My Mom Had a Secret Daughter. I Finally Found Her.

My Mom Had a Secret Daughter. I Finally Found Her.

From Modern Love by Seleman

April 29, 2026 · 52 min · Episode 443

About this episode

Tracy Clark-Flory shares her journey of discovering her half-sister and the revelations about her mother's past.

Tracy Clark-Flory was 16 when she learned something that would change her world forever: She had a half sister she’d never met. Tracy's mother, Deborah, had gotten pregnant as a freshman in college. She’d given birth to a baby girl in secret and placed the baby for adoption. Tracy could tell that talking about this baby made her mom uncomfortable, so she didn’t pry. But from that moment on, Tracy was full of questions. Where was this sister? What was her life like? Would she want to hear from Tracy if there was a way to get in touch? These days, Clark-Flory is a writer, and she is a mother herself. She has a new memoir coming out called “My Mother’s Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family’s Fractured Past.” In this episode of the “Modern Love” podcast, Clark-Flory tells Anna Martin how she finally got answers about her sister. She also shares what she found out about her mom: Turns out, there was so much more to her story, too. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher . For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New…

People in this episode

Host: Anna Martin

Guest: Tracy Clark-Flory

Topics covered

  • family secrets
  • adoption
  • sibling relationships
  • personal discovery
  • memoir

Keywords

  • half-sister
  • adoption
  • family
  • memoir
  • personal story

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: My Mother’s Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family’s Fractured Past

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