Millions tuned in to watch Shropshire mother Faye Turney speak out in a solo interview about the trauma of her 13-day ordeal as a captive in Iran.
Leading Seaman Turney, whose parents live in Shrewsbury, is understood to have agreed a lucrative deal with ITV’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald, broadcast last night, and The Sun.
But today the Government has been criticised for its U-turn banning military personnel from selling their stories.
The military has been accused of putting the sailors “up for auction”.
It is said the deal Mrs Turney made involved a “life-changing sum”, but the payment has attracted huge controversy.
In The Sun, Mrs Turney said she believed her captors had measured her for a coffin and planned to kill her.
Media sources said Mrs Turney, who married her husband Adam at Christ Church, Shelton and Oxon in 2002, had turned down a £100,000 offer to accept a significantly lower figure from the paper, along with Tonight with Trevor McDonald.
Entries on the British Army’s Rumour Service, an anonymous internet chat forum, were almost all scathing in their tone.
One contributor said of the television appearance: “I imagine there are servicewomen up and down the country with mouths agape at this walking embarrassment to her cap badge.”
One contributor took a more sympathetic view of Mrs Turney, saying: “It’s a hell of a lot more than she’s ever going to earn either serving or in civvie street.
“The MoD should never ever have put her in a position where that responsibility was hers.”
Mrs Turney revealed in a special TV programme the Iranians tried to convince her husband’s mother to fly to Iran and secure her release.
Mrs Turney spoke of the trauma of her 13-day ordeal on ITV’s Tonight with Sir Trevor McDonald last night.
She said: “When they wanted me to write what was written about the British and American troops, I felt like a traitor to my own country.”
But she said she did not have a choice - they told her that she would not see her daughter Molly again and she was forced to write things she did not mean. Mrs Turney added that if the 15 sailors had fought back when the Iranians captured them it would have turned into a “bloodbath”.
She said the Iranian soldiers had looked at her with “sheer disbelief” when they realised she was a woman. On landing back home, Mrs Turney said it had felt like “the whole world had been lifted off our shoulders”.
She said the first words she had heard were her daughter calling “Mummy”.
Mrs Turney, whose capture alongside her colleagues gripped the nation, was featured on the programme playing with little Molly and her husband Adam - who is also in the Navy.
She said the horrific ordeal had made her more determined than ever to be in the Navy - and that when her young daughter was old enough she would explain her experiences to her.
She added: “Throughout all this I have come out a stronger person. They are not going to break me.
“I know I can cope with my family and my job.”
10 Comments
I watched the programme last night and couldnt believe it to be honest. All the way I was backing them coming home but I find it unbelievable that a lady who was threatened with the words’ if you want to see your daughter again ‘ would sit there and say she is still going to work in the navy and go away and leave her daughter, would sell her story and also say the only problem would be if her and her husband were posted at the same time then it would be a problem with her daughter…. surely after whats happened her daughter should come first?? I am a mother of 2 children and if I had just been through that I would want to be spending all my time with my children, not selling my story!!!!
Everyone who knows you faye will know what was wrote in letters etc was not the real you, i really admire that you have come out of this a stronger person than you already were, You have proved to people that you are capable of doing your job and being a mother. Enjoy the time you now have with your husband and your beautifull daughter..
We Move on ……….. But the Disgust remains………………..
I wish i`d seen the first comment before i wrote mine, why should faye leave her job in the navy? She knows her daughter better than anyone and she says that her daughter is ok then so be it, her daughter has grown up with just either mummy or dady being there, Faye has done a fantastic job of bringing up her daughter whether its her or her husband, does she look unhappy or neglected i think not.. Im glad faye hasnt let what has just happened ruin her career its made her a stronger person than she was already and made her even more determined, This is something i do feel strongly about fathers are excatly the same going to navy army etc, just because woman give birth doesnt mean your life has to stop.. I have 3 kids myself.. Policewoman have more risks but whos telling them to give up thier jobs becasue they are mothers,, in this day and age we are equal whether everyone agrees or not, i was bought up by my father and he did a fantastic job.. So leave the poor woman alone as shes doin a job she loves does not mean she doesnt love her daughter…
My God …. I cannot believe the comments I read above ……….. This woman enlisted in the Armed Forces and took an Oath of Allegiance to Queen and Country to perform her Duty to the Best of her Ability …. her Ordeal was admittedly unpleasent but hardly compares to the Ordeal faced by the Sailors in two World Wars who now lie in Steel Coffins at the bottom of the Ocean who will never be able to Sell their Stories for a few peices of Silver.
This woman with others has reduced what was once a proud fighting force …. “The Senior Service” to the level of “The Kindergarten”.
I shudder to think that these are the People entrusted with the Defence of this Realm.
This woman should take her peices of Silver and return to what should be her first Duty and that is to be a mother to her Offspring.
I like to know why, when its never been allowed before, have these people been given the go ahead to sell their stories? i personaly think its because of the massive media attention that’s been given to Faye Turney purely because she’s a woman. How many men have been in the same situation leaving wives and children at home waiting for the next tv report just to catch a glimpse of their loved one alive if not well,no one barely blinks an eye because they are fathers not mothers. Having said that im mum to 3 daughters and when they were pre school age i was a stay at home mum and although i work now that they’re all at school i could NEVER work away from home. Faye may say that her daughter is perfectly happy etc but she’s hardly likely to say “well, my daughter really misses me when im away at sea for months at a time but hey, i love being one of the lads and doing a job i enjoy so who cares so long as im happy” is she?
Disgust absolutely sums it up.
I feel sorry for all the decent servicemen and women who must be outraged by this money grabbing ‘boat driver’. The navy should kick her out.
She wrote lies, to the detriment of this Country’s interests, having been subjected to no torture, and very little hardship, it appears from her interview. One of the worst things she could come up with was that she wasnt able to wash for 3 days. Oh dear ! And the reason she was prepared to openly lie and pander to the Iranians?? - because she wanted to get home for her daughters birthday party.
She is happy to take the wage to serve in the armed forces, and no doubt will be happy to retire early on more pension than most, but when the chips are down she is a spineless money grasping coward.
commmeeee on everyone. the sailors are just trying to make it seem hard so they justify their confession? Do the Americans and the british treat their war prisinor’s like the iranians treates them? i mean comeee oooon
The troops that were captured are total cowards.They got defeated in battle by some iranians and shamed the country and caused a diplomatic problem in the process and disgraced the british people.
If i were prime minister i would of taken a 1000 iranians hostage as a response and if neccesary executed them.
Iran needs to be eradicated as it is more of a threat than iraq ever was and they are in the process of aquiring nuclear weapons.
Where are the nuclear weapons inspectors now?
You enlist in the armed forces, navy whatever, be prepared to go through some hard times. Dont bleat about it when you get released from a hostage situation.
In my opinion, selling her story has madse a mockery of every decent hardworking army and naval personnel who has ever enlisted. I was disgusted that Faye’s story was the highlight of the news when in fact there were more of our soldiers killed on the same day that she was released and they didnt get halof as much coverage!
Its disgusting and you can try and justify it to the hilt but it wont change what has been done!