Madeleine McCann's parents believe their restaurant reservation note may have led to her disappearance
Topics: Celebrity, Restaurants and bars, News, TV and Film
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: MELANIE MAPS/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Restaurants and bars, News, TV and Film
Kate McCann ‘bitterly regrets’ the booking reservation she and her friends made amid her daughter Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, alleging it could have been related to her alleged abduction.
On the evening of 3 May 2007, Kate, now 58, and her husband, Gerry McCann, 57, dined at the Ocean Club restaurant at their hotel in the seaside town of Praia da Luz, Portugal.
Their children, including three-year-old Madeleine and her siblings Amelie and Sean, both now 21, were sleeping in the ground-floor apartment during the meal, with the pair returning periodically to check on them.
In her 2011 book, Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, the mother-of-three said that she and her husband would request their seven-person group to sit at the same table every evening.
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She, Gerry, two other couples and the mother of one of the mums would supposedly be able to view the apartment where their children were sleeping from the table.
However, Kate claimed that this decision was detrimental and may have led to Madeleine’s eventual disappearance.
The evening booking was reportedly written in the restaurant’s open reservation book. This is common practice in the hospitality industry, giving staff members a ‘heads-up’.
However, the reservations diary was apparently on display at the pool reception for most of the day; employees, guests and members of the public alike could see what time the seven-person party would arrive, as per the book.
To make matters worse, the staff member who allegedly made the booking wrote a note that anybody who glanced at the book could read, according to the medical professional.
The East Midlands native said that the note explained exactly why her party wanted the exact table at the exact time.
“To my horror, I saw that, no doubt in all innocence and simply to explain why she was bending the rules a bit, the receptionist had added the reason for our request: we wanted to eat close to our apartments as we were leaving our young children alone there and checking on them intermittently,” she wrote.
“We now bitterly regret it and will do so until the end of our days.”
On Wednesday (20 May), Channel 5 aired Under Suspicion: Kate McCann, a dramatised version of when Kate faced police interrogation over the disappearance of her daughter.
The one-off TV drama was set three months after Madeleine went missing in Portugal and saw Kate answering ‘no comment’ to all accusations on the advice of her lawyer.
"As she leaves the police station, we are reminded that this story began with a mother searching for her child, and that no amount of suspicion, however constructed, will diminish her hope of finding her daughter,” an official synopsis read.
Writer Philip Ralph claimed that the production used real interrogation material to help craft the script. Slow Horses actress Laura Bayston was drafted in to play Kate.
The McCann family, who were not involved in the Channel 5 special, have claimed the true crime show would have a ‘negative impact’ on their family.
"Thank you to everyone who has offered support and kindness this month. May is never the easiest. We usually start to feel a bit 'lighter' at this stage of the month,” the pair said via their Find Madeleine Campaign website.
“We are disappointed, however, knowing that a Channel 5 'docu-drama' will air tonight. We have not given, or been asked for, our consent and have had no involvement whatsoever in its making.
“We fail to see how it will help. Programmes like this always have a negative impact on our family.”
A Channel 5 spokesperson told The Mirror that the McCann family were informed of both production and the transmission date, saying: “The film is grounded in source material, including official police documents, interview transcripts, court records, and publicly available accounts. The production team worked carefully to ensure accuracy, restraint and fairness, particularly given the sensitivity of the subject matter."
You can watch Under Suspicion: Kate McCann on Channel 5 now.