Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann apologises to missing toddler’s parents

The Polish woman who claimed she was Madeleine McCann has apologised to the toddler’s parents after DNA test results confirmed she was not the missing child.

Julia Faustyna’s story went viral when she claimed, via her now-deleted Instagram account @iammadeleinemccann, that she was Madeleine, who vanished at the age of three while on a family holiday in Portugal.

The 21-year-old spent several weeks in the US with private investigator and spokesperson Fia Johansson awaiting DNA and family ancestry test results, which eventually revealed Faustyna was “absolutely, 100 per cent from Poland”.

After learning the results, Johansson, who is also a psychologist, revealed Faustyna had travelled back to Poland to live with her father.

She later told The Sun that Faustyna was not initially convinced that the DNA results were accurate.

“At first she didn’t want to believe the DNA results, she was saying ‘What if someone changed the results?’ but I told her, ‘Stop this now’,” Johansson said.

“I can understand as a psychologist why she didn’t want to believe her mother is her real mother.

“But I told her - she must stop this fixation now that she is Madeleine McCann and accept the result of the DNA test and start to move on with her life.”

In response to the news that the 21-year-old was not Madeleine, the McCann family released a statement saying there was nothing new to report in the continued search for their child.

“If and when there is, it will come from the Metropolitan Police,” a spokesman for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann said.

Since her claims went viral online, Faustyna has repeatedly said that she has little to no memories from her childhood, causing her to question her identify.

She also has said she has post-traumatic amnesia as a result of being sexually abused as a child by a paedophile.

In a statement on social media last week, Faustyna finally broke her silence, writing that despite the negative DNA test results she was not an attention seeker or “delusional”.

“My main purpose was always to find out who I am and what exactly happened in my very hurtful past,” she wrote.

She apologised to Madeleine’s family and claimed that she had never actually said she was the missing child.

“I don’t remember most of my memories but I can remember some things and I never said that I am Madeleine McCann,” she wrote.

“I used this sentence to create a (nickname) for my old Instagram account, it was my mistake and I know it and I apologise for that because I should (have used the) words ‘am I Madeleine McCann’, not ‘I am’.

“It was my fault and it wasn’t my intention to bring sadness or another negative (emotion) to anyone, especially to McCann’s family.”

Faustyna wrote she still believes she may be Madeleine, and claimed that she was in touch with a private detective who was “officially hired by McCann’s family”.

She reiterated that she had not made up the claim for money.

“Nobody paid me for interviews, I didn’t get payment for being a part of the Dr Phil show’s episode,” she said.

“Many people offered me financial help earlier but I didn’t want to take money from anyone so I refused.”

In a statement on Johansson’s Instagram account, the private investigator wrote that she and Faustyna had done an interview before leaving the US.

“It is a summary of our journey together and what we learned,” she wrote.

It is unclear however when this interview will be released.