DNA Test Brings Long-Lost Siblings Back Together After Almost 40 Years: “The Experience Has Been Amazing” (Exclusive)

Two long-lost sisters just had a reunion that was almost four decades in the making.

Darragh Hannan and Jee Won Ha were born 14 months apart in South Korea, but spent most of their lives apart, getting adopted by separate families and growing up in different countries.

But on Friday, Oct. 25, the two sisters, now grown adults, met in person for the first time at an airport in Seoul.

“We were emotional — crying, laughing, feeling joyful, and a bit anxious,” Darragh, a 39-year-old project manager for a museum exhibits builder, and Jee Won, 38, who operates a knitting and sewing shop, Said

“Since then, it’s been a similar experience, in the best way,” they say.

“We feel comfortable with each other and talk about deep things like our emotions and the impact of our journey, but we also joke around and have fun, laughing and sharing these unique moments together.”

When she was 8 weeks old, Darragh was adopted by an American family in Minnesota and grew up in Indiana, while Jee Won was eventually taken in by a couple in Belgium.

“We both knew we were adopted at a young age, but it wasn’t until later, around puberty, that we started to wonder more about it,” Jee Won tells PEOPLE, adding that Darragh felt similarly.

For years, their questions remained just that, even as the sisters started trying to learn more about their roots.

When Darragh took a MyHeritage DNA test in 2018, it yielded no connections. “I was like, okay, so I’m guessing they don’t have a huge East Asian database at that point,” she recalled in a news release obtained by PEOPLE.

Meanwhile, Jee Won was moved to take action after hearing a neighbor’s incredible story.

That neighbor, Kim Haelen, found her long-lost U.S.-based sister, Christine Pennell, through a MyHeritage DNA test, and their experiences became the subject of a 2019 documentary The Missing Piece.

“I heard about [Kim’s] story when she found her sister, and it was such an overwhelming feeling,” Jee Won said.

“I thought, I’m gonna call her.”
Then several years after her own DNA test yielded no results, Darragh received an email from Jee Won.

“I opened my inbox one morning, and there it was: ‘Hey, I think we’re sisters,’ ” Darragh said.

Video footage shared by MyHeritage shows the two sisters meeting for the first time at Seoul’s Incheon International Airport and tearfully hugging each other.

“Oh, you’re really small,” Jee Won even tells Darrah in the clip.

Darragh and Jee Won tell PEOPLE that they’re “both very grateful for our lives in the U.S. and Belgium, but there will always be a part of us that wonders what it would have been like to grow up in the places where we were born.”

“Adoption isn’t just about saving a child from their country of origin; it involves rerouting a child’s entire life, which can bring a lot of deep questions and trauma,” they add.

Still, the overwhelming feeling they’re experiencing right now is gratitude.

”Connecting with each other has answered a lot of questions for us — it’s given us a sense of who we’re connected with and has shown us both the similarities from our shared nature and the differences shaped by our unique environments, nurture,” they say. “Either way, it’s been incredible to get to know each other.”