Britain’s Most Notorious Mum Breaks Silence: Son’s Shocking Forgiveness Revealed
Channel 4 is about to drop a documentary that’s as chilling as it is baffling — exploring the bizarre saga of Lisa Hayden-Johnson and her son Matthew. Imagine being subjected to hundreds of unnecessary medical treatments growing up, only to find out your “illness” was a fabrication concocted by your very own mother. Matthew, now 25, alongside his sister Laura, bravely step into the spotlight on Channel 4’s upcoming show Love You to Death, peeling back the layers of one of Britain’s most unsettling true crime stories. How does one find forgiveness after surviving such a tangled web of deception and abuse? According to Matthew, sometimes it’s the only way forward — but the scars, and questions, undoubtedly linger. This isn’t just a documentary, it’s a haunting journey through love, betrayal, and the human spirit’s quest for peace. Ready to dive in? LEARN MORE
Channel 4 will be airing a documentary diving into the story of Lisa Hayden-Johnson and the way she treated her son Matthew as a child.
Matthew, now 25, and his sister Laura, 27, appear on Channel 4’s upcoming show Love You to Death which covers how their mother subjected him to a series of unnecessary medical treatments which caused doctors to raise the alarm.
Ahead of the release of Love You to Death, Matthew told the Telegraph he managed to ‘forgive’ his mother, saying: “What other option do I have?
“I can’t hold the hate over her. I wish her the best. I just want to move on with my life.”
He said that he’s not spoken to Hayden-Johnson for two years because of a ‘lack of change’ from her, but believes she ‘deserves peace‘ and is moving on as he doesn’t want to ‘open up that relationship to then shut it down later on’, fearing it ‘would damage both of us’.
Channel 4 documentary Love You to Death hears from Matthew Johnson, who as a child was put through hundreds of unnecessary treatments by his mother (Channel 4)
“The only thing I was guilty of was putting my son first”
Hayden-Johnson participated in the documentary Love You to Death, and in a trailer for it seen by the Daily Mail she spoke about being a mother and how she saw Matthew.
In the trailer she said: “I always wanted to be a mum. He was such a happy baby. It was the most amazing thing.
“I’ll answer everything that you can possibly throw at me. The only thing I was guilty of was putting my son first, and I don’t regret that.”
While Matthew has said he forgives her and is moving on, Laura thinks their mother is ‘completely oblivious’ to the damage she’s done to her children and said she was a ‘test subject’ for their mum before she made up stories about Matthew.
Laura says she found NHS records which indicate she was on seizure medication when she was a child and was ‘massively affected’ during her teenage years and still suffers from ‘nightmares of her brother screaming’ when his feeding tubes were changed.
Matthew’s sister Laura says she thinks her mum used her as a ‘test subject’ for pretending Matthew was so unwell (Channel 4)
The ‘sickest boy in Britain’
For a time Matthew was known as the ‘sickest boy in Britain‘ as his mother confined him to a wheelchair and had him fed through a tube, making him a media phenomenon.
Amidst the publicity Hayden-Johnson claimed her son had diabetes, cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis, received £130,000 in disability allowance claims, met famous figures and got Matthew a Children of Courage award.
At the time Matthew was convinced he was genuinely unwell, and went through 325 medical procedures during his childhood including including blood tests and intravenous treatments, he was put on general anaesthetic nine times.
The family also received cash donations and charity gifts including two cruise holidays, but Hayden-Johnson’s deception fell apart in 2007 when doctors raised the alarm and police found ‘the sickest boy in Britain’ wasn’t actually ill.
When police went into the boy’s room they found ‘a scene from Casualty‘ as his room was full of medical supplies including a hospital bed, feed pump and oxygen mask.
Lisa Hayden-Johnson pleaded guilty to child cruelty and her lawyer said she had Munchausen syndrome by proxy (Channel 4)
“24 hour-a-day torture”
The mum was arrested and in 2010 Hayden-Johnson was sentenced to three years and three months in prison when she pleaded guilty to child cruelty and perverting the course of justice.
Prosecutor Andrew Macfarlane told Exeter Crown Court she had been motivated by publicity and rewards.
Hayden-Johnson’s lawyer told the court she had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is where a parent fakes, exaggerates or causes illness or injury to their child in order to gain sympathy or attention.
Prosecutors told the court that Matthew ‘never suffered from any of these disorders or handicaps and the symptoms’, with Macfarlane saying that the mother ‘organised, orchestrated and ensured a regime of medical, physiological and psychological mistreatment amounting to 24 hour-a-day torture’.
He said: “As a result of her sadistic fabrication of non-existent symptoms, the defendant achieved much publicity and national attention, including an encounter with royalty and the-then prime minister.”
Love You to Death airs at 9pm on Channel 4 from 19 August.
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