TV chef Lorraine: The awful moment I found my adoptive mum wanted to hurl meunder a lorry
TV CHEF Lorraine Pascale’s adoptive mother tried to strangle and suffocate her when she was a little girl – and thought of hurling her under the wheels of a lorry.
The star has discovered she was placed on the at-risk register aged three because her adoptive mother told social workers she feared she might kill her.
Adopted by a white family at 18 months, the former model never knew why she was subsequently separated from her adoptive mother at the age of eight and placed into emergency foster care.
But the presenter, 41, has learned how a desperate Audrey Woodward, reeling from a broken marriage, warned Oxfordshire social services the little girl’s life was in danger.
A horrified Pascale uncovered details of the abuse while making a BBC documentary on fostering.
The star, who says she cannot recall the incidents, said: ‘To learn I was on the at-risk register from 1976 was enlightening, daunting and sad.’
In the documentary, Pascale is left
‘She had already tried to strangle and suffocate her’
sickened by files detailing conversations between her adoptive mother and officials. She is lost for the words when she comes across a passage in which Woodward, who had a son of her own, told officials she had considered throwing Lorraine under a lorry.
The first memo, dated 1976 and referring to Pascale as a child at risk, states: ‘Mother is worried about the pressure building up and feels like she is about to take it out on adopted daughter. She said she had exploded and smacked the children very hard but knew she was particularly heavy handed with Lorraine.
‘She had always been confused about her feelings towards the child and quoted an incident when she was walking with Lorraine and a large lorry was travelling in their direction and she had looked at the wheels and thought if she pushed Lorraine under them it would solve all her problems.
‘Although she has not been drinking for over two months, she is afraid if she had a drink she would not know where to stop and could not control her feelings.’
Another note, dated 1981, states: ‘The mother was in an agitated state and demanded that we take her daughter into care as she could not stand her any longer. She said she dreaded the school holidays and was sure she would do Lorraine some damage.
‘She said she had already tried to strangle her and suffocate her and had hit her before she went to school this morning. She said the only way she could keep from hitting Lorraine was to keep her locked in her bedroom.’
In the programme, the star describes the contents of the file as ‘devastating’ and leaves the room to escape the cameras. She has subsequently been reunited with her adoptive mother, now 80 and suffering from dementia.
The chef says during the documentary that she believes more should have been done to help her adoptive mother, who was a nurse caught in the aftermath of a broken marriage.
Lorraine Pascale: Fostering And Me will be shown on BBC Two on Tuesday, June 17.