'I was stolen from my mum as a baby, she left the hospital room and I vanished'

For around 30 years in the UK, tens of thousands of mothers were heartbreakingly forced to give up their children for adoptionsimply because they weren't married. They were never given support to keep their babies, and had no choice but to sign the consent papers - nor did they know what happened to their child.

The period from around the 1940s to the 1970s, was known as the 'forced adoption era', when unmarried mothers were considered to be unsuitable parents, and the cruel the impact of that time still weighs heavily on those mothers and children affected.

Zara Phillips, now 60, was one of those babies put up for a forced adoption after her mum gave birth on November 5, 1964. It comes after another mum, 17, was forced to give up baby for adoption as she was single - and now wants an apology.

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Zara's childhood was riddled with unanswered questions, a tainted perspective of her birth mum and a "lifetime of grief". "My birth mother was 16 and unmarried when she got pregnant with me, 17 when she had me", Zara exclusively told the Mirror.

"She was put in hiding for a few months before she had me because of the shame in the family," Zara explained. "She was with an uncle in a flat in Shepherd's Bush, London and was only allowed out at night - her friends and even her brother were told that she had gone away for work.

"When she got closer to giving birth, she was put in a mother and baby home with a lot of other teenage girls. They had to do errands, washing up and cleaning. There were at least 200 mother and baby homes in England during that time."

When she went into labour, Zara said that as her mum screamed out in pain, she was told by a nurse, "You've made your bed, you can lie in it". Her mum was "left to labour" and, after giving birth, suffered a haemorrhage.

She received treatment after haemorrhaging for a second time, but when she returned to the room, her baby was gone. "She came back and they'd removed me, she didn't know where I was, and they put me in foster care", Zara said. "She was made to carry on and not tell anybody."

Zara was in foster care for a few months before being adopted by a family in January, which was officially finalised in July 1965. She was raised in Totteridge, North London, and growing up, she knew that she was adopted, but her adoptive parents "could not talk about it".

She shared: "I learned at a young age to protect my adoptive mother, and I was also afraid of being abandoned - I was terrified. No one talked about emotions, and I had all this stuff going on, but no one connected it to being adopted.

"You feel very lonely and isolated. Being a part of this forced adoption era, we were made to believe it didn't happen to many people and that it was a good thing. And then to find out, actually, my mother was just a teenager, she wasn't an unfit mother.

"When I was little, I'd have all this stuff in my head about my birth mother, 'Oh, she must have been a bad person', or there was something wrong with me, maybe I was ugly, so she didn't want me.

"I had no story of my mother, and that was the hardest part. All I was told was that your mother was young, but I wanted to know more. But I'd be on the street, scanning, 'Is that my mother? Or sometimes I'd wait by the window and think, 'Is she going to come today?'."

Zara battled an addiction with alcohol and drugs from a young age, as said she had "so much rage" and "no self-esteem" But after going sober at 22, she knew she had to find her birth mum, and after a lengthy self-search through various documents, she eventually found her mother, Pat.

After initial letters were sent they set up their first meeting, which Zara said she "cried through the whole thing". She shared: "I couldn't stop staring and there was a lot of emotions. I didn't understand the amount of grief that would come up, but I was also very excited."

They started to build a relationship, and Zara discovered that she had a brother and a sister and that she was half Italian. But she avoided telling her adoptive parents that she had met her birth mum for two years due to the fear of "being rejected again".

Zara explained that family reunions are "never what people think", and they can be incredibly challenging for everyone involved. "She wanted me to fix her, I wanted her to fix me, and we had blow-ups where my anger suddenly came up. So for a while we didn't speak for a few years, but we got back in touch and our reunion has been successful now.

"I have kids now, and they have never not known my birth mother and siblings. We always get together and it's really nice."

It wasn't until Zara was 51 that she finally met her birth father, Vittorio, through Ancestry DNA while she was living in New Jersey, having moved from England. And in a surprising turn of events, she discovered that Vittorio, who was from Italy, was living just an hour away from her in the same US state.

She said: "It was unbelievable. I just drove an hour, and there he was. I adored him from the minute we met and thought, 'This is my person'." Zara also discovered that she had six other siblings on her birth father's side.

Recalling her relationship with her birth father, Zara added: "We knew each other for two years, he phoned me nearly every day, we were very close, but then he suddenly had a heart attack and died."

While his death was tragic, Zara is still in touch with some of her siblings on her birth dad's side and has subsequently taken trips to Italy to meet more of her family.

On meeting her birth parents, Zara shared: "You have every single feeling, and you learn to live on this rollercoaster ride, and it'll never be the end. And you never fully get that time that you would have had being raised by them. Everything feels very heightened, and I would savour every day I had with them."

She added: "Adoption is the only trauma in the world where the victim is expected to feel grateful. Adoption is a lifetime of grief."

In July this year, Zara helped to organise the first protest for the historic forced adoption era to call for the government to apologise to the hundreds of women and children who were impacted during the mid 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. A government apology has already been issued in Wales and Scotland.

On the same day as the protest, Zara visited 10 Downing Street with a letter urging for an apology to those forcibly adopted, and the mothers who had their child taken away. They are now waiting for a response from the government.

Zara has also released a book titled 'Somebody's Daughter' which details her adoption journey and experience further, along with a film and play adaptation bearing the same name. You can find more of Zara's work and story on her website here. (www.zaraphillips.net)