This is Life Live: Man reunites with young daughters he hasn’t seen in 10 years
One day in 2008 Gavin went to work and didn’t know it would be the last time he’d see his pregnant wife and young daughter Keara. It’s been 10 years and Gavin has searched tirelessly to find his estranged wife and their two daughters. He’s never met his second daughter, Ayla. Tonight he reunited with them live on the emotional TLC show This is Life Live.
Gavin now lives in Myrtle Beach, SC with his new wife, who he has two sons with. They have both been fighting to reunite Gavin with his daughters.
Gavin’s mom still buys the girls Christmas presents every year and keeps them in a box for them. “I guess the grandmother in me, I couldn’t start buying for them,” she says.
After 10 years of searching, Gavin says he had resigned himself to the idea that he’d probably never find them again, but then his daughters’ maternal grandmother, Tammy, reached out to Gavin. Still, the big question is if the girls, Keara, 12, and Ayla, 9 want to reunite with him. They currently live with their grandmother Tammy, who’s a nurse.
Tammy says their mom, her daughter, is in a “bad place” right now. She wants them to have everything they’ve dreamed of and thinks they deserve a stable family. Tammy says she’s realized that her daughter had lied about Gavin, and she feels that Gavin has a right to know his daughters and they have a right to know him. The girls seem a little nervous, but are also excited to connect with their father and their little brothers.
“You girls are so beautiful, I’m so glad you’re here,” Gavin tells them after a long hug. “We’re gonna start a whole new chapter.” He tells them they’re going to the beach tomorrow and that their little brothers are excited to meet them.
This family of four just became a family of six, LIVE! #ThisIsLifeLive pic.twitter.com/nYlbPpERkI
— TLC Network (@TLC) May 16, 2018
Gavin says this feels like the closure of “the worst chapter of my life.”
It’s a bittersweet moment for Tammy, though. “I’ll miss them,” she says. “But I know this is what’s best.”
Gavin and his wife Cassi say they plan to welcome Tammy into their family.
Amelia Cunningham is a Starcasm writer and editor
