thirty years.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Did you see you'd been ripped off? So your actual
birth parents lived together and had a relationship and you
weren't part of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Look, I found out in amongst my research that I
found out that my parents were living together. So both
of them rejected me, both of them rejected their grandkids.
You know, I didn't care that my parents were a
nun and a priest. You know, every child of a
priest thinks they're the only one Google child of priests.
(04:39):
When I first did it, there was sixty eight million
here of people talking about this. This is a big thing,
and the church has silenced. The churches managed, you know,
with contractual NDAs or confidentiality agreements or at least implied.
So you know, the stereotypical is like my mother, she's younger,
(05:00):
much younger. She's vulnerable, she doesn't have money, she doesn't
have family to call back on, she's vulnerable. And the priest,
the priest is the hands and feet of God. You know,
you don't say no to that.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, well, there we are, that's where're at. I've got
to say that being the child of a priest, a
priest and a nun, there would have been a lot
of rules in that house, you know, if you if you.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Were growing up with a lot of secrecy.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And Brendan, thank you for joining us. The book. You
can buy it right now. Tell no one, We're telling everyone.
It's from all good bookstores. Brendan Watton, thank you for
joining us.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Thank you, guys, thank you very much.
New Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Our next guest story is unbelievable. He was adopted as
a baby into a loving family, but curiosity of his
biological parents would start a journey that would uncover a
shocking truth. His parents were not just an ordinary couple.
They were a Catholic priest and a nun. He has
shared the story, this heart wrenching story in a new
book called Tell No One, and he joins us now,
Brendan Watkins.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
High, Brendan, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So Let's start at the beginning. What did you You
knew you were adopted, but what did you know of
your biological parents?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, in the olden days, so I was born in
feb sixty one, you had no access to birth information.
The laws were changed around the country at different stages,
but in nineteen eighty four adoptees in Victoria were given
access to their original birth certificates. So you know, it
(00:56):
was the era of closed and forced adoptions, and in
well the eighties, So when I was in my twenties,
I was legally given access to my birth information. And
it's important to note that you know, most adoptees, particularly
Catholic you've sort of given this notion of gratitude you
(01:20):
need to be you need to show gratitude to your
adoptive parents in not asking too many questions, and you know,
sometimes particularly to the church, not trying to find your
birth parents because it's a sign of disrespect. And so
I put it off and put it off. Eventually, my
partner and myself were at the stage of thinking of
(01:42):
having kids, a family, and she found out she had
this sort of birth issue that or genetic issue that
was making her or would make her and potentially our
children allergic to anesthetics. And that sort of got me
over them. So I applied for my birth certificate, and
I found out my mother's name.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
When your father wasn't mentioned on the birth certificate.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
No, and very very often not, the father's not there,
it's just the mother. So my scenario was not unusual.
But what was unusual about my original birth certificate was
that my mother's name wasn't the Anglo name I was anticipating,
and it had her age and she was twenty seven
(02:28):
when she surrendered me, which is a lot older than
you know, the stereotypical normally it's teenagers, you know, late
teenage years. Passion gets the better of them, a child emerges,
and they surrender the child. But my birth certificate just
sort of posed a whole lot of additional questions. It
(02:49):
didn't really answer anything.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, and particularly when you found out that your mother
knew of your whereabouts, was happy to hear about you,
and that she loved you, but did not want, under
any circumstances, any contact.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, that's right. And you know, the Catholic Family Welfare
bureau that managed my adoption contacted her on my behalf
and they got back to me and sat me down
and said, we've spoken to your mother. She's alive, which
was good news, but you'll never see her, you'll never
talk to her, go home and forget about Maggie forever.
(03:24):
I found it very hard to accept that, but with
the news that I had, I had her name, and
I knew where she was born, and given this this
health issue that my partner had, so my partner, Kate,
contacted a distant family member of hers, which you know,
(03:45):
suddenly became my distant family member. And it's a long story,
but the short version was the family member her sister
in law said, oh, you mean Maggie the nun.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, and that was it an you went whoa, and
then that was the shock, and then you found out
that your dad was a priest.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, well look that took essentially thirty years.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Did you see you'd been ripped off? So your actual
birth parents lived together and had a relationship and you
weren't part of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Look, I found out in amongst my research that I
found out that my parents were living together. So both
of them rejected me, both of them rejected their grandkids.
You know, I didn't care that my parents were a
nun and a priest. You know, every child of a
priest thinks they're the only one Google child of priests.
(04:39):
When I first did it, there was sixty eight million
here of people talking about this. This is a big thing,
and the church has silenced. The churches managed, you know,
with contractual NDAs or confidentiality agreements or at least implied.
So you know, the stereotypical is like my mother, she's younger,
(05:00):
much younger. She's vulnerable, she doesn't have money, she doesn't
have family to call back on, she's vulnerable. And the priest,
the priest is the hands and feet of God. You know,
you don't say no to that.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, well, there we are, that's where're at. I've got
to say that being the child of a priest, a
priest and a nun, there would have been a lot
of rules in that house, you know, if you if you.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Were growing up with a lot of secrecy.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And Brendan, thank you for joining us. The book. You
can buy it right now. Tell no one, We're telling everyone.
It's from all good bookstores. Brendan Watton, thank you for
joining us.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Thank you, guys, thank you very much.
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