It’s been 8 years since Sally Faulkner’s children were kidnapped by her ex. Now she's given updates.

It's been more than eight years since Sally Faulkner was told her kids wouldn't be coming home over a devastating Skype call. 

Yesterday, she spoke to Constance Hall on her podcast To Be Frank to give an update on her family since the moment that's been forever seared into her memory.

Back in May 2015, Sally's two children, then-five-year-old Lahela and two-year-old Noah, were spending time with their father Ali Elamine during a short holiday in Lebanon.

More than 12,000 kilometres away back in Australia, Ali called to tell Sally that "plans had changed".

"Lahela and Noah aren’t coming back to you. They’re staying here with me."

She tells Constance that, as she absorbed his words, she went into "desperation mode".

"I fell to the ground, the laptop fell to the ground and I just thought, 'What am I going to do, this can't be real'? I felt like I'd left my body. It was instantaneous trauma as I knew for real he wasn't messing around. It was like there was no one else in the world.

"I've had to disconnect myself a lot from it to recover and function. I feel really, really numb talking about it. But it has taken a long time to get to this point."

Not able to sleep, Sally began contacting everyone she knew including frantically sending emails to every media agency she could think of. 

What happened next made headlines around the world. 

The Brisbane mum attempted to retrieve her kids with the help of a child recovery agency called CARI. Channel Nine’s flagship news program 60 Minutes offered to pay for the recovery in return for exclusive coverage of the story.

On April 6, 2016, the child-recovery attempt took place, with Sally briefly being reunited with her two children before a police hunt ensued and she surrendered.

Her children were returned to the custody of their father, and Sally and members of the 60 Minutes crew – including seasoned reporter Tara Brown – were briefly detained before charges were dropped and they returned to Australia.

Watch: Sally Faulkner on the moment her kids were torn away from her in Beirut. Post continues below. 

Eight years on, not a single day has gone by where Sally hasn't thought of her kids.

She breaks down as she tells Constance about an Australian mum in Lebanon who saw her son Noah in a soft play centre a few years back and took a short video to send to her.

"I hadn't seen or heard from the kids, or even seen any photos of them for about two years. And this mum had noticed Noah in his little Spider-Man outfit and secretly filmed him. She knew I was desperate to see him and even just to hear his voice. [In the video] she said, 'Do you know that your Mummy loves you? And he just stood there in the ball pit and she told him I loved him...

"I was so thankful to that mum as I watched it over and over again. It made me cry, of course but it was the one time in two years I'd got to hear his little voice."

While she tells Constance that she knows they are being well cared for, she is worried particularly about her daughter Lahela and whether they have been manipulated.

"Ali has told the kids that mum is 'at work' which is why I wrote the book so that one day they will find and read that and everything on the internet, and know how hard I tried to find them."

She managed to speak to Lahleh and Noah, who are now aged 13 and 10, just three months ago without her ex-husband Ali Elamine in the room.

"I just told them everything. I told them I never gave them up. I told them how their whole family in Australia had been in agony... that I never had a choice. I told them the truth and I could tell [Lahleh] was really taking it all in."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by constanceandtribe (@mrsconstancehall)

Sharing a post on Instagram in January 2023, Sally wrote, "Quite literally I have not gone one day where I haven't cried or had to hold back the tears over what happened.

"Sometimes life just isn't fair."

It only takes a quick look at Sally's Instagram page to see her kids are always in her thoughts. Her page is full of photos and videos of the children, accompanied by heartfelt messages.

She now also has three more children – Eli, Izac and Iylah – who she shares with her partner, Brendan. They occasionally chat to their older brother and sister on Facetime, as this post from January 2023 – accompanied by the words, "I dream of the day you are all back together again" – shows.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sally (@sally_a_faulkner)

In 2021, Sally shared posts wishing Lahela a happy 11th birthday and Noah a happy ninth.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sally (@sally_a_faulkner)

In 2020, Sally's close friend Melanie told Mamamia that while becoming a mother to her three children, has, of course, been a joy for Sally, she does worry Lahela and Noah "will think they’ve been replaced when they haven’t".

All over her house are photos of the pair, and her son Eli has a growing understanding of his older siblings overseas.

"He doesn't know what's really happened, but he knows that he's got an older sister and an older brother, and he often talks about them," said Melanie.

Since Lebanon is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, which prevents children from being abducted and kept from the custodial parent, Sally is left with few legal options.

"All she can do is take it day by day and just hold on to the love that she has for her children, and remember that they love her as well."

Listen: Sally Faulkner's 2016 interview with Mia Freedman on the No Filter podcast. Post continues below.

When asked if Sally was any closer to retrieving her children in 2020, Melanie said, "It is hard to say because we really don't know. I would hope so.

"But it's just such a difficult time at the moment with the pandemic and with the explosion and with the uncertainty of what's going on in Lebanon," she added, referencing the explosions that sent a billowing wave of destruction through the city of Beirut, where Sally's children live, in the August of that year.

At the time, Sally woke to the breaking news in her Brisbane home and her heart sank, not knowing if her children were dead or alive. 

She tells Constance Hall that, after desperately calling for hours to check if they were okay, Ali eventually unblocked her on his phone and sent her a short message at 3am to say they were all safe. She understands that they were in the mountains with their grandparents when the blast took place.

After that incident, she was hopeful Ali might relent and allow frequent contact to resume but sadly, he did not. 

This article was originally published in January 2023 and has since been updated with new information. 

Feature Image: Sally Faulkner Instagram.