The wife of Scott Hastings, the former Scottish international rugby player, has gone missing after going swimming in a Scottish estuary. Jenny Hastings, “who loved the water”, failed to return from Wardie Bay in Edinburgh on Tuesday after going for a swim in the Firth of Forth.
Emergency services were alerted a “report of concern” at about 2.45pm on Tuesday, and a helicopter, coastguard rescue teams, lifeboats and other nearby vessels all took part in a search.
However, the agency said the search failed to find anything, and it was called off at 8.20pm that evening, while Police Scotland continued looking.
In a statement, the Hastings family revealed the police were treating Jenny’s disappearance as a “high-risk missing persons case”, explaining that the 60-year-old mother of two had previously struggled with mental health problems and that perhaps on this occasion, “ultimately, she was unable to cope”.
The family said: ““It appears that she wished to end her suffering in what was a regular and healing place for her. She loved the water but unfortunately her mind was not in a place of safety.”
They described themselves as “absolutely heartbroken” and asked for privacy. “We miss our Jenny. She leaves a gaping hole in all our hearts and hope that she is returned to us safely so that we can celebrate her remarkable life.
“For the time being, we request that you hold off from messaging us directly and/or posting on any social media until further news.”
As an ambassador for a Scottish mental health charity alongside her husband, one of Scotland’s most-capped rugby players, she spoke out in 2014 about battling depression for decades and revealed that she had once tried to take her own life.
At the time, she explained that she had “just wanted to die and end it all”, adding that she thought she was doing her children and Scott a favour and that “they would be better off without me”.
She said: “I didn’t want to be with anyone. At that point, I really felt that I was not part of anyone’s life – I didn’t believe anyone wanted me around.”
She previously went missing seven years ago for 36 hours.
• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
