Best friends Ashley Thomas and Latoya Wimberly have been best friends since middle school, and have called themselves sisters ever since. But last month they received the ultimate surprise when a DNA test confirmed that they are in fact biological sisters.
“I almost passed out,” Wimberly, 29, told “Good Morning America” about the moment she learned her biological dad is also her bestie’s biological father. “Then I immediately called Ashley.”
“The first few nights I couldn’t go to sleep,” she said. “I’m happy that she’s my sister but had some emotions that this guy I’ve been around this whole time, I never knew he was my father.”
According to abc.com, Thomas was raised by her mom and stepfather, who she learned at age 15 was not her birth father. When the mother died 11 years ago, she was left with even more questions about her biological father, but never searched for him.
The truth was finally revealed earlier this year when Thomas posted a photo of Wimberly on Facebook.
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“I gave her a shout out on Facebook and my mom’s best friend said, “I didn’t know you were Kenneth’s daughter’s best friend,” said Thomas, referring to Kenneth Wimberly, the biological father of both women. “I called [Latoya Wimberly] a few days later and told her my mom’s best friend said she knew your dad and your dad may know my mom.”
Latoya said she knew how much she and Thomas looked alike as kids, so when she pressed her dad for more information, he recalled his brief relationship with Thomas’s mom. That’s when the best friends decided to take a DNA test.
via ABC News:
As Thomas grew up, Kenneth Wimberly often played a father-like role for her without ever knowing she was anything beyond his daughter’s best friend.
“If she called me with some car stuff or if she and Toya wanted to come over for dinner, they would come and hang out,” he said. “I asked her one time, ‘Where’s your dad? He won’t help you out with your car stuff?,’ and she said they didn’t have a good relationship and that was it.”
The two sisters have five kids between them who are all close friends as well. Thomas’s two sons will now be able to know their biological grandfather.
“She always called me Big Kenny and now it’s moving from Big Kenny to dad and it takes a little while to get used to. But she just looks at me when she does it and smiles,” said Kenneth.
“I am happy that she’s my daughter,” he said of Thomas. “And everyone is happy that she’s a part of the family.”
“As a father, I’ve always been there and I’ve always raised my children and this deprived Ashley of having me in her life to raise her,” he added. “I just feel so bad for her but we can’t undo what happened.”
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