She was raised not knowing her birth mother was a global music icon. Over thirty years after being placed for adoption, she uncovered the truth — and what followed was an extraordinary reunion that rewrote both their lives.
This woman’s mother is one of the most revered singer-songwriters of her time — a visionary whose poetic lyrics and distinct voice have left an indelible mark on music history. With unforgettable tracks like “Both Sides Now” and “Woodstock,” her artistry has stood the test of time.
However, before the world knew her name, this musical star was a struggling art student, unwed, and pregnant at a time when such circumstances brought immense shame. It would take thirty-two years — and a series of twists no one could have predicted — for mother and daughter to finally find each other.
A Long Journey Home – The Story Behind the Reunion
In 1965, this woman’s birth mother, known back then as Roberta Joan Anderson, was a twenty-year-old student at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary, western Canada.
Her biological grandfather worked as a grocery store manager, while her biological grandmother was a teacher in Saskatchewan. That year, her biological mom found herself pregnant by a fellow art student who was unwilling to settle down.
With abortion off the table and no support from her family, the future musical star kept the pregnancy a secret. “The main thing at the time was to conceal it. The scandal was so intense. A daughter could do nothing more disgraceful,” she later said, adding:
After giving birth in a Toronto hospital, this woman’s mother endured a harsh and unforgiving system. Due to complications, she stayed in the hospital for ten days and spent that time with the baby she named Kelly Dale Anderson.
“I have no money. I have no home. I have no job. When I leave the hospital, I have no roof over my head,” this woman’s mother said. Despite her desperation, she tried to find a way to keep her child.
To create a family unit, she entered what she would later call “a marriage of convenience” with American folk singer Chuck Mitchell. He also worked in the entertainment industry before the pair started performing together and became friends, then lovers.
The famous singer-songwriter admitted that after marrying Chuck, he wasn’t comfortable raising another man’s child; as a result, she felt betrayed by her husband and started working independently before divorcing him.
“One month into the marriage, he chickened out, and I chickened out. The marriage had no basis, except to provide a home for the baby,” the singer-songwriter revealed.
Although she had made peace with her decision, the memory of her daughter often surfaced unexpectedly.
With the adoption agency pressuring her to act quickly, she made the heartbreaking decision to sign Kelly Dale over. “It says in the papers that at the hearing I became emotional, which I’m
As the years passed, she found solace in the belief that she did the right thing. “I gambled,” she later reflected. “I took what was behind the curtains. I gambled that the people who came forward to take this child wanted this child and felt like there was a hole in their life without this child.”
Roughly three years after the adoption, this woman’s mother’s music career began to take off. Her 1968 debut album, “Song to a Seagull,” marked her arrival.
By the following year, her song “Both Sides Now” became a hit for Judy Collins. She released “Clouds,” which also featured “Chelsea Morning.” Although she had made peace with her decision, the memory of her daughter often surfaced unexpectedly.
She worried about the baby’s health, recalling her poor diet during pregnancy. “It comes to you at funny times, like when a friend’s child falls off a bike,” this woman’s famous mother revealed.
The famous singer-songwriter photographed during the recording of Carole King’s album “Tapestry” at A&M Records Recording Studio in January 1971 in Los Angeles, California. | Source: Getty Images
The famous singer-songwriter photographed during the recording of Carole King’s album “Tapestry” at A&M Records Recording Studio in January 1971 in Los Angeles, California. | Source: Getty Images
Finding Each Other – A Search Years in the Making
Over the years, this woman’s mother made attempts to find her daughter but met dead ends. Then, four years before their eventual reunion, a roommate from her mother’s art school days sold the adoption story to a tabloid.
“It hurt like hell,” the musical star admitted. However, the betrayal led to widespread publicity that ultimately changed everything. “Impostors came out of the woodwork,” she said.
One waitress named Kelly even went home and asked her mother if she had been adopted. Fortunately, the real Kelly Dale — now known as Kilauren Gibb — was already searching too.
At twenty-seven and pregnant herself, Kilauren learned from her adoptive parents that she had been adopted. She reached out to Canada’s Children’s Aid and was placed on a waiting list. On January 31, she received a package containing general information about her birth parents.
“It was the kind of brief descriptions you’d get for characters in a play,” Kilauren said. But the details — musical talent, polio at age nine, a grandfather in grocery, a grandmother who taught in Saskatchewan — felt eerily familiar.
Unable to find anything at the library, she turned to the internet and discovered a fan-maintained homepage by Wally Breese. As she read through the site, the pieces fell into place. Kilauren recalled:
“Mother had polio at 9, grandfather was in charge of a grocery business, grandmother was a teacher…Saskatchewan…boyfriend in art school. There were like 14 or 15 matches.”
She called the office of her singer-songwriter mother’s manager, but the influx of impostors meant Kilauren wasn’t taken seriously at first. Eventually, her information reached the singer, who asked her manager to listen to Kilauren’s voice.
“He came back and said it made his hair stand on end. He said it’s like you’re talking to the same person,” Kilauren recalled. She ultimately traveled to Los Angeles with her young son, Marlin, and was reunited with her biological mother, none other than Joni Mitchell.
The reunion marked not just the return of a daughter, but the sudden arrival of a grandson as well. “Kilauren said I get to watch him grow up now,” Joni said.
The mother and daughter quickly bonded, discovering they both liked shooting pool. They differed on food but both married musicians. While Kilauren was separated from Marlin’s father, a Toronto-based drummer, Joni was twice divorced.
Additionally, the resemblance between them was unmistakable. “She has my mother’s stature. We’ve got cheekbones galore. She’s got cheekbones down every part of her family,” Joni said.
They shared other unlikely connections as well. Kilauren was sure they had unknowingly crossed paths at Studio 54 in the 1980s. She had lived in New York while her mother kept an apartment there.
However, while her mother was leaving her mark in the music industry, Kilauren was a thriving model. Before her second career in photography, she had worked for 13 years as an international model, appearing in catalogs, rock videos, TV commercials, and films like “The Freshman.”
Her famous mother, now embracing the role of both parent and grandparent, found herself in a new phase o
She even appeared in a 1981 Danskin catalog with Denise Brown, sister of Nicole Brown Simpson. Her academic life had been just as accomplished. The adopted daughter of two academics, she attended the University of Toronto and spent a year taking drama and psychology courses at Harvard.
Eventually, after finding Joni, Kilauren met her biological father, Toronto photographer Brad MacMath. “He has a daughter by one marriage and a son by another. We all go out together as a dysfunctional family,” her mother told People in 2000.
With the reunion came reflection. On her 1971 album “Blue,” the singer had included a song called “Little Green,” a tribute to the child she gave up. She had written it “as a message in a bottle,” Joni shared in 2000. Her daughter’s response — “God, it’s so cryptic, Joan. I never would have known it was for me.”
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When asked about the impact of the adoption, the singer stated, “It left a hole in me that I didn’t fill until the day I saw her again.” That wound, once hidden behind fame and music, began to heal. Kilauren said:
“There’s a definite umbilical cord that was never cut.”
Her famous mother, now embracing the role of both parent and grandparent, found herself in a new phase of life. However, “The coming of the kids hasn’t come out in my art yet,” she said in 1998.
But those closest to her begged to differ. Collaborators like Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter believed they could hear her new familial connection in her tone, which was “more full-bodied femininity,” they told her.
Kilauren remained Joni’s only child. “It seemed like there was never a good time to have a baby,” the singer-songwriter said. “I think part of the difficulty was finding a man who wanted a child. It was a very irresponsible time in general for that generation. It was the whole Peter Pan syndrome.