Madeleine McCann's mum Kate shared how daughter's disappearance affected sex life with husband
Madeleine McCann's mother Kate detailed the unexpected impact that her daughter's disappearance had upon her sex life.
The British toddler disappeared from her family's Praia da Luz hotel apartment in 2007 in a case that has continued to hit global headlines ever since.
To this day, no one has ever been convicted or charged in connection with three-year-old Madeleine's disappearance.
In the years since, the child's parents, Kate and Gerry, have largely focused their lives on the continuation of the police search for Madeleine, attempting to provide some normalcy for the lives of the two youngest children, and campaigning publicly about the case.
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The latter saw Kate release a heartbreaking memoir in 2011, titled Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her.
Promoting the book at the time, the mother-of-three claimed: "The decision to publish this book has been very difficult, and taken with heavy hearts. My reason for writing it is simple: to give an account of the truth.
"Writing this memoir has entailed recording some very personal, intimate and emotional aspects of our lives. Sharing these with strangers does not come easily to me, but if I hadn't done so, I would not have felt the book gave as full a picture as it is possible for me to give.
"As with every action we have taken over the last five years, it ultimately boils down to whether what we are doing could help us to find Madeleine."
One of the book's more raw chapters had Kate detail the harm that her daughter's disappearance had inflicted on her sex life with husband Gerry.
Discussing how her marriage had been affected so far, she wrote: "The first was my inability to permit myself any pleasure, whether it be reading a book or making love to my husband."
Kate added: "The second stemmed from the revulsion stirred up by my fear that Madeleine had suffered the worst fate we could imagine: falling into the hands of a paedophile."
She claimed images of this horrific subject 'tormented' her to the point that the thought of becoming intimate with her husband 'disgusted' her.
"I worried about Gerry and me," Kate continued. "I worried that if I didn't get our sex life on track, our whole relationship would break down."
Despite her concerns, she and Gerry have remained married ever since Madeleine's disappearance.
The latest update in the case has seen the Metropolitan Police push to bring key suspect Christian Brueckner to the UK for trial.
The German 48-year-old has never been charged over Madeleine’s disappearance, but remains the prime suspect in both the German and British investigations into what happened to her.
A prisoner and convicted rapist, police are hoping to see Brueckner charged before the 20th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance next year.
An insider told The Mirror earlier this week: "Clearly, there are numerous hurdles, but our priority at the moment is to amass the strongest evidence we can against that prime suspect."
Asked how he feels about the prospect of being jailed over Madeleine's abduction, he responded: "No comment... I have good lawyers".
German prosecutor Hans Wolter, who first named Brueckner in connection with Madeleine's disappearance six years ago, added: "I suspect this is just hot air again. Extradition would require an arrest warrant. But there certainly isn’t one.
“Like all countries, Germany only extradites individuals if there is an arrest warrant against them. And I actually think it’s out of the question that there is an arrest warrant against CB in the Maddie case. I am not in a position to say whether the British police can obtain an arrest warrant from a British court."
Topics: Madeleine McCann, True Crime, Crime, UK News, True Life
Rhianna Benson