Madeleine McCann lookalike: Julia Wendell breaks silence, reveals why she claimed to be missing girl

Julia Wendell believes she may be missing Madeleine McCann. Photo / Dr Fia Johansson / Handout

Polish woman Julia Wendell, who claimed she was missing British girl Madeleine McCann, has broken her silence revealing why made the outlandish claims and her deep regret for going public.

Last February, the 22-year-old became infamous when she insisted she was missing British toddler Madeline McCann, who went missing in Portugal in 2007.

After posting a flurry of messages, photos and “evidence” on social media with the name @IamMadeleineMcCann, she appeared on talk show Dr Phil to discuss the far-fetched claims.

Wendell’s evidence included a compelling comparison of her and Madeleine’s “similar” facial structure, along with her claim that they both have a rare eye defect.

However, after being persuaded to take a DNA test, the results concluded she was not Madeleine. It then came out that she had previously claimed to be three other missing girls.

Now, in an interview with the BBC, Wendell shared her “regret”, saying she “never meant to hurt anyone - including the McCanns”.

Photos showing her similarity to Maddie gained attention online. Photo / Instagram, iammadeleinemccan

Why Julia Wendell claimed she was Madeleine McCann

Wendell explained that growing up she always thought she was adopted and felt isolated at school.

She also claimed she had been abused as a child.

When she was 20 and in therapy, she realised her memories from her childhood were patchy, with large chunks of memory missing entirely.

“I really want to know who I am,” Wendell told the BBC.

Wendell began to wonder if the faded memory was hiding a family secret. She questioned whether she was adopted and asked her family to fill in the blanks.

But when she asked for photos of both her childhood and her mother’s pregnancy, she claimed her family was dismissive and wouldn’t answer her questions.

Frustrated by the lack of answers, she posted online to look for answers and theorised that she was potentially kidnapped.

She started googling missing persons websites and came across the McCann case, which she hadn’t heard about.

Wendell told BBC Radio 4′s new podcast Why Do You Hate Me? that she latched on to the belief that she was Madeleine McCann after later seeing sketches of a potential suspect in the case that bore similarities to her abuser.

Julia Wendell said on Instagram the only evidence her grandma has supplied is hard to verify. Photo / @iammadeleinemccan on Instagram

“I know [what] my abuser looks like. And I know this is very, very similar to the suspects from [the] Madeleine McCann page,” she told the BBC.

Both Wendell and McCann have a coloboma of the iris - a rare eye abnormality that affects one in every 10,000 babies.

Wendell contacted the police in Poland and the UK. “I called them so many times,” she tells me. “But no one treated me seriously.”

The now 22-year-old maintains that there was no malintent behind her claims, and that she really did believe she was the British toddler.

She has since received vile backlash and death threats online for her actions and claims.

“I knew that there will be people who will not believe me or hate me, but I didn’t expect that I will get death threats, for example,” she said of the abuse she received.

“I was trying to be strong even when people said, ‘you should die.’ ‘You should be raped.’ ‘You should be killed.’ ‘You should be murdered.’ ‘You shouldn’t exist in this world.’”

Julia Wendell, who claimed to be Madeleine McCann, appears on Dr Phil. Photo / Supplied

Julia Wendell on Dr Phil

In March 2023, Wendell was interviewed by Dr Phil, which made headlines around the world.

On the show, Dr Phil pressed Wendell on why she had not sent her DNA for testing to Scotland Yard to compare it with the McCann family’s DNA.

Wendell claimed she had tried to contact the British police several times but failed.

Asked what she would do if DNA showed she was Polish, Wendell stuck to her story, saying: “I believe I am Madeleine McCann.”

“If she is my mother, I don’t want to have contact with her that’s all, but I believe she isn’t my mother,” she said.

Wendell told Dr Phil she was sexually abused by a man named Peter Ney, who was convicted of the crimes

“I believe that he can be related to Martin Ney, Martin Ney was suspected in Madeleine McCann case and Martin Ney is an international child trafficker, serial killer,” she said.

Wendell said she only had “one early memory”.

Julia Wendell claimed on Instagram and TikTok that she may be Madeleine McCann.

“Beach and water, like sea or ocean, and there were turtles and children … and I remembered light-coloured buildings, like white or very light colours, sunlight on these buildings,” she said.

The memories, which paint a picture of the region of Portugal where McCann went missing, was given as strong proof of the integrity of Wendell’s story by Dr Fia Johannsson, who has been representing the young woman on the global stage.

Johannsson said the fact that Wendell recounted the story the same way every time made her believe it was true.

“I see that very differently actually when I’m interrogating someone and they give me the exact story the same way every time,” Dr Phil responded.

“That suggests rehearsal, not recollection.”

Following the interview, Dr Phil invited a pair of experts onstage to discuss Wendell’s responses and they identified her “blink rate” as a giveaway.

They said an increase in blinking is a stress response and Wendell’s blinking increased whenever the DNA was brought up.

But they did say that they saw no evidence of deception, only doubt.

“It seemed to me that there are mental and emotional overlays that confound everything else,” Dr Phil said, adding that Wendell appeared depersonalised.

“I think that she may actually believe this at this point, she may have gotten lost in this belief system,” he said.

Wendell’s family have previously expressed their dismay at the media circus around their daughter and called for her to seek mental health treatment.

“For us as a family it is obvious that Julia is our daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin and step niece,” her parents said in a statement earlier this year.

“Threats to our address from Julia, her lies and manipulations, activity on the internet. The interest won’t forget, and it’s obvious that Julia isn’t Maddie. We are devastated at this current situation.”

Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann are yet to make an official statement on the matter.