Judith and Alan Kilshaw bought twin girls Kiara and Keyara for £8000 and flew them across the Atlantic in a ‘repugnant’ baby-buying scandal that saw the pair become infamous
Two decades after becoming one of the ‘most hated’ women in Britain for her involvement in a transatlantic baby-buying scandal, Judith Kilshaw says she still dreams of seeing the twin girls she brought to the UK.
The controversial figure, now 71, even says she has “no regrets” about the incident that brought her to global infamy. Kilshaw made the front pages in 2001 when she and her then-husband Alan paid over £8000 to adopt a pair of six-month-old twins from the United States, despite the girls already being promised to another couple.
Dubbed the “cash-for-babies” scandal, the couple caused intense outrage after taking the children from Missouri to Wales, only for social services to intervene just weeks later and send them straight back to the US. And yet, retired cleaner Judith says she would do it all over again.
“It’s haunted me for years,” she said, speaking to the Mail from her home in Wrexham. “But I’ve never believed I did anything wrong, I just wanted to give them a better life.”
The notorious incident began when Hudith, unable to conceive even after rounds of IVF treatment, turned to an American adoption agency out of desperation. She and her former husband, who was a solicitor, paid $14000 for the two girls, Kiara and Keyara, who were later renamed Belinda and Kimberley.
What they did not know was that the unfortunate twins had already been living with a Californian couple, Richard and Vickie Allen, who had begun their own adoption process.
In a shocking twist in an already astounding international “baby buying” scandal, the twins’ birth mother handed the children over to the Kilshaws during a supposed “farewell visit” from their new Californian family. This move sparked a legal tug of war between the purchasing parents.
The couple drove the girls across several US states to secure papers that would allow them to take them back to the UK. But they had barely got off the plane before the outcry began at all levels.
Prime Minister Tony Blair called the deal “repugnant” and the courts quickly move to annul the adoption. Within months, the children were taken from the Kilshaws and returned to America.
The fallout was intense and prolonged, Judith and Alan lost their farmhouse, became riddles with debt and eventually, their marriage fell apart as well. “We were just ordinary people caught up in something bigger than us,” Judith reflected, 24 years later.
She would go on to marry Stephen Sillett, a musician 13 years younger than her. Remarkably, at her wedding, it was none other than ex-husband Alan that gave her away.
However, this relationship too would eventually break after Judith made headlines again in 2012 when she admitted to hitting Stephen with a Christmas decoration in a holiday row. They are now separated due to the cost of divorce procedings, but remain friends.
Following Alan’s death in 2019, Judith said her husband’s final wish was for her to try to reconnect with the girls. “He always saw them as ours,” she told the Mail, “he never stopped loving them.”
In the time since the scandal, Judith has lived a quiet life, though she admits the story never quite disappeared. She’s even been recognised while out shopping by random strangers who remember her frontpage infamy.
In 2018, Judith finally learned information about the two girls she had flown across the Atlantic, discovering that they were raised by a churchgoing family.
“I’ve never had the chance to explain my side to them,” she said. “If they ever want to talk, I’ll be here.”