Prince William expressed a desire to write to three women who were held captive for a decade in Ariel Castro’s house of horrors in Ohio from 2003 to 2013.
The Prince of Wales felt the urge to correspond with the kidnap victims after it came to light how they had watched his wedding to Kate Middleton in April 2011 and that it had ‘lifted their spirits’.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus were held captive for 10 years after Castro imprisoned them at his home in Cleveland.
The women were rescued in 2013 with Berry and DeJesus later giving an interview in 2015 to the BBC.
Berry told how she had watched the royal wedding with the event providing some brief respite during her horrifying ordeal in which she was raped up to five times a day and kept in heavy chains which cut her skin and left her bleeding.
Gina DeJesus (left) and Amanda Berry (right) told how they watched the Royal Wedding while in captivity in April 2011. The event provided some brief respite during their horrifying ordeal
Prince William expressed a desire to write to three women who were held captive for a decade in Ariel Castro’s house of horrors in Ohio after learning how the victims watched his ceremony
Berry, who gave birth to a child by her captor while being held hostage, shared her fondness for the royal wedding.
During the interview, with DeJesus at her side, Berry explained, ‘It was like the biggest thing on all of the news channels, you know, and I loved watching the news to know what was going on in the world.’
‘I actually set my clock and got up at 6 am. To me, that was just something that was… I don’t know, it was happiness. They were getting married. And to see what her dress looked like and to see all the people there, it was just beautiful,’ she added.
When asked about her thoughts on the Duchess’s dress, she remarked, ‘I think it could have been a little fancier. She’s a princess!’
Kidnapping survivors from left, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, pictured in this February 2014 picture, following their 2013 escape
One week after the interview with the kidnapping victims was aired, William wrote to the BBC asking for the details of the three women so that he might write to them
The details about Prince William wishing to reach out to the women were shared by the interviewee Kirsty Wark, host of Newsnight.
‘It was humbling interviewing them. They shared that they had watched the royal wedding of William and Kate on television down there. I received a letter from Prince William a week later, asking if he could write to the girls. That was great,’ Wark told the Radio Times.
‘Stories like that are both awful and wonderful. Amanda Berry had a baby from rape, just six years old at the time. In that concrete basement, she drew pictures of the outside world, the streets, for her child.’
The women were able to finally escape in May 2013 when the women were left alone in the home and for the first time in 10 years, Berry found her bedroom door unlocked. Castro’s Cleveland home where they were kept captive pictured above
Amanda Berry reunited with her sister Beth Serrano and daughter in Cleveland after their escape
House of horrors: Photos from inside Castro’s home shows the squalid conditions the women lived in where windows were boarded up and they slept on bare, yellowed mattresses
The women were forced to live in squalid, filthy conditions where they were chained in their rooms, their bedrooms locked, barely fed and given buckets to use as a bathroom
Berry’s room which she shared with her daughter Jocelyn is pictured above
On September 3, 2013, committed suicide in his prison cell. Pictured above in 2013 at his sentencing
Castro was found hanged after being sentenced to life in prison
During the interview, Berry also shared her aspirations for a normal life, saying, ‘I still want to get married and have a family. You know, that normalcy.’
Ten years on, Berry now works for a local television station, Channel 8 in Ohio, where she hosts a segment focusing on missing persons cases.
Ariel Castro was sentenced to life in prison on August 1, 2013 after he pleaded guilty to 937 counts of kidnapping and rape.
On September 3, 2013, one month into his sentence, he was found dead in his prison cell after he committed suicide.