Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace follow-up episode sees retired WPC reunited with abandoned baby she found 50 years ago

A woman who was abandoned as a baby, only to be reunited with some of her biological relatives on ITV’s Long Lost Family last year, has now met the female police officer who found her in a new programme.

Caroline Harris-Gray, was found abandoned at Tottenham’s Prince of Wales Hospital more than 50 years ago, after she was left in a vegetable box in the matron’s office. 

She went on to have a very happy adoption, but always had questions about her identity, and about who it was that left her and why. 

In an episode of Long Last Family which aired in 2023, Caroline reconnected with her half siblings Paul and Tina in Brighton, who told her more about her biological father Ray, a firefighter who they said ‘looked just like her’.

In a new update on the follow-up program, Long Lost Family Born Without Trace: What Happened Next, Caroline meets another important person in her complicated story. 

Pictured: Jan, the Police Officer who had been called to the hospital in Tottenham when Caroline was found

Davina McCall, presenter of the ITV show, said in the upcoming episode: ‘Caroline continued to build bonds with her new family but amazing, when her story went out last year, someone very important was watching.’

It was Jan, the police officer who had been called to the hospital in Tottenham when Caroline was found. 

After the show’s production team tracked Jan down, she revealed: ‘The minute they said Caroline, my ears pricked up, I said to my husband, that is my baby!’

Jan had kept photos of Caroline for decades, seemingly cherishing a special fondness for the foundling she helped more than 50 years ago.

Since the first episode aired last summer, Caroline’s relationship with her newfound family has gone from strength to strength.

‘I feel a sense of belonging meeting Paul and Tina. I’ve seen them a few times since – I think there’s something about blood relatives,’ she said wistfully in the update episode.

‘Paul is a great singer, I do as well after a couple of gins and I’ve always wanted a sister. It was an instant connection – I can’t explain it.

‘With Gloria (Caroline’s aunt) it was just like, I know you – you’re my people.’

Pictured: Gloria (left), Tina (in pink), Paul (third in) and Caroline (right) pictured catching up with each other. Caroline said she feels a strong bond to her blood relatives 

Caroline pictured enjoying a glass of prosecco as she she caught up with her newly discovered family

With the help of researchers, Caroline made a number of discoveries about her past when she first appeared on the show. 

Caroline had already known that she abandoned on 11th July 1968 at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Tottenham.

However, she was unsure about her birth story, as she’d heard conflicting versions.

‘As I’ve grown up, I’ve got different bits of information from different people… I’d like to know the truth,’ she told the show.

When visiting the Haringey archives, she learned that her birth mother had left her well-dressed, suggesting she cared about her daughter’s well-being in some way.

‘She did care! …I was dressed with love. That’s what I get from that – that’s amazing,’ she said.

Caroline placed her DNA on an online database, which helped the Long Lost Family team to identify her birth father, Ray.

While Ray passed away in 2009, his sister Gloria was still alive, and the team found out that Caroline has two half-siblings, Paul and Tina.

Caroline said she was delighted to hear that her father sounded like an amazing person, and to meet her remaining family 

A picture of Caroline’s biological father Ray with her half-siblings Tina and Paul, before her father died in 2009

Tina and Paul were struck by how similar Caroline looked to their father Ray, who was a firefighter 

Viewers were left in flood of tears last night as Caroline Harris-Gray was reunited with her half-siblings after being abandoned as an infant in July 1968 (pictured hugging her half-sister Tina) 

In a sweet moment, Paul greeted Caroline by telling her she looked very much like his and Tina’s father 

None of them had any idea that Ray had another child, with a shocked Gloria explaining: ‘We came from this large family… they’d have taken in a baby if they’d known about it.’

They revealed Ray had been going through some personal turmoil following the death of his father at the time Caroline was conceived.

Gloria believed that her niece was the result of a fling Ray had during an off period with his girlfriend, Paul and Tina’s mother, who he went on to marry.

Since finding her relations, Caroline has built strong connection with her new family members.

‘It’s funny, it’s just that blood connection isn’t it which I never really thought was that important because I didn’t have it before but now I’ve got it’s like, yeah we share DNA.’

Long Lost Family Born Without Trace: What Happened Next’ airs on Monday at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.