Kerry Washington is “in the process of attempting” to find her biological father.
The “Scandal” actress revealed in her new memoir, Thicker Than Water, that she only discovered she was conceived by a sperm donor in 2018 when she told her parents she was planning to appear on Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s “Finding Your Roots” — where celebrities trace their ancestry through DNA tests — and she’s confirmed she is now trying to find the donor, and her dad, Earl Washington, is ultimately “supportive” of her doing so.
Speaking to Robin Roberts on “20/20,” Washington said: “I just was like, ‘I’m so curious,’ ’cause I think I knew in that moment that in some way, this was my call to adventure … I think [my dad] is open and curious and you know, maybe not thrilled but accepting and supportive.”
When Washington’s parents were first reluctant to agree to DNA tests for “Finding Your Roots,” the 46-year-old star told Gates there was an issue, leading him to call her parents to talk them through the process, and when they explained their reasons, the host urged them to “consider telling” their daughter the truth. And Washington admitted the uncovering of the family secret was the “greatest gift” Gates gave her family.
She explained: “When my dad told me, I realized that every time that I have said, ‘I love you,’ to my dad, that there has been this little part of his brain, conscious or unconscious that had to have said, ‘She loves me because she thinks I am her father.’ So I’m saying I love him, from his perspective, on the condition of a lie. The moment that he told me, I realized that I had the opportunity to, for the first time, love my father unconditionally. That he got to hear me say, ‘I love you, even though I know.’ ”
The Django Unchained actress thinks her father would have “taken it to his grave” if he could have done so.
She said: “I also know that’s because, for him, there was nothing to tell, that my dad made the decision early on that I was his, and he was mine, and nothing will ever shake that.”
Despite the shock, Washington insisted she didn’t feel betrayed by her parents but noted “things just started to make sense in a different way.”
She said: “I was born from a sperm donor. It was amazing, because I was at once shocked, like completely shocked. At the same time, it felt like some sort of weird confirmation. It was like they took glasses off me and cleaned them, and handed them back to me.”
