Katie Hopkins reveals she "struggles with the injustice" of the "special treatment" she says the McCanns received in an interview with Jodie Marsh
We all know Katie Hopkins as the brash, outspoken and VERY controversial reality TV star who has now made a name for herself as something of a social media "troll".
But not many people have seen the softer, maternal side of her, which came out in an interview with Jodie Marsh that was released on Saturday.
The two, who have both publicly lambasted Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of missing Madeleine McCann, explained their reasoning in the video.
Katie explained: "The thing about the McCanns is that it's not what happened or the end bit that matters, it's the fact that as mums or as people that care for kids, we know – you just don't leave your kids. Whatever went on, no-one leaves their kids. Even if they were in sight in a hotel room, I wouldn't leave that hotel room."
Katie goes on to brand the family "weird" after they famously washed Madeleine's toy just days after she went missing: "And the weirder thing still – I can see my children's beds and they've each got a bunny they always keep, and I'm not allowed to wash them because that's their toy.
"When you have a baby, you wake up the next day next to the cot and look and you get an overwhelming sense of, 'Oh my gosh that's mine - I now can never let that thing be hurt'."
"Then you get this thing which I call The Fear which is with me all the time, the fear that anything would ever happen to your child. The idea that someone would touch your baby or take your baby, and that's with you for always.
We can definitely empathise with that!
READ MORE | Madeleine McCann timeline: A decade since her disappearance
"That's what we struggle with I think, with the McCanns – I don't really mind what happened, but I do mind that if that same situation came from a more normal family who maybe came from council houses or whatever home you have, it doesn't matter – something different would have happened, and I think it's the injustice of it.
"I'm not bothered by them personally, but I do feel there's an injustice for people who would have been treated differently. I particularly feel for other mums who know they wouldn't have done that."
At this point, Jodie tells the camera that Katie is becoming emotional and welling up. Katie continues: "I'm just like any other mum. We all connected with the fact that if this was any other set of parents they would not have got the same, what I would call, special treatment, and that feels wrong for every other parent of every other missing child who never got the same treatment."
A friend of the McCanns has today responded to the video, telling The Mirror: "They were well aware they could have been charged with child neglect and naturally very concerned. But in legal terms they were doing everything well within the bounds of respectable parenting.
"Any legal action against them would have failed. A court would have to show Kate and Gerry had wilfully neglected their daughter and her siblings, and they did not. They would have robustly defended any charges, if brought."
The full video interview is an hour and a half long, but to watch this section, skip to around 32 mins.
This comes after Portuguese crime expert Moita Flores claimed that "Madeleine died in that apartment" last week to a Portuguese news site.
He said: "Maddie died in that apartment, I have no doubt. Why this child when there are so many others who have disappeared?"
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