Matthew Wright reveals him and wife Amelia ‘lived in terror’ as stalker threatened to snatch their baby
MATTHEW Wright has revealed that he and his wife Amelia “lived in terror” as his stalker threatened to snatch their baby.
The 55-year-old star opened up about his family’s ordeal for the first time during an appearance on Lorraine this morning.
Last week, 53-year-old Michelle Ranicar from Uxbridge pleaded guilty to one count of stalking to cause serious alarm or distress between November and May 2018.
She became obsessed with the TV presenter after regularly appearing in the audience of his Channel 5 show The Wright Stuff – and fabricated a relationship with him.
The situation escalated when she was banned from the programme, with Michelle approaching Amelia when she was heavily pregnant to tell her she was “likely to have a stillbirth” before harassing her at home once the baby was born.
Speaking out on their “emotionally scarring” nightmare, Matthew shared: “It absolutely takes over your life, Amelia’s understandably having a much harder time. Being subjected on your own in the house while heavily pregnant or with a little baby is a very, very different experience.”
Amelia then fought back tears as she recalled some of the more harrowing encounters with Ranicar – starting from when she was approached by the stalker at a charity auction while pregnant with daughter Cassady, who was born in January last year.
Amelia, who suffered several miscarriages and difficulty conceiving in the past, said: “I was heavily pregnant and she said: ‘Women your age are more likely to have a stillbirth’. I was just shocked to the core.
“She turned up at the house a few days later, I was on my own, and she was shouting through the letterbox: ‘I’m going to find the maternity ward where you are and I am going to wait outside for you and the baby!'”
Things worsened when Cassady was born, with visibly shaken Amelia continuing: “She turned up on the doorstep, I was on my own for the first time and she was trying to push her hand through the letterbox saying: ‘I want the baby, I want to hold the baby, give me the baby’.
“Imagine what that does to a new mum.”
The couple admitted that they were too scared to leave the house, with Amelia adding: “You just live in fear and terror, you don’t want to go out.
“Last time when she came round Matthew was there but she got more hysterical and it got more serious.
“It got to a different level.
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“It cast a long shadow over me and I’m still shaken by the whole thing and I’m still upset. It’s left me emotionally scarred.”
Matthew was sure to praise the police for their help with the ordeal, and they both expressed their hope that Ranicar gets the help that she needs after pleading guilty.
Matthew and Amelia met in 2007, and the pair married in 2010 after Matthew decided to pop the question when Amelia almost died following a traumatic ectopic pregnancy.
They welcomed baby Cassady after eight years of failed IVF treatment, calling Amelia’s pregnancy their “final roll of the dice” to have a child.