A woman who was kidnapped at birth wants both dads to work her down the aisle on her wedding day - her birth dad and the man she grew up believing was her father.
Miche Zephany, who is due to tie the knot, has become renowned in the UK as South Africa's Madeleine McCann. The 25-year-old was three-days-old when she was snatched from her cot as her mother lay asleep in her hospital bed.
Miche learned a shocking truth when she was 17 - that she had been kidnapped as a newborn. Yet instead of hating the man who had raised her, she has made him part of her new family.
Even more remarkably, her biological family, who spent nearly two decades searching for her, are learning to accept him too.
The now mum-of-two got engaged to long-term boyfriend Justin Sheldon in March. Her kids Sophia, five, and Matteo, three, are from a previous relationship, the Mirror reports.
Now, in an emotional interview, she said: “I want both my dads to walk me down the aisle. I would want them both to have that honour. I was raised by and lived with Michael but I have my birth father Morne too. My children know them both.
"My kids play regularly with Michael. He is their ‘Papa’, who brought me up. Then they have ‘Pa’ who is my dad.”
Her wedding will follow the 2020 second nuptials of her birth parents Celeste, 43, and Morne, 45. They had separated after the strain of her kidnap, but fell in love again after she was found. It is just one part of Miche Zephany’s extraordinary story.
She had been born Zephany Nurse, in Cape Town, South Africa. But she was just three days old when she made worldwide headlines as she was snatched from her cot as her mother lay asleep in her hospital bed.
The culprit turned out to be Lavona “Steel Ma” Solomon, who had suffered a late miscarriage, faked the rest of her pregnancy, then dressed as a nurse and snatched a replacement baby. Zephany was brought up as Miche and was oblivious that her childhood was anything less than normal until 17 years later, when friends pointed out a new girl at school bore an uncanny resemblance to her.
That girl turned out to be her real younger sister, Cassidy, then 14, now 22.
Miche, who now goes by Miche Zephany, was later dubbed the South African Maddie McCann. She recalls: “I was just a normal teenager up until the day I met Cassidy at school. When I saw her face we had this sensation, this connection.
“She was shocked and she said ‘Why do you look like me?’ We immediately clicked and we immediately became friends. I felt a sense of protection.”
Cassidy, who had been raised in a household dominated by the search for their kidnapped baby, grew suspicious that she could be Zephany and told father Morne. He and Celeste were scared to have false hope but the pieces started to come together.
Miche showed Cassidy a picture of her “parents”, who looked nothing like her. Morne felt an instant connection with Miche. When he asked her birth date, she said April 30, 1997 – the date Zephany had been stolen.
Morne says: “I couldn’t talk, knowing that my daughter was stolen on that day. And then reality kicked in. I was like, is this for real?”
Cassidy told her sister her theory.
“At first, I didn’t believe her,” says Miche Zephany. “Because it didn’t feel real, like some Hollywood movie.” But Morne contacted the local police, who discovered Miche Solomon’s birth had been registered when she was six – 30 miles outside Cape Town. Suspicious, police got Miche’s permission to take DNA.
When the results came back showing she was indeed Zephany, Lavona was arrested. In 2016 she was sentenced to 10 years for kidnapping, fraud and violating the Children’s Act.
Her husband Michael has always insisted he was unaware she was not biologically his, after Lavona continued a fake pregnancy until stealing her. Relations between Michael and Morne have, unsurprisingly, been turbulent.
During Lavona’s 2015 high court case, Morne called Michael “an idiot” – astonished he could not have known Miche was not his daughter. Tensions were stretched further when a broken Miche cut ties from her biological parents before Lavona’s verdict came in, choosing to live with Michael instead. When Miche Zephany gave birth to Sophia, it was Michael she chose to have by her side, not Morne or Celeste.
“I wouldn’t say that Michael and Morne have a friendship, but they respect one another,” Miche says.
Lavona, the woman she called Mum for so many years, is a different story. Miche Zephany’s childhood was a happy one. Lavona would often take them camping by the sea and cared about Zephany’s education.
She even called her from jail when Miche Zephany was in labour. But Miche Zephany has recently put distance between them.
“My biological parents still need to know that I will always have love for Lavona,” she says. “She’s a human being at the end of the day and unfortunately all human beings make mistakes.”
“But it’s been three years since I last went to visit her in prison. We don’t talk so much now. I won’t paint her to be a monster because she’s not. But we have nothing to talk about.”
Earlier this month Lavona appealed to the Parole Board for an early release from South Africa’s Worcester Female Prison, enraging Miche Zephany’s birth parents. It was denied.
During lockdown Miche Zephany found her bond with Celeste and Morne strengthen, after Morne split with his partner and the family all moved back in together. Miche, now an accountancy student who lives on the outskirts of Cape Town, is sharing her story in documentary Girl, Taken on streaming channel Paramount +.
In the film, Morne says: “Stealing someone’s baby, is stealing someone’s heart. I cannot show mercy.”
Celeste fears Lavona’s release. She says: “If I look at what we have now, me and Miche, I’m scared that the day she is released, we are going to lose that.”
Girl, Taken airs on Monday, July 25 on Paramount+
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