Lee was born Annie Philomena Lee in County Limerick, Ireland in 1933. Her mother died of tuberculosis when Lee was six. Her father, a butcher, sent Lee and her sisters, Kaye and Mary, to a convent school and kept his sons at home. After Lee completed her formal education at the convent, she went to live with her maternal aunt, Kitty Madden.\n', '

She married in 1959, had two more children, Jane and Kevin, and worked as a nurse. She divorced her first husband and later remarried.\n', '

When she was 18, Philomena became pregnant by a man named John, who worked for the post office. She was then sent to the Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, a place for unwed mothers. After giving birth to a son, she lived and worked at the Abbey, and was able to be with her child until she was 22. As commonly happened in Ireland at the time, the church sold the child, then aged 3, to be adopted by a Catholic family. He was taken to the United States, although Philomena was never told. She was forced into signing the adoption papers. She eventually left the Abbey and moved to England.\n', '

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