Newly married Kathleen Folbigg has spoken about an 18-month relationship she had with a fellow female prisoner, saying she ended it after learning the woman had been convicted of child sexual abuse offences.
Folbigg spent two decades in prison over the deaths of her four children before her release in June 2023.
She received a pardon after an inquiry concluded there was “reasonable doubt” surrounding her guilt in light of fresh scientific evidence.
On August 29, Folbigg married her childhood friend, Bob Muir, at Newcastle’s Fort Scratchley Function Centre, wearing a glittering strapless wedding gown.
However, only weeks after the ceremony, she addressed what she called “lingering chatter” about her life in custody, including same-sex relationships she had while incarcerated.
Folbigg told news.com.au that she was romantically involved for 18 months with a woman serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. She said she also assisted the woman in securing accommodation after her release, enabling her to be granted parole.
“You can only know people by what they choose to reveal to you,” Folbigg said.
She later learned that the woman had been convicted of child sexual abuse offences. “Once I found out about the true nature of her convictions, the relationship ended,” Folbigg said.
Newlywed Kathleen Folbigg, pictured at her August wedding, has discussed her 18-month relationship with a female inmate while she was in prison.
Folbigg spent 20 years in custody over the deaths of her four children before she was released in June 2023.
Ms Folbigg said that, if she had not been incarcerated, her ‘relationship choices would have looked very different’.
‘Put it this way, I probably wouldn’t have been with a woman had I not been locked up with women and alone, and unsure of whether I would ever have my life back,’ she said.
‘In that darkness, the fundamental human need for warmth, companionship, and emotional safety doesn’t stop.
‘Every woman goes on their own journey in search of love and mine, I guess went a different way to what I would have imagined because of my situation.
‘I guess it makes you appreciate true love when you find it, whatever form that takes.’
Ms Folbigg described how inmates ‘don’t have real friends’ but ‘friendly acquaintances’, adding she only kept in touch with a few after her release.
‘I have one who’s actually still inside, she rings up probably once a week and we’ll have a chat. I like to sort of make sure she’s doing OK,’ she said.
‘But once you’re out, you don’t really keep in touch with people on the inside, that’s a part of life you want to move on from.’
For 18 months, while in prison, Ms Folbigg was in a close romantic relationship with a woman serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence. She cut it off when she discovered the woman had been convicted of child sexual abuse offences
On August 29, Folbigg wore a sparkling strapless gown as she married childhood friend Bob Muir at Newcastle’s Fort Scratchley Function Centre
Ms Folbigg said she is now trying to embrace the next chapter in her life after her conviction was quashed.
‘I’m getting tired of the commentary about my time in jail. It flares up when something good happens in my life, like getting married,’ Ms Folbigg said.
‘I did time that I didn’t deserve to do and I lost my beautiful children, something I will never get over, so I think I have had my fair share of hard knocks and people’s opinions on my choices in some of the darkest days in my life.
‘It would be really nice to now just focus on my life ahead.’
A significant step in that process was her wedding to Bob Muir at Fort Scratchley Function Centre, about two hours north of Sydney.
The couple, who first met when they were just 11 years old, are hoping for an overseas honeymoon next year, including exploring their Welsh and Scottish ancestry.
The bride beamed as she arrived at the venue wearing a strapless beaded dress with a long skirt and sweetheart neckline.
Ms Folbigg lifted the gauzy material of her skirt as she walked with her bridesmaids, one of whom carried her bouquet of irises.
Ms Folbigg said she is now trying to embrace the next chapter in her life with Muir, pictured, who she met when they were both 11 years old
Among the bridal party appeared to be Rhanee Rego, Ms Folbigg’s longtime solicitor, who represented her during the legal efforts that ultimately led to her release and subsequent $2million compensation payment from the NSW government.
When Ms Folbigg was offered the payout, she described the amount as ‘a slap in the face’.
She was convicted of three counts of murder and one of manslaughter in 2003 after her babies Patrick, Sarah, Laura and Caleb died in suspicious circumstances between 1989 and 1999.
She has always maintained her innocence and, in 2018, NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman announced there would be a landmark Special Commission of Inquiry into her conviction.
New scientific and medical evidence relating to a rare genetic condition, which was presented to the inquiry, proved to be the groundbreaking missing link.
A rare genetic variation was found to be a ‘reasonably possible cause’ of Sarah and Laura’s deaths, according to cardiology and genetics experts.
Myocarditis, a disease that causes inflammation of the heart, was another possible cause of Laura’s death.
Patrick may have died from a neurogenetic disorder, which could have also hospitalised him before his death, experts told the inquiry.
Meanwhile, reasonable causes for their deaths undermined the tendency reasoning used to convict Ms Folbigg of Caleb’s manslaughter.
In June 2023, she was pardoned and walked free, with her convictions quashed in December that year.
– READ MORE: Kathleen Folbigg and fiancé seen for the first time after she spent two decades in jail over the deaths of her four children
– READ MORE: Major blow for Kathleen Folbigg after she was pardoned over the deaths of her four children