In a 60 Minutes special report Australian mum Sally Faulkner has recounted the heartbreaking goodbye she shared with her two eldest children, five-year-old Lahela and three-year-old Noah, before returning home without them.
Faulkner and 60 Minutes crew members, Tara Brown, Ben Williamson, Stephen Rice and David Ballment, were released from a Beirut prison last Thursday.
In an interview that aired on Channel Nine last night, Faulkner was visibly emotional as she recalled the final meeting she had with her children at a McDonalds in Beirut suburb Furn El Chebbak.
“I had to say goodbye to my babies,” she told 60 Minutes.
"Lahela, she looked at me and said, 'Mummy will you take my ring?' She gave me her little Barbie ring, she said, 'This is so you don't forget me'," Faulkner said.
Faulkner explained the pain she feels at having to leave Lebanon without her children comes in "waves".
She said that while sometimes she feels "numb because it feels so surreal," at other times she is overcome with emotion. Faulkner said she spent the flight from Beruit back to Australia "bawling my eyes out."
"I'm kind of alright one minute and then all of a sudden it floods back," she said.
The 60 Minutes report showed footage of Faulkner being reunited with her mother Karen, brother Simon, partner Brendan and their three-month-old son Eli.
Faulkner's mother told her, "I'm really proud of you, you're so brave."
"I had to try," she replied.
Reporter Tara Brown told Michael Usher,"In her opinion, she had no choice but to do this."
"I'm so amazed at how she's held up and how strong she's been because ultimately she's lost everything, you know? She's lost her babies," Brown said.
Sally Faulkner's ex-husband, Ali el-Amine, agreed to drop the child abduction charges if she relinquished her custodial rights over Lahela and Noah.
Top Comments
It is very easy to judge others. However, remember the old saying 'Never judge a person until you have walked in their shoes'. I would be suicidal if my child was taken away from me under any circumstances. My worst nightmare. Let's all hope for a positive outcome. Using a legal threat to gain full custody is truly so cruel.
Actually, he could let her stand trial and spend years in jail, in which case he would also have had sole custody of their children. As the victim, he would have been well within his rights to do so. Rather than be cruel, he showed some degree of mercy. Let's not forget, she made a decision to send gunmen to confront his mother and muscle away their children. She should be lucky he wasn't vindictive.
At the end of the day her children don't have a mum because their dad kidnapped them. Attacking the mum for being desperate is sad sad sad.
And if the gunmen she hired had shot people? What then? Too bad, it's only ever about what the woman wants?