A millennial woman who took a DNA test “just for fun” is now urging others to think twice before doing the same, unless they’re prepared for potentially life-altering revelations.
Kate - who shared her story on TikTok under the handle @juust_kate - explained to her followers that the test “changed her life forever.” Born in France to Portuguese parents, Kate said she had always been deeply fascinated (“obsessed,” even) with Ancient Egypt.
As an adult, she finally visited Egypt, and that trip only intensified her connection. She recalled falling “even more in love with the country, the culture, the food, the people, everything.”
After returning home, her curiosity about her roots grew stronger. One thing had always nagged at her: people had often questioned her Portuguese background.
“People would say I looked more Middle Eastern, Lebanese, Moroccan, Tunisian, Greek,” she said.
These comments, combined with the fact that she looked very different from her siblings - she’s the only brunette, while the rest are blonde with blue eyes - left her feeling confused. While her siblings burn in the sun, she tans easily. Even her mother used to affectionately call her “little Cleopatra” as a child.
In 2019, driven by curiosity, she took a DNA test and waited six weeks for the results. What came back, she said, turned her world upside down, according to The Daily Record.
Her DNA breakdown was not at all what she expected. Here are the results:
- 58.4% Egyptian
- 22.9% Portuguese
- 14.1% South Italian
- 4.6% Algerian
“This was not what I expected,” she said. “I thought it would be 85% Portuguese and the rest North African.”
When she shared the surprising results with her mother, the response was vague. “She said, ‘We are all children of the world. We’re all connected,’” Kate recalled.
But when Kate told her there wasn’t much more detail in the results, her mother fell silent, and the conversation ended there. Until, that is, something unexpected happened in 2022.
While doing her nails one day, Kate received a cryptic message from a woman claiming to know her biological father. What followed was a revelation that reshaped her entire sense of identity.
“Suddenly, I found out that I had been lied to about my paternity for my entire existence, and that life was about to change forever,” Kate said in a follow-up TikTok.
Her biological father, it turned out, was an Egyptian man who had already passed away by the time Kate learned the truth.
“All of a sudden I was grieving someone I would never meet,” she shared. “That was the hardest pill to swallow. Lost in heartbreak and confusion like I had never been before and nothing would make it go away.”
Despite the emotional rollercoaster, Kate says something beautiful came out of the experience: a connection to a new family in Egypt. “I gained a beautiful new family,” she said. “Three amazing siblings in Egypt, who I love very much.”
Now, she visits them when she can and says they’re “not strangers anymore” as they work to “make up for lost time.”
So, before you spit in that tube, remember: DNA tests can answer questions you’ve carried your whole life — but they might also give you answers you never saw coming.