Returning: Every Family has a Secret

Season 4 of Every Family has a Secret presented by Noni Hazlehurst will screen on SBS in October.

The documentary series again follows everyday Australians as they discover the astonishing truth about their family’s past and confront the extraordinary secrets that have shaped their lives.

From Nazi fraternization to a baby swap, bigamy, criminal activity, a lost inheritance, secret adoptions, moving family reunions and life changing epiphanies – each episode unlocks a treasure trove of secrets that will keep audiences enraptured through every twist.

“I’m so proud to be part of this wonderful series – it’s without a doubt one of the highlights of my career. To have the privilege of hearing these deeply personal stories that our participants entrust to us is remarkable in itself. But the production team is world class, and their storytelling skills make for extraordinarily moving and rewarding television,” said Hazlehurst.

Bethan Arwel-Lewis, SBS Commissioning Editor, Factual, said: “Helmed by the incomparable Noni Hazlehurst, Every Family Has a Secret exemplifies SBS’s role as a national broadcaster to share impactful stories about diverse everyday Australians.”

“Interweaving universal themes like family and identity, the series allows us to explore surprising and sometimes shocking stories that lie in our personal history, whilst solving mysteries that have impacted some families for years. It’s no surprise that the series has become a homegrown success.”

Over four weeks, the series takes us on a truly global adventure spanning Austria, Mexico, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K, and The Netherlands.

Season Four kicks off with an explosive premiere which will mark the first time in Every Family Has a Secret history that the series will deviate from its usual format – featuring one rather than two intertwining stories due to the truly epic nature of what is revealed.

The absorbing season four premiere will see siblings Jacquie Blatchford and Michael Damnjanovic travel to France, Italy and the U.K. on a mission to find answers about how their French born mother came to Australia after WWII. Along the way they uncover evidence of their mother’s dark past, discovering a far-right political party membership, Nazi fraternization, hidden marriages, and that they are heirs to a sizable inheritance.

Shocking revelations continue as two Melbourne women investigate baby swaps and baby stealing: Dr Sofia Rios Miranda seeks to find if there is any truth to a family rumour that her great grandparents stole a British baby and changed his identity to ensure he remained with them; and a DNA test dramatically turns the life of adoptee Dr Penny Mackieson upside down when it is revealed she has Greek heritage and has spent twenty years reunited with the wrong birth mother.

Later in the series proud Koori woman Paula Morrison, who was raised as an orphan, discovers her Austrian born father is in fact still alive and later unearths the truth about Nazi allegiances in her family’s history; retiree Rod Cordery and sister Sandra Rowlands journey to the U.K. where they discover the identity of their biological father and meet half-sisters they never knew they had; leading historian Professor Grace Karskens travels to the Netherlands and Germany to uncover the truth about a missing uncle; and Ming Balintong is granted his greatest wish when he finally learns the identity of his biological father.

Every Family has a Secret is a four-part series produced by Artemis Media for SBS, in association with Screenwest and Lotterywest.

Every Family Has a Secret S4 will be subtitled in 5 languages, streaming on SBS On Demand in Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. 

Thursday 19 October at 7.30pm on SBS.