Woman who inspired Chernobyl character says abuse sent her into hiding

A Ukrainian woman says she's been forced to go into hiding after popular HBO series Chernobyl told her life story. Photo / Getty

The Ukrainian woman whose real life story was depicted at the heart of HBO/Sky's critically-acclaimed retelling of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster says she has been so hounded by criticism since the series aired that she is living in hiding.

Lyudmila Ignatenko's husband Vasily was a firefighter and one of the first responders on the scene when the reactor exploded on 26 April, 1986.

The show depicts how Lyudmila - who was in her early twenties and pregnant at the time - cared for him in hospital until he died from radiation poisoning shortly afterwards, unwittingly exposing herself and her unborn child.

Their baby later died just hours after being born and Mrs Ignatenko has never remarried.

She recounted what happened for the 1997 book Chernobyl Prayer, which recorded 500 eyewitnesses' accounts. The book is thought to have inspired some of the story lines and details in the TV series, which often centres on the Ignatenkos as played by Jessie Buckley and Adam Nagaitis.

Ignatenko says she wasn't aware of the dangers of radiation when she was pregnant with her child, who died shortly after being born. Photo / Getty

However, in her first interview since it aired, Mrs Ignatenko told BBC Russia that she never gave permission for her story to be depicted.

"When I found out there would be a film about me I felt hurt and uneasy ... There were people hounding me at my flat," she said, adding that she had been the target of harassment and abuse for staying in the hospital despite being pregnant. The show suggests that medical professionals told her not to get too close to her ailing husband.

People say "that I had killed my baby," she said. But "I thought my baby was safe inside me. We didn't know anything about radiation then," adding that she couldn't bear to leave her husband's side.

Ignatenko has only watched snippets of the show, which she says was very "hard to watch". Photo / Getty

Mrs Ignatenko says she has only watched snippets of the series, which "was very hard to watch", and claims the first time she heard from the production company was after filming had already wrapped up.

However, HBO/Sky dispute this, saying the production company was in touch with her before, during and after filming, and that she never asked for her story to be left out.

The five-part series proved hugely popular when it aired earlier this year, winning 10 Emmy Awards. It is up for four Golden Globes in January.