Shocking reports claim that Zephany Nurse is pregnant - on the eve of the sentencing of the woman who kidnapped her.
The sister of the convicted snatcher has revealed to a local newspaper that the 19-year-old who was stolen as a newborn is having a baby of her own - and the father believed to be her boyfriend.
The woman is quoted in The New Age as saying that the “pregnancy was not expected but it will be a blessing for the family”.
The revelation has apparently a shock to the girl’s biological parents.
It has been reported before that Zephany has been dating someone for some time.
And that the pair had run away from their families and had been staying in a hotel for a period.
The aunt revealed to the newspaper: “We recently discovered that she is pregnant. She has been to a doctor who confirmed she was pregnant.”
The aunt said the family would not hide this pregnancy.
“It is enough that the teen (Zephany) was a secret for 17 years. This child will not be hidden.”
The aunt added that the teen “badly needed her mother” to cope with her pregnancy.
Zephany’s biological father Morné Nurse was not aware of the article which was published last Friday, and was shocked to hear the news that he is reportedly going to be an oupa.
When the Daily Voice asked Morné for comment, all he said was: “That is bulls***.”
“I will have to read the story before I can comment any further.”
Morné was not available for comment over the weekend.
Her mother, Celeste Nurse, had also not heard the news, and learnt about it through the media.
Zephany is around the same age Celeste was when she gave birth.
Celeste’s mother, Marilyn Francis, said it was heartbreaking for her daughter to learn she was going to become a grandmother like this.
“We don’t know about that (pregnancy), Celeste called me and told me what she read in the newspaper,” she says.
“I believe Celeste didn’t know about it either because she would have told me and she has been seeing Zephany.
“This is shocking to us to hear about it this way.”
Both parents have revealed that their relationship with their long-lost daughter is strained, and blame the kidnapper - who raised Zephany for 18 years - for turning her against them.
The snatcher’s husband did not deny that the news was true, only saying that it was “not easy to talk about this”.
“It’s something difficult for me. It’s already out in the open,” he told Weekend Argus.
“(Zephany) is not happy about her privacy being exposed like this. Some media reports really upset her. It is making it more difficult for her.
The 52-year-old kidnapper from Seawinds has been convicted of kidnapping, fraud and contravening sections of the Children’s Act, and could face at least 10 years direct imprisonment.
The state has asked for 15 years.
Sentencing will get underway in the Western Cape High Court this morning.
Zephany was reunited with her biological parents last February, after a chance meeting between Zephany and her biological sister at high school.
DNA tests confirmed she was in fact the abducted child.
The kidnapper denies taking Zephany, claiming a woman known as “Sylvia” handed her a baby at a train station in Wynberg.
The woman had told the court she suffered a miscarriage before someone gave her a baby whose mother did not want to raise a child.