Unspoken The Silent Truth Behind My Lifelong Trauma as a Forced Adoptee Liz Harvie with Eve Hatton
“I was two when the woman I called Mummy told me, ‘You came out of another mummy’s tummy.’ I grew up thinking that my birth mother didn’t want me. I assumed there must’ve been something inherently wrong with me – why else would a mother give up her baby?”
In 1974, Liz Harvie – born Claire Elaine Watts – was given up for adoption by her birth mother Yvonne. Claire was just eight weeks old when her adoptive parents took her in – and renamed her Elizabeth.
Although brought up in a ‘perfect’ household, the emotional – and physical – trauma of being taken from her biological mother would never leave Liz. She constantly wondered: what does my real mum look like? Will she come back for me? Why did she abandon me?
But whenever Liz voiced such questions, she invariably received the same response: “Your birth parents were not married. They couldn’t look after you.”
Years later, aged twenty-eight, Liz reconnected with her birth mother and finally learned the shocking truth surrounding her adoption. She had not been abandoned. A social worker had snatched the ten day-old baby from Yvonne’s arms: “I didn’t even get a final cuddle. She just took her away from me.”
Liz became one of at least 185,000 victims of forced adoption between 1949 and 1976 in England and Wales.
As a young unmarried mum, Yvonne was deemed unfit as a parent by her father, and, like so many other unsupported women, by the government, by the church, by both state and church Moral Welfare Officers, by adoption agencies, and therefore made to give up her child against her will.
Although reunited, Liz and Yvonne are still struggling to cope with the agony resulting from their devastating separation. As Liz says, “We can’t just skip hand in hand into the sunset. The trauma of being a forced adoptee is lifelong.”
Second book in the Stolen Lives series, following Taken by Michelle Pearson with Eve Hatton; Unspoken is a true story of the pain and scandal of forced adoption. Liz Harvie has appeared in several press articles, radio and television pieces and has featured in a BBC Documentary, If You Love Your Baby, on historical forced adoption. In 2022, Liz gave written and oral evidence when she spoke in parliament for the Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Forced Adoption - the right to family life: adoption of children of unmarried women 1949-1976.
In May 2022, Liz and six other women formed The Adult Adoptee Movement, which aims to challenge attitudes to and change the narrative on adoption, campaigning to raise awareness of the lifelong trauma adoptees face and ensure appropriate support is available for all those involved.
Liz lives in Camberley, Surrey with her husband, two daughters and two dogs. She is an end of life and pastoral care companion volunteer at her local hospital and hospice.
Eve Hatton is the co-author, with Shy Keenan, of the bestselling Broken (Mardle Books, 2022).
Book also available in Waterstones and Asda.
