Woman who claimed she was Madeleine McCann gives bombshell new interview

Julia Wandelt also known as ‘fake’ Madeleine McCann says she regrets taking to social media last year with claims that she was the missing girl.

Julia apologised to Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, for the “sadness" the sensational claim caused as she was caught out by DNA analysis which revealed she is originally from Poland with some Lithuanian and Romanian heritage.

Julia has now come forward in an interview on a BBC podcast "Why do You Hate Me?".

She said: “I had to put myself in first place because this is my life and I really wanted to know who I am. I  knew that it could make them feel sad, but they want to find their child, so I believe that this is a hope and I felt that I was doing right.”

She began to think that she was adopted from a young age and began searching missing persons reports online.

She explained how she was sexually abused and when she found information on Madeleine McCann, she thought sketches of suspects in the case looked like the person who had abused her, and began to believe that she may be Madeleine and does not commend the police for their reaction.

She said: “I called them so many times, I called them and said the same things, but no one treated me seriously, even when I say that I recognise the person. Even if they don’t believe me, they should check it. But they didn’t, and it was weird that they acted like this.”

She then took to social media and created an Instagram page which was known as @iammadeleinemccan to see if people would help her however explains she received a lot of abuse despite growing her following to over a million.

“I was trying to be strong, even when people were saying ‘You should die,’ ‘You should be raped,’ ‘You should be killed,’ ‘You should be murdered,’ ‘You shouldn’t exist in this world,’ ‘You are a bi**h.’”