Amelie McCann is the younger sister of Madeleine McCann, the British girl who disappeared during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007. The search for Madeleine made her parents internationally known. Amelie has spent almost her whole life out of public view, and that is how her family has wanted it.
She has appeared in public only a handful of times. One of those came in 2025, when she gave evidence at Leicester Crown Court against a woman who had spent years claiming to be the sister who vanished when Amelie was two.
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Who is Amelie McCann?
She was born in 2005 to Kate McCann, a former GP, and Gerry McCann, a cardiologist. She has a twin brother, Sean. When Madeleine disappeared from the resort of Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007, Amelie and Sean were two years old and asleep in the same apartment. The family has lived in Rothley, Leicestershire, throughout.
One detail gets stated wrongly often enough to be worth correcting. Amelie and Madeleine were not twins. Amelie’s twin is Sean, and Madeleine was about two years older than them both.
How old is she, and what is she doing now?
Amelie turned 21 in 2026. She is a university student in the UK, though her family has never said where she studies or what she is studying, and no reliable account has confirmed those details.
The silence is a choice. Giving evidence at the 2025 trial, Gerry McCann told the court the family had always tried to keep the twins away from the press so they could grow up as themselves. He said they wanted Sean and Amelie known by their own names, not as the brother and sister of a missing child. Amelie has given no interviews, and no social media account has been confirmed as hers.
The woman who claimed to be Madeleine
Amelie returned to the news because of Julia Wandelt, a Polish woman who became convinced she might be Madeleine. Prosecutors said Wandelt’s campaign against the family ran from June 2022 to February 2025.
- Early 2023: Wandelt went viral after posting on Instagram under the name “I am Madeleine McCann,” citing a rare eye condition, a freckle and gaps in her own memory as supposed proof.
- March 2023: She appeared on the American talk show Dr Phil. A DNA test on the programme confirmed she was Polish, not Madeleine.
- December 2024: Wandelt went to the McCann home in Rothley after dark and asked Kate and Gerry for a DNA sample. A letter signed “Madeleine” and addressed to Kate as “Mum” arrived the next day.
- February 2025: She was arrested at Bristol Airport with a second woman, Karen Spragg.
Even after the televised DNA result, Wandelt carried on for nearly two more years. At one stage she messaged Amelie directly, trying to persuade her they were sisters.
What she told the court
Amelie gave her evidence in October 2025 by video link, shielded from the room. Reporters covering the trial described her as calm. She said the messages from Wandelt were “creepy,” and that it upset her to watch a stranger plead with her family to accept a false story.
Describing what it had done to her mother, she told the jury:
“My mum really struggled with that, her saying ‘I’m your daughter.'”
The visit to the family home in December 2024, she said, was what led them to improve their security. Kate McCann, giving evidence from behind a screen, told the court that being called “mum” by Wandelt was the hardest part, because hearing it from Madeleine was what she wanted most.
The verdict
On 7 November 2025, after more than seven hours of deliberation, a jury at Leicester Crown Court found Wandelt guilty of harassment and cleared her of stalking. Karen Spragg was acquitted of both charges.
Wandelt, then 24, was sentenced to six months. She had already been held longer than that on remand since her arrest, so she was released and later deported to Poland. The judge also imposed a restraining order.
The family said afterwards that they took no pleasure in the result. They had never wanted a trial, only for the harassment to stop, and added that they hoped Wandelt would get the support she needed.
The family in 2026
On 3 May 2026, the McCanns gathered in Rothley to mark 19 years since Madeleine disappeared. Sean and Amelie, both 21, lit candles at the village war memorial. Sean, a competitive swimmer, has spoken about hoping to represent Great Britain at the 2028 Olympics. The investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, Operation Grange, remains open.
That vigil was the first time Kate and Gerry had been pictured in public with both of their grown children at once. Nineteen years on, those few minutes are most of what the public has seen of Amelie’s adult life, and her family appears to want it to stay that way.
Frequently asked questions
Is Amelie McCann Madeleine’s twin?
No. Amelie is Madeleine’s younger sister. Her twin is her brother, Sean. Madeleine was about two years older than the twins.
How old is she?
She was born in 2005 and turned 21 in 2026.
What does she do now?
She is a university student in the UK. Her family has not said where she studies, and she lives privately, away from the media.
Does she have Instagram or other social media?
No account has been confirmed as hers. Profiles using her name have not been verified as genuine.
Who are her parents?
Kate McCann, a former GP, and Gerry McCann, a cardiologist.
