Long Lost Family: British woman amongst thousands caught up in Spanish baby scandal speaks out
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A British woman amongst thousands caught up in the Spanish baby scandal has spoken of their need to find "the truth" in heartbreaking ITV interviews. The Long Lost Family hosts Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall meet with two women who believe babies from their families were stolen at birth during the historic scandal in Spain that took place from the 1930s into the early 1990s. It's thought many others could be out there too.
Ruth Appleby, whose first child was born in Spain in 1992, tells Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell that she believed her daughter had died at birth but suspicions have come to light in recent years that she may have been stolen instead. She says: "If the ashes I have aren't my child's, who's are they? I need the truth. For me, just knowing my child is alive would change my life." Host Davina McCall says: "It is unbearable listening to you. As a mother, I can't bear it. I feel so much compassion for you. It's terrible.".
Ruth is now a 60-year-old teaching assistant living in the Yorkshire Dales but in 1982 she went to Spain with her boyfriend who was teaching Spanish there and ended up staying 24 years. They were in La Coruna when she gave birth and Ruth adds: "It was very prolonged procedure that ended in having to have a caesarean with with full anaesthetic.".
Her husband Howard saw the baby and it was "absolutely beautiful, very healthy" but he was then sent home, with the nurse saying he was tired after a long day. Ruth said: "And then two hours later, he got a phone call from the hospital asking him to go back, saying that something had happened. The doctors were waiting for him. They told him in a stairwell, they were sat on the stairs, and they told him that the baby had passed away. After I came around from the operation, my husband came in, and as soon as I saw him, I thought, what's happened? And he had to break the news to me that he'd been told that Rebecca had died. My whole world fell apart. It was such a shock, and I just couldn't stop crying.
