On International Women’s Day we spoke to a woman who has shown extraordinary strength in maintaining an illicit “affair” with her birth mother ‘Sarah’ for 16 years.

Journalist Caitriona Palmer has written her first book 'An Affair with my Mother'. It is a story of adoption, secrecy and love. She says the book is kind of a love letter to her birth mother, who is too ashamed to talk about her.

Caitriona says she wanted to tell her own story and "the story of other women" because her natural mother Sarah "is not alone." "Across this country there are many secret mothers like her."

"The writing of the book was the easy part... now this part, being very public is very difficult."

Listen to the full interview here: