The actress reminisces about the moment she learned her parents used a sperm donor
Kerry Washington is much more than just a spectacular actor—she’s also an incredible writer and daughter, as revealed in a new interview with Oprah.
The two sat down together for an OWN Spotlight special tied to the release of Washington’s memoir, Thicker Than Water, which is now available (read a sneak peek here). Ahead of the special’s release, we have an exclusive clip from the interview.
During their conversation, Oprah had to ask Washington about a very personal detail that she shared in Thicker Than Water. Her dad is not her biological father; her parents used a sperm donor because of struggles getting pregnant. Even more, Washington didn’t know this until well into adulthood. Naturally, Oprah wanted to know how that conversation between Washington and her parents went down.
“I walked into the apartment where my parents were, and they sat me down, and my mom said, ‘I know that you know it took us a long time to have you…but we used a sperm donor,’” Washington begins.
From reading Thicker Than Water, Oprah knew that Washington had a beautiful response to learning this information. “My immediate reaction was actually excitement and curiosity,” Washington says. “But I also could read the room, and I knew that they were feeling really distraught and afraid. When I looked at my dad, he seemed terrified that me learning that he wasn’t my biological father was gonna mean that he wasn’t my dad.”
Thicker than Water: A Memoir
At that moment, Washington realized that her dad had only ever known his daughter’s love as something conditional—something that she could take away when learning that he isn’t her biological father. “And I knew that that wasn’t the case. I knew that my dad is always gonna be my dad. Cause I have tremendous parents, despite the fact that in that moment, I knew that they had kept this truth from me for decades, for my whole life,” Washington tells Oprah. “There must have been some part of him that thought, She loves me because she doesn’t know. She loves me because she thinks I am her dad. And maybe if she finds out…”
So what Washington said to her dad had to be powerful. And it was—Oprah says that reading it made her cry (and thinking about it still makes her tear up).
“I said, ‘Dad, you are gonna have a chance now to know what it feels like to be loved unconditionally.’”
Washington continues, “And that has been the experience.… My dad loves me so much, and I have been able to now return that love, cause it hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s deeper. My love for my parents is so much deeper in truth than it ever was before this revelation.”
This is the part where we join Oprah in, as she says, “bawling [our] eyes out.” Watch the exclusive preview from Oprah and Washington’s conversation below, then catch the full OWN interview on Saturday, October 28, at 10/9c.
Source: Oprah Daily
