Britt Jones
A Good Morning America anchor revealed a bombshell admission on air amid 23andMe’s bankruptcy filing.
Whit Johnson, 42, has been a regular face for years on GMA, but many might not know his family secret.
We all have things that we’re unaware of in our families, but those things usually go unanswered if relatives are unable to provide the truth.
But thanks to DNA testing, something came to light in Johnson’s family that he never saw coming.
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Describing it as a ‘missing link’ that led to a ‘bombshell’ discovery, he shared his 23andMe journey amid its financial troubles.
Johnson’s news comes just days after the DNA company filed for bankruptcy protection after facing a slew of issues in recent times.
There was the data breach in 2023 that compromised the personal information of nearly 7 million users, and legal woes soon followed.
As the company faces difficulties, California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged customers to delete their data from 23andMe’s database as under California’s Genetic Information Privacy Act, companies must obtain explicit consent before collecting, using, and disclosing genetic data.
The same law also guarantees consumers the right to access or delete their data at any time.
“California has robust privacy laws that allow consumers to take control and request that a company delete their genetic data,” Bonta said in a press release.
"Given 23andMe’s reported financial distress, I remind Californians to consider invoking their rights and directing 23andMe to delete their data and destroy any samples of genetic material held by the company."
Sadly, federal protection gives limited help to those who have banked their DNA, so requesting that it is deleted is the only way to go about it.
While people rush to delete their data, Johnson’s 2014 dabble in it led him to stumble into a well-kept family secret.
As it turned out, his father, Steve, was adopted.
This fact was something that nobody, not even his dad, knew about.
Thanks to 23andMe, Johnson was able to pull up relative matches, which actually showed that his father had unknown siblings.
Specifically, his father’s long-lost biological brother, ‘Bear.’
“My DNA test was that missing link,” Johnson said for an interview with his dad during the news segment.
After discovering Bear, the family went on to use 23andMe to search for lost relatives again and were shocked to discover even more siblings.
“That discovery led to another brother and a possible sister on my grandmother’s side, and two more brothers on my grandfather’s side,” Johnson said.
While this is great news, the Chapter 11 protection filing last week has overshadowed the great things the company has achieved.
This is because the personal data of its over 15 million customers could be sold off, leaving people feeling worried about what will happen to their DNA files.
While Johnson said he chose to wipe his data, his dad refuses to.
This is because using the company helped him to ‘round out’ some questions he had about life.
“It does make me sad because it means that a lot of people who could have the experience, I had won’t have it, because people just won’t sign up for this stuff,” his dad said.
“Again, this is very personal. Everyone should consider what’s right for them,” Johnson added.
23andMe co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki also recently announced her resignation on X, but shared that she plans to become an independent bidder for the company.