Believe in Magic - Episode 5: Sisters

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Revelations about Megan’s childhood provide vital clues. An expert tells Jamie about a little - understood yet disturbing medical phenomenon.

In our kitchen we had an oak table, like a farmhouse table, and we had, above it, some cupboards, four of us would sit around the table. And every time we'd sit down for dinner, we'd play this game because there would always be a tin that would roll off the top of the cupboard and nearly hit us on the head. I'm sitting with one of Meghan's older sisters, another of Jean's daughters. We're going to call her Kate. She's talking about the regular family dinners with her two older brothers and older sister

way before Megan was born. Jean would be busy rustling up fish fingers or turkey drumsticks, all very normal, except with an added element of danger. So we always know the sound of it rolling. all very normal, except with an added element of danger. So we always know the sound of it rolling. So we always feel like we're hearing me black-up, like we'd like pretend to be like ninjas and like, we've got it each time.

Kate ducks to the side and shoots out a hand, catching the now imaginary tin falling from above. And the table was like battered from all the tin fell off. I suppose what's strange is that you think that's not what you did think that was normal. Yeah, I never questioned why the Tins fell off. As she grew older, the memory stuck in Kate's head. And with time came the slow realisation that those dinner times were far from ordinary. If it didn't have a fallen off something and they'd hit one of my kids, I would rearrange

my whole kitchen. And then I started thinking, why did she put the tins on top of the cupboard rather than inside the cupboards, the cupboards weren't full? And then also, why were they always falling at the times that we sat down for dinner? She'd know it, so things like that, you were starting to work out, and it was almost like, now you go, of course, because she wanted Max and Jean wanted one of us to have an accident.

And for us, that doesn't seem unusual or far-fetched. That explains what she was like. Why do you think she wanted to have an accident? Because she would have liked the excitement, the whole friend of it, the attention. I'm Jamie Bartlett. This is Believe in Magic, Episode 5, The Sisters. Kate is in her late 30s. She's friendly and talks fluently and easily. There's a hint of relief somewhere in her voice, as if a weight has been lifted since

she decided to tell her story. She has been going through her old emails and messages from Jean and her older sister, trying to make sense of it all. When the producer Ruth first contacted Kate over a year ago, she was hesitant. She was happy to help, but nervous about going on record. She'd broken off contact with her mum about eight years ago, and no longer wanted to be associated with her mum about eight years ago and no longer wanted to be associated with her. But over time, she realised she needed to speak out.

So she agreed to talk, but only if we change her name. I'm also anxious about talking to Kate. There's a lot we still don't know, and most of it revolves around the relationship between Meg and Jean. We learned to the inquest that she died of acute cardiac arrhythmia caused by fatty liver disease, but doctors were worried about the validity of Meg's medical history, possible morphine dependency, and the sheer number of medical professionals she was seeing. Kate could be our best chance to delve into Megan's past and understand what and who is behind all this. So I was 12 when Meg was born, which is

like perfect age, you know, because you just love babies at that point and I just adored her and loved her. By the time Meghan was born in 1995, Jean already had four children, all from a previous marriage. But the relationship collapsed when Jean fell in love with her neighbour, a much younger man called Pinder. The pair moved in together and Jean fell pregnant with Meghan. Because her siblings were much older, by the time Meghan was three, all her brothers and sisters had left home. And then, when Meghan was still young, Jean and Pinders separated. Meghan's world started to shrink. Meghan had been going to a small private school in West Sussex, but it closed down in 2008 when Meghan was 13.

Where did she go to school after that? She didn't. She had to go to school after 13, like one of the... No. But that's a really never way of just isolating her. I think she deliberately played a part in pushing Meg away from everyone and I think she particularly isolated her now in hindsight.

Now looking back, the way she infantized her, kind of like the Peter Panifect, like from her having that breast reduction at 17, which we really found out at the autopsy that she had that. And I think it was all things to try and keep her young. Megan Jean were unusually close. In some ways they were more like best friends than mother and daughter. They were always together. Kate suspects they had access to each other's Facebook accounts and even slept in the same room. But the thing Kate remembers the most is Meg and Jean's strange relationship with illness and disease. The game with the tins on the cupboard wasn't a one-off. Illness and injury were a constant presence in Megan's life.

I remember being going to visit her once and I was talking to Jean on the sofa like I was here she was there and Megan walks into the room and then pretends to faint. I ignore it and carry on talking because it was so late. Ah, like this. This is from the girl who can't lie down and she kind of collapsed dramatically on the sofa. And I see kind of Gingo like that. Kate mimics Jean, looking very deliberately at Meghan and back to Kate to see if she was going to react. And I'm just carrying on talking as though nothing has happened and she just carries on talking and then Meg just gets up and kind of shuffles out. Not reacting helped Kate deal with countless bizarre moments.

Like the time Jean told Kate, the Meghan had broken her arm. Kate decided to drive over quickly unannounced just to check for herself. Like the time Jean told Kate, the Meghan had broken her arm. Kate decided to drive over quickly unannounced, just to check for herself. Meg opens the door, holding a dog in one hand, opens the door with the other. And I was like, oh, it's mum there, kind of thing, and I'm like, oh no, all right, bye. She's just told us she had broken her arm, you know, and it's like, yeah, she hasn't. Rather than being out with her friends like most teenagers, Megan always seemed unwell. Kate often talked to her older sister Rachel about Megzill health.

How Meg and Jean appeared to enjoy the drama and attention that came with it. They started to see a strange pattern. If someone they knew was unwell or sick, sooner or later they'd hear that Megan had the same. We could predict what would happen next, what was wrong with her next. So my brother had done something of his knee, so he was on crutches, so then Meg was on crutches. When my sister's little girl was born, she was premature and she came out and she was on oxygen tanks, so then all of a sudden, in America... Jean, Facebook message to followers. Meg is still on constant oxygen.

Meg and had oxygen tanks. As some of you know, Meg was admitted to hospital with sepsis and multiple infections. So my older sister was in hospital with sepsis. She was in hospital with sepsis. She was in the hospital for weeks, actually. I've probably got emails going back years from being my sister going, oh, I'm going to predict this is going to happen next. And then we'd put little bets on it, and we'd be like, yes, we got it right.

Kate explains that for her and her sister, humour was a coping mechanism after years of feeling lied to and manipulated. It's an unsettling interview. And if what Kate says is true, Meg's brain tumour isn't just one unexplained illness, but a pattern of behaviour stretching back for years. I have the feeling Kate only realises how strange it all sounds as she's saying it aloud. Every now and again she'll stop and say,

We've everything was normal. So when Megan Jean start believing magic in 2011, it's just another thing in a long line of strange occurrences. But the sisters are surprised by how big it gets, how long it lasts. When you were reading online about her conditions got much worse, brain, tumour, is inoperable, tentacles are coming out. What were you thinking? We knew it was ridiculous. How are people believing this? After we spoke to Kate, her older sister Rachel also agreed to talk to us, again as long

as we changed her name. She was hoping we could fill in some blanks for her. I just want to know, well, facts, because it's been so mad. Rachel was able to fill in an important blank for us, too. We heard at the inquest that in 2010 Meg was diagnosed with an enlarged pituitary gland, the kind that can often be observed in puberty. It's not the same as a brain tumor, but we wondered if this could have been the origin of the brain tumor story. Rachel remembers the diagnosis.

Rachel remembers the diagnosis. We were always told it's an enlarged, pituitary gland. But to other people, Megan Jean started calling it a brain tumour. Rachel tried in vain to get them to stop. I'd say to them, you can't say she has a brain tumour because people are going to assume it's cancer. They're like, yeah, but strictly speaking, it is a tumor because it's something that's enlarged a tumor from the dictionary means this, therefore, I was like, no, you can't say that because people think it's cancer. She's like, well, that's on them.

That is what it is. I'm British, I mean, you can't say that because of what people will assume. Rachel wanted her mum to show her something, anything that would prove that Megan was seriously ill. I always said to her that, please just give me one bit of proof. All I want is one bit of evidence from you. It was never, ever, ever provided for me.

And I would beg for it. But literally I would beg. I'd get down on my hands and knees if you could just show me some evidence. I really want to believe you. I don't. I just need you to do this for me so I can understand nothing, every single time nothing." In 2013, Megan Jean were in America. They had just raised £,000 pounds so Meghan could go to Boston Children's Hospital. Meghan was about to turn 18 and was hoping to spend her birth there at Disney World with her mum

after supposedly having treatment. Jean had asked Kate to look after her house and post while they were away. One day Kate accidentally saw a letter which turned out to be from a doctor at Boston Children's Hospital. The letter listed a few relatively minor conditions and stated that Meghan did not have evidence for a pituitary gland abnormality. For the sisters, that letter was the final straw. They never believed a word Jean said about Megan's medical conditions after that. But it didn't mean they weren't worried, because Megan did seem incredibly unhealthy in other ways. She'd always have a big bag, like a huge bag of like pick-a-mitch sweets on her. I was at their place once in Kingston

and Megadon just come back from the harrots where she bought something ridiculous like 30 hairbands that were 30 pounds each and just said to Gino, can you go and get me a five-go, so she came back with this five-go-s burger and milkshake and fries and things. Megan had a couple of bites of it and was like, I don't want that. I just ate a whole cheesecake that I bought in Harrods in the taxi on the way home. Jean would always say she never eats. Megan doesn't eat a thing. But yet she was giving her all this food. She was buying it better. It was just very high sugar, high fat, no exercise to the extreme.

For years, the sisters talked about this story, as though they were on the outside looking in. But as time passed, they started to wonder whether they were more caught up in it than they first thought. When Rachel was nine, she was affected by a rare rash that caused her to have kidney problems. A few years down the line, things got so bad Dr. started talking about a transplant. Her mum was a match and Jean did what any parent would do and offered to donate a kidney. But Rachel didn't want to be in Jean's debt.

I refused it, I said I'm not taking it, so I chose to go on to dialysis. Dialysis is grueling. It involves hours and hours of procedures each week. Rachel ended up very sick. So the hospital said to me, if you don't take this kidney, you will die. So I think I could. The transplant was successful. Rachel got on with her life. But lately she's been reflecting on vivid memories of gene giving her cups of bovrol as a child. Just being given all these cups of bovrol and then begging for bovrol, I just wanted more and more bovrol. And I'd be given just cups of bovrol. I couldn't tell you it was every day. If it was several, every day, cups of bofforal. I couldn't tell you it was every day, if it was several a day. I don't really remember. I just remember drinking a lot of bofforal.

I can't wait to drink if given that to my child. For any non-British listeners, bofforal is a meaty yeasty paste that can be turned into a drink by adding hot water. Yes, we actually drink that here. It has a high salt content, which is the one thing you want to avoid with kidney problems. You know as an adult that giving cups of very salty drinks to a child who's got kidney problems is bad, there was four of us, or within a couple of years of each other, they didn't get bubble. Onlyofrull, so what's it a deliberate thing? I ask if Rachel has ever checked her medical records to find out what happened. They used to be a thick ward, she says, but one day they disappeared from the hospital

and were never seen again. We'll probably never find out exactly why her kidneys failed. But the effect of that kidney failure will have lifelong consequences. Rachel is only in her early 40s and she's already had two. She even suspects that the transplants are the reason her daughter was born premature. Kate also remembers some worrying behavior when Meghan was undergoing some medical tests. She'd be having heart monitors,

had the doctors and their GP. So Jean would give her like big things of coke, full fat coke, to like drink, you know, to get a load of caffeine in here before she'd had their heart monotones. I witnessed those about happening and her saying that she was doing um just giving a load to caffeine and sugar so her heart rate goes up yeah from the heart monitor when they were tracking that um and oh you're? They're big liter bottles, you know, her diet was just milkshakes and coat.

Kate remembers morphine too. It got to the point where she must have been taking morphine every day. She should have it measured out in the cow pulse arrange, and then someone else would have to administer it to her. So, like, she would give it to her.

I remember being in her kitchen and they were in another room. And they were trying to make a plan to get more things. And so she would say, we'll go up to this hospital and we'll just go to the A&E and I'll just say, I'm visiting my gathering London and you've become really sick and we'll go to the A&E there. I think back to the coroner's inquest, where we heard about the forged liquid morphine prescription. I think it was putting all this together that made the sisters decide to

speak out, because if this really is a pattern of behaviour, it could happen again. She can't do anything to anyone else, and she has to be stopped, and I don't think people realize how dangerous she is, how manipulative she is, how much of an effect she's had on people, and how entitled she is, like, it's like that good, like, complex, isn't it? She can do what she likes and get away with it. On the train home of the speaking with Kate, Ruth and I are in a bit of a day. It's just one perspective, but we both sense that the story has shifted. Yeah, that really... things started to make a bit more sense for me, but takes on a bit

more urgency as well. I never really thought about it in that way as a sort of pressing story that has maybe not just the aim of getting the truth out of there but maybe stopping something like this happening again. Reminds us why we're doing this and why we want to get to the bottom of it. When we were talking about whether she should go and record or not, she was saying,

well, who's this for? Who's going to listen to this and do I as this important? And then she also answers her in question. We already know that we need to speak to Jean. She still hasn't responded to our emails, but we have discovered that she's moved to a small village in France, so we write a letter and send it by courier to her home and wait to see if she'll respond. For a while now, we've been wondering if we're dealing with a strange case of Munchhausen syndrome, where people fake illness to get attention from doctors.

After speaking to the sisters, we decide we need to talk to an expert to help us make sense of what we've heard. And we send him a briefing paper of what we think we know so far. My name is Mark Feldman MD, I'm a psychiatrist based at the University of Alabama. And I've been interested in medical deception of all types for about 30 years. Dr Feldman is one of the world's top experts on Munchhausen syndrome, and it's darker cousin, Munchhausen syndrome by proxy.

The American Psychiatrical Association calls it factitious disorder imposed on another, and that's when a person, fangs or exaggerates, or again, actually induces illness in a child in order to appear to be the endophanacal bull heroic caregiver. The terminology I like is much has them by proxy or medical child abuse when you're talking about someone making their child sick. Well, the reason we go and touch with you in the first place, Marcus, because we're a little bit stumped, and I know you can't, you know,

diagnose remotely, you don't know the details of the people involved, but it would be really good to just get your professional view generally on some of the material we've gathered. Dr Feldman obviously can't say for sure. He hasn't seen all the medical records. He's never met Megalgean. But let's just say there's a lot in there that seems familiar to him. I haven't read the records which haven't been made available to me, but this case never

the last screams to me of medical child abuse or much hasn't by proxy, as well as a related condition called malingering by proxy. How do you see that? Well, I think having done this sort of work for 30 years made this almost a no brainer for me. It just seemed obvious. And it's because I've seen so many cases over the years.

I mean, over a thousand. Have you seen others that are similar to this particular one? I have seen many cases that are not at all dissimilar to this case. I'm aware of perhaps eight to 10 cases in which America's make a wish foundation has given wishes, typically it's to a Disney property for children who were never sick to begin with. But Meghan wasn't a child when she passed away. She was 23. In medical child abuse cases, the victims typically, either early verbal or nonverbal. They tend to be infants or toddlers and they

really can't express what's going on. But we also see cases involving adults as victims. And I think if you learn throughout your whole lifetime that there are certain things you're allowed to say and think and certain things you're not allowed to say or think, you become cooperative. But I think we have to say that there are times when there is active collusion. I don't want to blame the victim, but when the victim gets to be in their 20s or so, there are other options open to them and they made to some extent make the choice just not to go with those. They made to some extent make the choice just not to go with those. There seemed to be two different versions of Meg. Some people remember her being headstrong and demanding.

Jean would flap around trying to please her. In the second version, however, the roles are reversed. It was Jean who was in charge, who ran the show. So who's driving this though? Where it starts, who do you think between the two of them, that dynamic between Megan Jean and her? It's tricky because I would say Jean, Meg was very young for her age, very mature.

I've got also a mixture of them both, but I would say the whole, because everything I ever heard about Meg being ill, Jean told us that. Jean, who made the plans for the hospital visits, who said about drinking the coat before the heart monitor, that it was all, it's all Jean. Kate's older sister Rachel has changed her mind over the years. Kate's older sister Rachel has changed her mind over the years. So at the time I was very much of the opinion that it was both of them equally, so I blame them both. Until I kind of considered the grooming aspect, and that's what made me change my mind and think, no, actually it's it's gene, Although Megan would have known the things that happened weren't true, that's from grooming.

And if you've been groomed to kind of accept that you're allowed that, it's okay for you to do that. Why would you not? But at the time, I believed it was both of them. Megan was an adult for most of the time when both she and Jean were telling supporters about the brain tumour. She was an adult when the doctor's prescription was forged. She was an adult when they spent months at Disney while claiming Megan was seriously ill.

But that hardly tells the whole story. Turning 18 is just an arbitrary age, a number. I don't know when exactly someone becomes fully responsible for their actions. Not if they've been conditioned for years, if they're isolated, if they're dependent. I wish I could talk to Megan and find out how she felt about what was happening, how in control she was. Whether deep down inside, she ever felt pressured to say things she knew weren't true, or if a part of her started to like the attention. I can't.

But given everything I've heard, I strongly suspect that Jean could have stopped all this and changed Meghan's trajectory. Yet rather than encouraging Meghan to live a healthy life and deal with the potentially manageable conditions she did have, in 2011, when Meghan was still only 16, Jean set up believe in magic. I still don't really understand why they would risk everything by setting up a charity and exposing themselves to public scrutiny. Well, that turns out to be the strangest part of all. I believe that's why the charity came about and why the charity was started. To get the attention of one direction.

We put the sisters allegations to Jean. She sent us the image of a scan which she said was evidence that Megan had a pituitary gland tumor. She also said that she'd been the target of jealousy, bitterness and hatred from one of Megan's step-sisters. She did not address the other allegations in this episode. Believe in Magic is a BBC Studio's podcast. It's presented by me, Jamie Bartlett. The series producer is Ruth Mayer.

Music by Jeremy Wormsley, sound designed by Peregrine Andrews, the executive producer is Innis Bowen. you