Prue Leith won praise from viewers over her honest and heart-wrenching journey to Cambodia in search of her adopted daughter’s birth family in a Channel 4 documentary.
Great British Bake Off judge Prue, 80, adopted a 16-month-old Cambodian girl, Li-Da, 45 years ago and gave her a self-described ‘very English’ upbringing at her Cotswolds home.
But she rarely questioned if she could have helped Li-Da connect more with her Cambodian roots. ‘People say adoption is alturistic but for me it was entirely selfish,’ she confessed in last night’s one-off programme, Prue Leith: Journey With My Daughter. ‘I wanted a baby.’
Now social media and DNA testing are allowing thousands of children who, like Li-Da, were evacuated before Pol Pot’s genocide to find relatives.
Great British Bake Off judge Prue, 80, adopted a 16-month-old Cambodian girl, Li-Da, 45 years ago and gave her a self-described ‘very English’ upbringing at her Cotswolds home. In last night’s one-off TV special they journeyed to Cambodia to learn more about her past
Viewers were left emotional over the story and praised Prue for supporting her daughter
Li-Da, 46, who has recently adopted her own baby, not only felt a burning desire but also a poignancy as a new mother herself to explore her heritage and help Prue understand why it’s important.
Viewers were impressed with Prue’s honesty at admitting she had perhaps fallen short in not fostering a connection between Li-Da and her cultural roots, and praised the Great British Bake Off judge for her ‘unconditional love’.
One tweeted: ‘Thank you @PrueLeith for being frank and honest: the joy of adoptive parenting born of a birth mother’s pain acknowledged and honoured. Your and your daughter are brave women #pruesjourney #adoption #motheranddaughter.’
Another added: ‘Oh my word – this is something else – so sad Prue has regrets, but they have such a wonderful relationship and how fabulousthey get to do this together #PruesJourney #LiDasJourney.’
Her adoption was organised by the late French humanitarian Yvette Pierpaoli, who got hundreds of orphans and sick babies out before the end of the war. Prue and Li-Da travelled to Yvette’s former home, pictured, to see where Li-Da would have lived as a baby
Viewers were impressed with Prue’s honesty at admitting she had not given much thought to Li-Da’s cultural background, her ties to Cambodia, or the trauma she must have experienced
A third wrote: ‘What a heartbreakingly honest journey. I’ve loved watching this and hope there’s a follow up #PruesJourney.’
In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge, whose Killing Fields took the lives of nearly two million Cambodians, marched on the capital Phnom Penh.
Just three days before the city fell, six-month-old Li-Da was flown out of the country in a bassinet beneath the feet of the pilot of a US helicopter on one of the last flights.
Her adoption was organised by the late French humanitarian Yvette Pierpaoli, who got hundreds of orphans and sick babies out before the end of the war.
After 26 years, Li-Da returned to Cambodia to make her moving 2003 documentary Belonging, to find out the truth about her past.
She discovered a little about her parents, but adopting her son in the UK, who’s nearly two and was placed with her and her husband a year ago, was the catalyst for returning.
Research led to a woman whose daughter of the same age was adopted from there and Li-Da took a DNA test to find out if she is her birth mother. Pictured, Li-Da with Prue Leith and the Hong family. It was thought the mother could have been Li-Da’s mother
Li-Da left Cambodia with only her birth certificate and an adoption contract saying her family were from Ta Khmau, a suburb ten miles outside the capital.
After 20 years of research, one concrete thing she has learnt is her adoption contract was signed by a nurse from a psychiatric hospital.
‘No one really knows what happened to her parents,’ said Prue.
‘But I was told a tragic story when I adopted her. Her mother was killed in a rocket attack and her father, an injured soldier, carried her until he could walk no further. He had to give her up before the Khmer Rouge came.
‘In a sense I suppose I’ve been safe in the knowledge that all my life Li-Da’s mother was already dead, killed by a rocket.
‘But one fact we definitely knew was that 20 babies from this hospital were taken away to be adopted by foreigners, and Li-Da was one.’
Prue embraced Li-Da when she was given the disappointing news that a DNA test was not a match
On a previous visit to the hospital Li-Da was told the story of the rocket attack, but wasn’t sure it was true. This time they learnt the rocket didn’t kill anyone, so her mother could still be alive.
Research led to a woman whose daughter of the same age was adopted from there and Li-Da took a DNA test to find out if she is her birth mother.
However the results were not a match. Prue was on hand to embrace Li-Da and comfort her when she was disappointed.