Ben Fogle’s wife quizzed by social services over report of verbal abuse against their kids, then aged 3 and 4
TV presenter Ben Fogle’s wife was quizzed by social services over a report she had verbally abused their two kids.
Marina Fogle, who co-hosts podcast The Parent Hood, has told of the “nausea and fury” she felt returning from a family holiday to a sinister claim of abuse.
The couple, whose children were three and four at the time, were accused in a letter of “shouting unacceptable verbal abuse“.
Speechless about what they had come home to, Marina planned to call social services the next day and tell them they’d made a shocking error.
But before she had the chance, two women were at her front door following up what turned out to be a complaint from a neighbour in their London borough.
“Trembling” in their presence over fears of what might happen, Marina was subjected to multiple questions about how her kids, Ludo and Iona, were getting on as well as being scrutinised about home-life.
Writing in The Times, Marina said: “Trembling, I asked what date this supposed incident had taken place. ‘The 15th of August,’ one of them responded, which was four days ago.
“’But we’ve been away this last week,’ I ventured. ‘We just got back last night’.”
Marina was forced to produce the family’s boarding passes to prove they were not in the country when the alleged incident took place in 2013.
In a desperate bid to show her youngsters were safe, she called them into the lounge to “say hello to these ladies”.
She added: “My children spent 20 minutes showing off their Lego and toys, after which I was told that clearly there wasn’t an issue and she hoped that I understood why they’d needed to investigate.
“Of course I understand. Many tip-offs such as these are genuine and result in the removal of children who need to be safeguarded from their families. But sometimes they get it wrong.”
Marina and New Lives in the Wild presenter Ben have been left traumatised by the actions of someone who wanted “to cause trouble” for them and accuse them of “failing [their] children”.
It comes after Marina and Ben’s pal Kirstie Allsopp revealed her outrage over the weekend about also being contacted by a social worker.
The Location, Location, Location presenter, 52, was told the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea had opened a file after she allowed her 15-year-old son to travel around Europe.
The social worker asked what “safeguards” Allsopp had put in place before she allowed Oscar to go interrailing with friends for three weeks this summer.
They also told her the local authority could keep her file open “in case there was another referral and we needed to come to your house and look into this further”.
Allsopp has described the intervention as “Orwellian” and “absolutely outrageous”.
She said: “I just felt sick – absolutely sick. Then I was cross. I was very, very cross. It was just so extraordinary.
“I was in a parallel universe where they were actually taking this seriously.
“I have broken no law and nothing about allowing my child to travel around Europe is neglectful.”
Marina added that Allsopp is a “truly brilliant mother” and she could sympathise with “the feeling of nausea that would have welled in her stomach” upon receiving that text.
The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.