Frozen as toddlers in the minds of the public, the twins have emerged as adults with their own identities, interests and talents

Rising swimming star Sean, 20, and his twin sister Amelie, pictured at a vigil for her sister in 2023

Since the start of the century, there has been no better-known missing person case than that of Madeleine McCann. The disappearance of the British three-year-old from a Portuguese holiday apartment in 2007 prompted an investigation that has spanned countries and years. It has also kept her parents in the spotlight, on and off, ever since.

But what has it meant for Madeleine’s younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, who were toddlers when their sister vanished from the room they were sharing? For most of their lives they have had a strange dual existence: their names, and their family’s tragedy, known by the global public, while they grew up out of the spotlight, their privacy closely guarded.

This week, the now 20-year-old twins made a rare foray into its glare when they gave evidence in a trial of two women accused of stalking their family. These were the twins, of course, whose identities were in the minds of the public effectively frozen in time as toddlers, pictured back then with their parents – small and too young to understand the seismic change in their hitherto normal family existence.

While the media coverage continued, and the documentaries aired, the two remaining siblings have had to build their lives around and beyond one terrible, central event. But their parents, it seems, have done all they can to give them the chance to do so away from the glare of the spotlight.

As a result, limited details are known about the recent years of the twins’ lives. Their mother Kate McCann’s 2011 memoir, Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, offers some details of their upbringing. She revealed it had been difficult to avoid being overprotective towards her younger children after her older daughter’s disappearance. Not wanting to leave them alone with childcarers, she quit her job as a GP.

Sean and Amelie were toddlers when their sister, Madeleine, vanished from the room they were sharing (pictured with parents Kate and Gerry in 2007) Credit: Alban Donohoe/AFP via Getty

“They have their own friends and they keep busy and they’re really sporty but their only wish is for their big sister to come home,” she has said of her younger children previously. “We miss our complete family of five.”

They have all kept busy, she said. “I don’t know if that’s a conscious thing but it helps.”

The family continued to celebrate Madeleine’s birthday every year, she wrote in her memoir, filling her pink bedroom with presents “to await her return”. The twins would also leave little items for their missing big sister in a keepsake box.

Meanwhile, they were growing up and forging their own identities. “One of our goals – while obviously ultimately finding Madeleine – was to ensure Sean and Amelie have a very normal, happy and fulfilling life and we’ll do everything that we can to ensure that,” Kate told the BBC in 2017.

Sean has since emerged as a champion freestyle swimmer tipped to compete in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Earlier this year, he claimed a gold medal at an open water swimming competition in the Mediterranean.

He has undertaken dawn training sessions since he was young, and it’s been reported that he hopes to represent Scotland at the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Madeline’s disappearance in 2007 prompted a world-wide investigation that has kept her family in the spotlight ever since Credit: Steve Parsons/PA Wire

“I have had to remain extremely dedicated, getting up at 4am multiple mornings each week to train, since the age of 11,” he has written.

He is currently studying chemical engineering at university, juggling his academic work with training nine times a week in the pool and three times a week in the gym.

Amelie has, for her part, reportedly participated in a string of cross-country and triathlon competitions, while studying at a university in the north of England.

Her great-uncle Brian Kennedy has spoken of how proud the twins’ parents are of them. “Kate and Gerry are pleased with their achievements, and the fact that they are making their own way in life,” he is reported to have said recently.

Amelie was seen at a vigil for Madeleine in May 2023, to mark the 16th anniversary of the abduction. It also marked the first time Amelie had spoken publicly, telling the assembled crowd: “It’s nice that everyone is here together, but it’s a sad occasion.”

After she was photographed there, Kate and her husband Gerry issued a statement asking that the twins be left alone by the media.

As parents, Gerry and Kate have had to weigh the need to protect their younger children against their desire to keep the case in the public eye Credit: Steve Parsons/Pool/PA Wire

But even away from the spotlight, growing up with, as the backdrop of your childhood, one enormous, high profile tragedy, would be no easy task, say psychologists.

“You’ve got all this narrative going on around them that they’re not necessarily able to process,” says Dr Audrey Tang, a chartered member of the British Psychological Society. “And they’ve actually lost their sister, they’ve been through something awful.”

Their task has no doubt been to balance the need to build their own lives with the wish to preserve the memory of their sister, whose return the family has continued to hope for.

As parents, Gerry and Kate have meanwhile had to weigh the need to protect their younger children against their desire to keep the case in the public eye, to maximise its chance of being solved. A certain challenge in an age when the public and private are more or less elided by social media.

Julie Wandelt, the Polish 24-year-old accused of stalking the family, is alleged to have found Amelie on social media. “On TikTok you can see when someone is viewing your profile and it was such a regular occurrence, I felt uncomfortable about that so I definitely blocked her on that,” Amelie said, giving evidence to Leicester Crown Court.

She said Wandelt also sent her a letter at her family home, “trying to persuade me that she was Madeleine”.

Sean said in a statement that he changed his username on his social media profiles to be “less findable” to Wandelt.

Wandelt and a woman named Karen Spragg are each charged with one count of stalking Gerry and Kate McCann, charges they both deny.

Polish 24-year-old Julie Wandelt is on trial after being accused of stalking the McCann family Credit: Dr Phil/Youtube

If the case brings the McCanns back into the headlines, the original loss in the twins’ lives has endured as a defining event in the collective memory since it occurred.

The psychological effect of growing up with this could take many different forms, Dr Tang suggests.

“It depends on the individual and how they process it, see it, how they have been impacted,” she says. “You’re almost trying to form your narrative while everyone else is forming their narrative.”

A permanent association with a family member who has been the victim of a high profile crime can cause various issues, she says. Survivors’ guilt may be one of them.

“There may well be nightmares, intrusive thoughts, being aware of danger all the time,” says Dr Tang. “If the family becomes very overprotective, that can also cause problems because it doesn’t allow them to grow up like normal children.”

The twins would also leave little items for their missing big sister in a keepsake box, Kate revealed in her 2011 memoir Credit: Madeleine Fund/PA Wire

In this respect, the twins are not alone. The same would apply to other children who have grown up with high profile tragedy at the heart of their lives. The same question of how they step out of its shadow. The same possibility of survivors’ guilt.

Josie Russell, whose mother Lin and sister Megan were murdered in a hammer attack in Kent in 1996, is among those whose lives have been shaped by such an event. Now in her late 30s, she has spoken about finding happiness after the horrific attack. She too spoke of being “really busy”; of focusing on her work as an artist.

Alex Hanscombe, now in his 30s, has also spoken of witnessing his mother, Rachel Nickell, be stabbed to death on Wimbledon Common in London in 1992. He was two years old at the time. Since then, he has strived to avoid being defined by what happened, he told the BBC in 2017.

Amelie and Sean McCann will no doubt have likewise had to struggle to avoid this. Their emergence as adults with their own interests and talents is perhaps one small sign that there is life beyond tragedy.