I always looked different from my family – but when I was 70 I made a shocking discovery about my parents

A DAD-OF-SIX discovered he was swapped at birth after spending decades feeling like an outsider in his family.

Andy Perkins, 73, made the shocking revelation after his daughter starting digging into their family tree and they realised he was not biologically related to any of their relatives.

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Instead, the DNA suggested he was related to a family with the last name Robinson who were scattered across the United States.

Andy said he always felt different from his family, with his parents and siblings all having darker complexions, and being taller and more reserved.

“I have always looked different from the rest of my family,” he told The New York Post.

“It’s caused me problems over the years.”

His daughter, Candi Perkins Summers, began researching their family tree in 2015.

As part of her investigations, she gave both of her parents DNA tests.

“I looked at the list of DNA matches to my dad’s and I didn’t recognise a single last name. It was odd,” Candi said.

Candi and her dad ruled out he had been adopted, and dismissed the idea his mother had had an affair.

It wasn’t until 2020 that they found an old newspaper clipping which finally gave the pair the answers.

It revealed a boy named Philip had been born the day before him at the same hospital to parents Harold and Pauline.

Candi said she soon “realised the parents that raised him were not his biological parents”.

“It all made sense,” she said.

Andy, from Grand Prairie, Texas, said he felt a huge sense of relief after years of feeling different to his family.

Sadly, his biological parents had died before he had a change to meet them.

“I went to the graveyards of my biological mother and father,” he said.

“I started a grieving process – not only grieving that I never met them but grieving their death.

“It was an unexpected and difficult thing.”

Andy said he was left in tears after seeing a picture of his biological mum for the first time – and his new family have welcomed him “with opens arms”.

“I felt like I found out who I am,” Andy added.

‘I have become closer to my Perkins family and my Robinson family. Many people have no family.

“I am rich with two wonderful, loving families.”