Kerry Washington Learns That Her Dad Isn’t Her Biological Father: ‘Turned Her World Upside Down’

In anticipation of her new memoir, Thicker Than Water, actress Kerry Washington has addressed a new revelation about her parents.

On an appearance on the PBS series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Washington’s parents, Valerie and Earl, told Gates that Earl wasn’t Kerry’s biological father. Her parents, who struggled with fertility, used a sperm donor to help conceive. Gates then encouraged the actress’ mom and dad to tell Kerry the information themselves.

For Washington, the news had “really turned her world upside down.” She said she believes it helped her to love herself, as she thinks her struggles with anxiety, self-esteem and eating disorders were connected to the secret.

“I think that dissonance of like, ‘Somebody is not telling me something about my body,’ made me feel like there was something in my body I had to fix,” Washington said. 

Washington has also recently opened up about her experiences with having an abortion in the early 2000s. 

>WATCH KERRY WASHINGTON’s uBIO NOW!

According to the publisher, Washington’s book will be “an intimate view into both her public and private worlds – as an artist, an advocate, an entrepreneur, a mother, a daughter, a wife, a Black woman.” It is set to be released on September 26 and is expected to go into more detail about her family revelation and other personal topics.