Singer Finds Long-Lost Daughter


Associated Press
April 3, 1997

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) Joni Mitchell has found the daughter she conceived in Calgary and put up for adoption 32 years ago. "Apparently her daughter was looking for her, too, so there's sort of a fairy tale ending," Mitchell's father, Bill Anderson, said in an interview Wednesday from his home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. ``We've seen pictures and you can see the similarities."

Mitchell's only child was conceived while she was an art student living in Calgary. Mitchell's parents weren't told about the pregnancy until at least two years after the birth. "We're quite happy. (She and Joni) have been together, and we're looking forward to meeting her later," said Anderson, who learned about 10 days ago that his granddaughter had been found. He would not give further details.

"Joni is just gathering her thoughts to go public," said Bob Merlis of Los Angeles-based Reprise Records, Mitchell's record label. He said Mitchell will make a statement later this week in Los Angeles, where she lives.

The singer, who was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, and raised in Saskatoon, was an art student at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology when she met the child's father, Brad McMath. Neither had seen their daughter since 1965, when she was born in Toronto and put up for adoption. "We really didn't want to get married and settle down," McMath, a Toronto photographer, said last December.

Mitchell began singing in Calgary folk clubs and went on to international acclaim. Neither Mitchell nor McMath could be reached for comment Wednesday.


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