Image credit: Payton LeeImage source: PEOPLE
“The idea that I have a different dad than my four younger siblings had honestly never crossed my mind until a few months ago,” Payton told PEOPLE. “He made it very clear that this doesn’t change anything and I’m still his daughter!” she said. “I honestly felt really bad knowing that he entered that marriage believing I was his biological child,” she said.
Every child grows up believing that they are an indispensable part of their family. Yet every sibling also grows up hearing how they are apparently adopted. Payton Lee’s siblings often joked about how she didn’t look like her four younger siblings. A running family joke led to a DNA test that suddenly transformed the joke into a reality. “I had always just thought none of us looked alike. When she FaceTimed her dad to tell him the results, he didn’t believe it at first. For her, her dad had always been the fun parent, the one who took them all for outings and trips and filled their childhood with happy memories. After learning that her mother had been about six months pregnant with Payton when her parents married, however, Payton found herself thinking about the discovery from his perspective, too.