IT was the best Christmas present he could have asked for.

Father-of-three Richard Cross understood since he was a small boy that the people he knew as mum and dad, Alan and Anne, had adopted him.

He did not dare probe any further – until his birth mum, forced to give him up aged two months because she was unmarried, found him after 49 years.

East Bergholt postman Richard was emotionally reunited with mum Heather on ITV's Surprise Surprise.

Richard, 49, said: “We couldn’t ask for a better Christmas present.

"Even after the show, it doesn’t sink in.

"I thought it was never going to happen.”