A Polish woman claiming to be missing child Madeleine McCann will complete a DNA test to see if she really is the girl who has been missing for 16 years. Video / NewsNation
Her family, from the Polish city of Wroclaw, are reportedly distressed by the attention the case has brought them and a family friend has revealed this isn’t the first time Wendell has assumed another identity.
The friend, speaking to the Daily Mail, said Julia’s mother Dorota Wandelt-Cholewinski and stepfather Piotr Cholewinski have been hurt by the involvement of self-styled “psychic” Dr Fia Johnansson, who represented their daughter in the media.
Julia Wendell believes she may be missing Madeleine McCann. Photo / Dr Fia Johansson / Handout
The friend said: “Julia is a very disturbed young woman. Her mother Dorota is just beside herself, she can’t believe how this has snowballed, Julia is very sick and Dorata just wants her to get the help she needs.
“It was clear from the beginning that Julia was not Madeleine and Dorota is furious that this so-called doctor exploited the illness of a very young woman.
“Dorota is mortified that all this publicity has caused fresh grief for the McCann family.”
The Daily Mail also discovered Wendell had previously claimed to be another missing girl in her mid-teens and also contacted a Polish charity with other outlandish identity claims.
A spokesperson for the charity told the Mail: “Julia has messaged us twice to say she is a missing person, once to say she was German and once to say she was American.
“Neither were correct and we have been helping Julia’s family as best we can because it’s quite clear she is not very well and is constantly claiming to be people she isn’t.”
Wendell herself says she is “struggling to understand” the results of her recent DNA test and has hit out at Johansson.
She went on Instagram to accuse Johansson of “trying to scare me”, asking if her offers to help were genuine, LBC News reported.
Wendell previously said she first suspected she was the missing British girl last year, after years of questioning her family history.
She did not send DNA to the British police, instead choosing a DNA test to probe her ancestry.
She has said she would wait for the results before going further with her claims, but when the results arrived, they did not show ancestry that matches with tragic Maddie.
“She is absolutely, 100 per cent from Poland,” Wendell’s advocate Johansson told Radar Online when the results arrived.
Julia Wendell, who is claiming to be Madeleine McCann, appears on Dr Phil.
Johansson replied to Wendell’s claims on Instagram, saying “Julia was provided all the information about her DNA results to check for herself”.
“Although Julia is disappointed about this revelation and the spotlight may fade away, the truth as presented in the results speaks to perhaps an unwelcome new reality,” Johansson wrote.
“I am glad she is safe and sound with her family, [which] she perhaps does not want. Her doctor of several years had prescribed medication, which she was not taking consistently.”
“Julia – I wish you the best despite what you say. We had an eventful journey, but like all good things there is always an ending, sometimes happy and sometimes sad,” she wrote.
“I believe in this now - I believe if Julia did not come out the way she did, there would not be the interest in Madeleine’s case,” she told the Mirror.
“At least Julia warned people not to give up on Maddy’s case. Next time, it could be Madeleine.”
The parents of Madeleine McCann issued a statement earlier this week after the DNA test proved that Wendell could not be their long-lost child.
A spokesman for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann said: “There isn’t anything to report at this time. If and when there is, it will come from the Metropolitan Police.”
