Whit Johnson’s DNA Test Uncovered Surprising Secrets That Altered His Family’s Life

The father of well-known TV anchor and journalist Whit Johnson was adopted at birth. However, Johnson’s father didn’t have any desire to learn more about his own heritage. He preferred to keep that door shut.

The ABC anchor Whit Johnson grew up in San Francisco, the tech capital of the world. After graduating from a local high school, he decided to go to San Francisco State University. With a growing interest in broadcasting, he enrolled in a bachelor’s program for Television and Radio Broadcasting.

In the early part of 2018, Johnson joined ABC as a correspondent. A few months later, he became a co-anchor on Good Morning America. Over the next few years, he covered news about the pandemic, the election, and other topics of national interest. 

Whit Johnson is big on family. In 2007, many years before his big break with ABC, Johnson met and married the reporter Andrea Fujji. Nowadays, Whit, Andrea, and their two young daughters (Leah and Summer) all live in New York City. 

As is evident from his Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter posts, Whit Johnson loves being a news anchor and loves being a husband and father. He mixes together his two loves when he cheekily calls his wife and daughters his “boss ladies.”

When Whit Johnson was growing up, he and his father had a great relationship. In fact, Whit said that he can trace most of what he knows about being a good father back to the way his father treated him.

Although Whit’s social media posts made it clear that he had tremendous love and respect for his dad – “a man with many names and many mustache variations” – he was still curious about Steve, his dad’s, bloodline. 

Whit Johnson’s parents divorced when he was young. Although his dad didn’t really care to learn more about his own ethnic background, Whit’s mom did. One day, while Whit was visiting his mom, she pulled out a 23andMe DNA test. It was for Whit.  

When Whit’s mom originally suggested taking a DNA test while they were catching up around the kitchen table, Whit really didn’t see the point. However, over time, he got a bit more intrigued. All he really knew about his dad’s adoption was that it happened at a young age in Salt Lake City.

Since Steve was stuck in his decision not to take the test, the only way to learn more was to have Whit or his siblings take the test. Although Whit respected his father’s decision, he also had a burning curiosity to know more.

Although learning more about your family background can be a big deal, the process of getting there is fairly simple and straightforward. For Whit, all he had to do was give a saliva sample to 23andMe. Then, he filled out an online profile with a few brief details.

One month later, Whit Johnson opened his email account to find something odd in his inbox: “We have your results.” 23andMe got back to him. Excitement rushed through his body as he clicked to open it.

It was exciting for Whit to learn that his bloodline was more complex than he initially thought. However, that wasn’t all he learned. When 23andMe sent back the results, they also started the process of getting distant relatives to get in touch with each other. 

When Whit combed through the website, he found a tab that read “Your DNA Relatives.” With something as tempting as that, obviously, he clicked. Suddenly, a huge list of relatives popped up. Most of them had Spanish names.

Before getting far into your search for genetic relatives, the site 23andMe gives a clear warning to try and brace people for the unexpected. For many, the information is life-changing. For Whit, a hint of that came when he found that a “first cousin” was listed. 

Whit scrolled through his profile and opened up the page for his (potential) first cousin. When the picture loaded, he was absolutely stunned. He took a deep breath and looked closer. The “potential first cousin” looked exactly like his own father!

This new discovery was a complete bombshell for Whit Johnson. After nearly 40 years of Whit knowing Steve, the son now felt like he was seeing his dad for the first time. That’s because he knew next to nothing about his biological family. 

This is a family revelation here, Whit thought to himself. Furthermore, he knew that it was going to change their entire family dynamic. There was no turning back from that. The next question was to figure out if he should reach out to this new cousin first, or break the news to his dad first. 

Steve wasn’t uninterested in his biological parents. Instead, he was concerned that his adoptive parents might feel bad about him wanting to know more about where he came from. Steve loved his parents dearly and didn’t want to (potentially) upset them.

All the worrying and fretting about whether or not Steve would get annoyed with Whit for letting him know he had a brother was in vain. It turned out that Steve was already doing a bit of his own DNA research. 

Naturally, Whit’s stepmom was curious. So, they chatted back and forth. Whit told her that the man in the photo was born in Utah in 1956. When he said this, he knew that Steve was nearby, so he expected his stepmom to break the news to him. She did. Steve was excited.

Whit assumed his dad would reply to him when he was ready. In the meantime, Whit reached out to the guy on the 23andMe website. Despite searching online for many years, the man apparently had no luck finding close relatives. 

Whit picked up the phone and gave him the news. Steve broke out in tears. He never thought he had a biological brother. Now, it was highly likely. Not only that, but Steve could also get the chance to communicate with or meet his unknown brother. 

It was a remarkable day for Steve. At the beginning of the day, he thought he was an only child. By the end of the day, however, he knew that he had a brother out there in the world. Steve and his brother emailed back and forth to learn more about each other. 

Although they had never met, Steve felt an immediate connection with the man who was most likely his biological brother – a man named Bear. They continued emailing back and forth, getting to know each other more by probing into their similarities. 

That’s right, Whit’s potential new uncle and Steve’s potential new brother recognized Whit from the news. Before Whit was hired at ABC, he used to be a reporter and anchor in Salt Lake City. Since Bear lived in Utah, he saw Whit all the time.

After that trip, the surprises kept piling up. Whit learned that he had a first cousin, and that cousin came all the way to California to visit Whit, his wife, and his kids. After an emotional first meeting, they relaxed a bit and shared some family research. 

The third brother replied. Quickly, Steve and Bear learned that their other brother was also given up for adoption. Not only that, but they also learned that he was interested in knowing more about his biological family. In addition, he had much to teach them.

Shortly after they connected online, the third brother was keen to meet. So, he hopped on a plane in Wyoming and flew to California. Alongside his luggage, he carried a bunch of family photos. He knew the most about their mother, so Steve and Bear were excited to hear what he had to say. 

Although the story so far has as many twists and turns as a winding mountain road, that’s not the end of it. The Wyoming brother informed Steve and Bear that they also had a sister! Their biological mom had three boys and one girl.

As this entire story was unfolding in their private lives, it was also taking on a life of its own on social media. As a popular TV anchor, Whit has quite the following, and he kept them in the loop on his father’s discoveries. 

Whit’s original DNA test showed that he had a mix of Irish and Spanish heritage. Neither of those came from his mom. However, when he looked at the photos of his biological grandmother, he could see she was probably Spanish. That means his biological grandfather – Steve’s dad – must have been the Irish one.

Whit has a little sister named Dana. Unlike Whit, she’s not a fan of cameras and prefers to live a simple, family life. Regardless, she enjoys visiting him in NYC every now and again. One time while strolling through a park, Whit captured a great photo of them. 

After staring at his mother’s photo, Steve came to appreciate that his looks came from her. When he compared his senior high school portrait with the photo he had of his biological mom, the similarities were uncanny. In particular, he noticed that both had raised eyebrows. 

As followers of Whit’s social media accounts know, he has always been (and continues to be) close to his mom. Alongside being an “extraordinary woman” full of love and happiness, she was also the one who got the ball rolling on the DNA tests. 

Whit has been lucky to be surrounded by such loving, caring, and strong women all throughout his life. He has three “mothers” really. His biological mom is Sharon, his stepmom is Leslie, and the mother of his kids is Andrea. 

As you can see from the story above, Whit is not only a great TV anchor – he’s also a great family man. That means being there for his wife or kids as well as helping his dad find his long-lost biological brothers. He’s a man full of love, and that love extends to animals as well.  

The pandemic affected nearly everyone on the planet, and Steve and Whit were no different. Although Steve just met his biological brothers, the ensuing travel restrictions made it impossible for them to meet face-to-face. Email and video chats had to suffice.

When he wasn’t filming weekend segments for Good Morning America, Whit was homeschooling his two daughters. During those moments, Whit’s wife Andrea was filming segments of her own because she’s also a news reporter. It’s a perfect situation, really. 

The lockdowns made it impossible for Whit and his family to fly out to see his father. However, that doesn’t mean they didn’t stay in touch. Like so many others, they held regular family meetings over Zoom. Alongside simple catch-ups, they also dyed Easter eggs together!

In addition to missing out on face-to-face contact, Whit contracted a Covid strain and his house was flooded by a natural disaster. In other words, it was a rough year. Once the worst of it was over, however, Whit’s family, his sister’s family, and his parents all made plans to meet up more often.