Sally Faulkner has renewed her fight to bring her two children back to Australia five years after they were taken to Lebanon by her ex-husband.
Lahela, 9, and Noah, 7, travelled to Beirut with their father Ali Elamine for a holiday in May 2015 – and never returned.
Her case became famous 11 months later when she and a 60 Minutes crew tried to recover the children but were instead arrested by Lebanese police.
Ms Faulkner has since been pursuing a long and expensive custody battle, and said she recently had ‘several wins’ but was running out of money.
Sally Faulkner has renewed her fight to bring her two children Lahela, 9, and Noah, 7, back to Australia
The children travelled to Beirut with their father Ali Elamine for a holiday in May 2015 and never returned
The mother-of-four on Tuesday issued a renewed plea to see Lahela and Noah again and let them meet her two youngest children.
‘We have already missed out on so much. Their rooms sit empty at the end of our hallway, ready for them to come home at any moment. To a life where they won’t be deprived of either parent’s love,’ she wrote.
Ms Faulkner recounted how she and Mr Elamine fell in love in 2008 when she was a flight attendant for Emirates and had their first child in 2010.
They lived together as a family in Beirut until a car bomb exploded near their home in August 2013 and she returned to Brisbane with the children.
The distance ruined their marriage but Ms Faulkner said they remained amicable and Mr Elamine visited regularly, so she agreed they would visit Lebanon with him.
‘Ali was a good father and the kids loved him, I trusted him and never thought he would take them away forever,’ she wrote.
Ms Faulkner has since been pursuing a long and expensive custody battle, and said she recently had ‘several wins’ but was running out of money
The case became famous when 60 Minutes (reporter Tara Brown pictured left of centre) tried to recover the children with Ms Faulkner (pictured centre) but were arrested in Lebanon
Lebanese policemen surround Australian TV presenter Tara Brown while escorting her from a courthouse to Baabda Prison for women
‘Not long after arriving in Lebanon Ali phoned me at home and told me that the kids would be staying with him and would never be returning to Australia.’
Ms Faulkner claimed her ex-husband’s change in attitude stemmed from her moving on with her now-fiance Brendan Pierce.
Four days later she discovered she was pregnant with her third child, Eli. She and Mr Pierce have since had another son together named Izac.
In another post this month, Ms Faulkner wrote to her eldest children about their two half-brothers she hopes they will one day meet.
‘Your little brother Eli just turned four years old. We had a party at the park with all of our friends, and your cousins too,’ she wrote.
‘We talked about how good it would be if you were both here. We talk about you all the time and Eli often tells me stories with you both in it, he doesn’t understand yet why he can’t see you… but he loves you both so very much.
The mother-of-four on Tuesday issued a renewed plea to see Lahela and Noah again and let them meet her two youngest children
Ms Faulkner sent this handwritten letter to Lahela at her school just before Christmas, but it never made it to her as it was intercepted by a teacher
‘Your little brother Izac is growing up too and although he can’t say much yet, we will be making sure that your names are some of the first words he learns.
‘Lahela, I can just imagine you picking him up all the time and making him laugh, like you always made Mummy laugh.’
Ms Faulkner said she agreed to the 60 Minutes child recovery plan because she was desperate, the Australian Government was no help, and the legal case was bleak.
‘All I could hear were their little cries asking to come home. Ask yourself, what would you have done?’ she wrote.
‘I was driven by love and desperation and I was very unlucky that it didn’t work out, however I would do it all over again if it meant that I had my children home with me today.’
Lahela and Noah learning to surf at a beach in Beirut, in a photo sent to their mother by a friend of Mr Elamine
Ms Faulkner vowed to never give up on her two eldest children and has spent a fortune fighting to bring them back to Australia
Child recovery agents hired by Channel 9 managed to grab Lahela and Noah and reunite them with their mother, but everyone was caught before they could leave.
Nine negotiated a $500,000 settlement to have kidnapping charges dropped and Ms Faulkner was forced to surrender custody before she could go home.
‘I have no contact whatsoever with Ali and he has refused requests from my lawyers to have any form of contact with Lahela and Noah,’ she wrote.
‘Welfare checks by the Australian Embassy in Beirut have been unsuccessful and my constant messages were left unanswered.’
Ms Faulkner sent a handwritten letter to Lahela at her school just before Christmas, but it never made it to her as it was intercepted by a teacher.
‘I want you to know I wish I could hug you and tell you how much I love you and Noah,’ it read.
‘There have been so many tears and moments where we have spent hours talking about you and wishing you were both here.’
Mr Elamine has indicated he never plans to let his ex-wife see her children again and they are happier without her.
‘We don’t really care, we’re not interested, and at the end of the day I will do what I like regardless of what she says,’ he said in 2018.
Three months ago she sold the home in Brisbane where she lived with Lahela and Noah ‘because there were too many negative memories and moments attached to it’
Lahela and Noah with an unknown man in Lebanon where they are still living with their father
Noah holds up school awards in English and science in a photo sent to Ms Faulkner by a friend of her ex-husband
‘Anything I say is spun against me and for sure it’s all done on her part… I don’t care about anything but my kids… and when they grow up they will know what she has done.’
Ms Faulkner also apologised to her children for letting them end up in Lebanon, unable to leave and to potentially never see her again.
‘If I knew back then what I know now, I would have never let you step foot on that plane. The one that left Brisbane carrying my entire life on board… and away from me,’ she wrote.
‘I would have never trusted Daddy when he said he would bring you back. I never thought in a million years that he would do this to us.
‘He knew how much love I had for you both, and how much you both loved me, your Mummy.’
Three months ago she sold the home in Brisbane where she lived with Lahela and Noah ‘because there were too many negative memories and moments attached to it’.
‘They say ‘home is where heart is’ but my heart felt half empty, so I never felt settled there,’ she wrote.
Ms Faulkner has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting for custody in Lebanese courts and has almost no money left.
A friend earlier this month launched a fundraiser to help with legal bills that has attracted $8,000 in donations so far.