Kidnapped model Chloe Ayling has revealed she still faces claims she invented her ordeal, ahead of a new BBC drama which she hopes will finally satisfy her doubters.
Despite her kidnappers being jailed for 16 years, she said online trolls attacking her story ‘still goes on’ seven years after the incident.
‘I feel like there was no [acknowledgment] of what I went through. I was never praised for my bravery getting out of that situation. Instead, I always have to defend myself,’ she said.
The new series, Kidnapped, follows the story of Chloe’s 2017 ordeal in Milan, having travelled there for a photoshoot.
She was lured to Italy by Polish brothers Lukasz and Michal Herba and with the promise of modelling work – only to be drugged and kidnapped.
After being injected with the horse tranquilliser ketamine and bundled into a suitcase at a Milan photo studio, she was taken to a farmhouse near Turin.
She was told she had been kidnapped by a group calling themselves Black Death, and that she would be sold as a sex slave in an online auction, at a starting price of €300,000 (£265,000).
The series follows her terrifying kidnap, her bravery in captivity and the court case that put her kidnappers behind bars.
‘I know the truth and everyone who’s looked into my story knows the truth,’ said the glamour model.
‘My friends get more worked up about it than I do. Mum’s an emotional person… she’s fallen out with almost everyone in her neighbourhood by defending me.’
Chloe, who has since appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, was released after six days in captivity at a remote farmhouse in northern Italy. She previously gave her first full account of the ordeal to The Mail on Sunday in 2017.
Lukasz Herba handed her over to the British consulate after she tricked him that she would be his girlfriend if he let her go. Lukasz was later jailed for 16 years in Italy – he is due for release next year.
His brother Michal was also jailed for 16 years, later reduced to five on appeal. He was freed in 2022.
Kidnapped, written by Killing Eve writer Georgia Lester, also stars Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Lindsay, Olive Gray and Eleonora Romandini. It will launch on Wednesday on BBC Three at 9pm.