I’m glad twins I bought are thriving without me
Mother who paid £8k for babies online speaks out as they turn 18
THIS OBSCENE BABY AUCTION
A BRITISH mother who bought twin baby girls from America for £8,000 almost 20 years ago said last night she was delighted after learn-ing they are thriving without her.
Judith Kilshaw, 64, said she was pleased Kiara and Keyara Wecker ‘didn’t get pregnant at 16’ and are off to university after recently turning 18.
But the cleaner, who along with ex-husband Alan Kilshaw, 63, found herself at the centre of an international scandal over the girls’ internet adoption in 2000, insisted they would have enjoyed a better life in Britain.
Mrs Kilshaw, of Wrexham, North Wales, told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m glad they have gone to university. I’m glad they are going to prosper and haven’t got pregnant at 16 or gone off the rails.
‘I hope they do very well, I wish them all the best. It’s a shame that they aren’t going
Daily Mail, January 17, 2001 to university around here, I wished they had stayed in Britain, with me and Alan.
‘I wanted them to make something of their lives – be professional, get a good education, make good life choices. That is all I have ever really wanted, for them to have a stable life.’
Mrs Kilshaw was vilified as Britain’s most hated mother after she and Mr Kilshaw paid an Amer-ican baby broker £8,200 to adopt the mixed-race Wecker twins, then six months old, after they were put up for sale online.
The couple, who already had two sons, renamed the twins Belinda and Kimberley.
They had wanted a daughter, but by then Mrs Kilshaw, who also had two daughters from her first marriage, was too old to conceive.
Then-prime minister Tony Blair called the adoption deal ‘disgust-ing’ and weeks after the couple brought the babies to the UK, social services seized the twins.
They were returned to the US after a High Court judge annulled the adoption, branding the Kilshaws ‘media-obsessed’ with no real concern for the girls’ welfare.
The controversial legal battle cost the couple everything – the babies, their jobs, their £230,000 farmhouse in Buckley, North Wales, and their 14-year marriage.
Yesterday it emerged the twins, who live under new names, had flourished after being raised by a church-going couple in Missouri in the US and have recently started social science degrees.
Despite being identical, the pair have very different personalities. Keyara is said to be outgoing while Kiara is more reserved.
Their adoptive mother, 56, told the Daily Mirror: ‘At times it has been tough, sure it has, but … we cannot be more proud of them.
‘They have grown into fine young women, each with their own dreams and ambitions.’ Their adoptive father, 72, added that he believed it was ‘fate’ that the girls came into their lives.
The couple said they have never hidden the truth about their early lives from them.
Mrs Kilshaw, who married third husband Stephen Spillett, 51, a bank worker, in 2009, insisted they would have enjoyed a good life in Britain – despite admitting losing contact with her two eldest daughters, Caley, 35, and Louisa, 38, years ago.
Her ex-husband Mr Kilshaw, 63, a solicitor, remains a ‘good friend’, but he has a terminal illness and has spent seven months in hospi-tal with a lung condition.
She said he had been ‘surprised’ by the news about the girls.
‘If they came to see Alan before he died it would be a very nice gesture,’ Mrs Kilshaw added.
‘I’d like them to get in touch with me and Alan … to say, “Thanks for trying to help us, sorry it didn’t work out”. It would be some recognition, wouldn’t it, really?’