Joni Mitchell went from rags to riches after reaching the height of her fame. Unfortunately for her, the star arrived a little too late. At one time, Mitchell was so poor that she gave her daughter up for adoption because she could not pay for her child.
Mitchell, like her daughter Kilauren Gibb, did not give up the search, and in the end they returned to each other after 32 years of separation.
Joni Mitchell abandoned her daughter
According to Cheatsheet, Mitchell gave birth to a daughter in 1965, in a completely different era. Unwed mothers were quite unusual back then. When she begged the father of her child to marry her, he refused.
It wasn’t until she was 27 that Gibb discovered she was adopted and the search for her biological parents began.
She has not yet made a name for herself as a musician. She lacked the financial means to raise and provide for her daughter. So, with sadness in her heart, she gave her child up for adoption, a decision she immediately regretted. At one time, she told Hot Press:
“I had a house and a car shortly after I gave my daughter up for adoption and became a prominent person.”
She searched for her child for years, but the trail finally came to an end. When a childhood friend sold her secret birth to the newspaper, it caused a lot of attention, but that was the end of it.
Searching for Kilauren Gibb’s mother
On the other hand, Gibb admitted to the Toronto Sun (via Joni Mitchell’s website) that she often asked her adoptive mother why she didn’t have a photo from when she was born.
To keep the adoption a secret, the Gibbs – David and Ida Gibb, two teachers in Toronto – had to feed her several excuses.
Gibb discovered she was adopted when she was 27, and her search for her biological parents began. Fortunately, her adoptive parents left her with a referral to the Children’s Aid Society. As a result, she reached out.
However, it would take five years for the institution to provide Gibb with the paperwork she wanted, and even then, the identity of her biological mother was only a description.
Her mother, she revealed, was born in Saskatchewan, the only child of Norwegian-Scottish parents. She overcame polio as a child and met Kilauren’s father at art school in Calgary.
“According to the CAS description, she is a successful Canadian folk singer.”
Gibb, on the other hand, was not a fan of the genre her mother was known for and couldn’t make the connection herself.
Gathering
On February 1, 1996, she stumbled across an article describing Mitchell’s search for her daughter. The timeline was ideal. Gibb also noticed similarities: blue eyes, blond hair, long legs and high cheekbones.
She called Mitchell’s agency hoping to see her mother before her mother’s birthday on February 19. It turns out that she is not the only “daughter” calling. All requests had to be reviewed by the agency.
Gibbs came home one day to find a message from her mother on the answering machine. It read: “Hello, my name is Joni. Please contact me. I have arrived. I am very satisfied.”
On March 13, 1997, the mother-daughter combination reunited after 32 years of separation.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education