Jill Zarin is opening up about one of her family's biggest secrets.
That secret is about the true parentage of her daughter Allyson "Ally" Shapiro, 29. The Real Housewives of New York City alum shared the surprising story of how her daughter found out her real father is actually a sperm donor on the Oct. 24 episode of The Tamron Hall Show.
After struggling with fertility issues with her first husband Steven Shapiro in the early '90s, Jill—who recently appeared on season two of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip—eventually became pregnant with Ally via an anonymous sperm donor. This was something she and Steven planned to take to their grave, although they let a few others in on the secret.
"We told our spouses," Jill—who remarried Bobby Zarin following her and Steven's divorce—told host Tamron Hall. "And my sister, who's a judge and a lawyer. And so, that vault will always be kept because my sister, if anything happened to me, someone on the Earth had to know." Jill said not even her parents were told the truth, that is until Ally made the discovery in her early 20s.
During move-in for her senior year of college, Ally came across some interesting emails on her mom's computer. "I was 20 years old," Ally said on the talk show, "and I saw all these emails from a family member basically asking why I look like no one else."
Unhappy with her daughter's "snooping," Jill was unable to hide the truth anymore. "I was like, 'Mom, what is this?' Ally continued. "And she goes, 'I think we should call your dad.'"
Jill went on to recall her sperm donor process in New York City, which she compared to being like the "wild, wild west."
"You kind of went through a book," said the Bravo star. "They don't give you their name, but they give you their race. They give you their religion, they give you their physical traits, education and any medical issues. And you kind of pick out of a book. That's what it was."
She said she picked donor No. 62 because Steven was born in 1962, and eventually ripped up and burned the donor's information to hide it from Ally.
"It was relief," Jill said of Ally finding out. "And I was more afraid of Allyson's reaction. My feelings were a mirror of her. So, if she became hysterical, then I was going to be hysterical. If she took it like she did, then I was okay."
As for how Ally took the news? "It just really bonded us together," she said, "because now the secret was out there in the open and we can just come together as a family and we're stronger after."
But there is one last twist in the story, as years later, a man claiming to be Ally's sperm donor reached out after matching with her through a 23andMe test. Although he donated to the same sperm bank around the same time, he was not No. 62, but rather No. 73.
Tamron said the show reached out to the sperm bank for comment, but did not hear back.
Catch up on past episodes of The Real Housewives of New York City and The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip streaming now on Peacock.
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