The Real Carrie Jade – Episode 1 re-cap – I’m Carrie Jade

In the midst of a global pandemic (remember that) the multi-award-winning producers at RTÉ Documentary On One received a pitch for a new podcast.

While this is not an unusual occurrence, the story in question was the farthest thing from ordinary.

Carrie Jade Williams was a young writer diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, a rare genetic condition, and she wanted the team to follow her through experimental brain surgery.

To add another layer to this tale, Carrie was adopted. She had no medical records or connection to her past. She was born in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home and later adopted by a liberal family of multi-millionaires in the UK.

The team’s latest series tells the inspiring TRUE story of a woman who risked her life to help other adoptees and break new ground in the fight against Huntington’s disease.

Well, at least that’s the blurb the documentary team thought they’d be writing.

Instead, The Real Carrie Jade is a story within a story, where the victim becomes the perpetrator, and the podcast creators find themselves tangled up in a web of broken relationships, criminal convictions, multiple identities and lost children.

Because nobody is immune to deception; not even a renowned team of investigative journalists.

PS. If you think you’ve heard this story before, you’re wrong… trust me. So, hit play or read on for a full breakdown of episode one.

You’ve Got Mail:
Where did it all begin, you ask? Three years ago, just before midnight on 8 April, the producers at RTÉ Documentary on One received an email from a 32-year-old Irish woman. She claimed to be living with a terminal degenerative neurological illness, an illness that was misdiagnosed because she was adopted. She told the team that Irish neurological wards were filling up with young women like her, terminally ill due to the “secrets and lies around adoption.”

It was the bravery in this young woman’s penmanship that appealed to the team. She was terminal but still wanted to be an advocate for others so they could avoid her fate.

She knew she would die without meeting her birth mother, but wanted to tell her story and needed help. She could no longer write or type, yet since her diagnosis had gone back to University. To add another twist to her tragic story, the psychiatrist who misdiagnosed her was now in prison.

Who would refuse a dying woman her last wish?

Her name was Carrie Jade Williams, and nearly every word of this email was fake. But it would be a year of detailed interviews before the team uncovered this fact.

I have accepted that I will die because I was misdiagnosed. I have accepted that I will more than likely die without meeting my birth mother – Carrie Jade Williams

The “REAL” Carrie Jade Williams:
When producer Ronan Kelly first met Carrie Jade she was living in Cahersiveen in county Kerry. As the pair walked around the rural village, she attributed her mobility to a muscle relaxant she had taken earlier. Her illness, she explained, meant simple pleasures like a cup of coffee were off limits as they were bad, “from a neurology perspective.”

She described travelling to Dublin for her neurology appointments, the kindness of her neighbours, and life with her fiancé, Fionn. Fionn, she said, could not partake in the interview because he was stuck in the UK with COVID. Carrie Jade said the couple met at a church group. He had a little boy who died, and they became friends. Fionn soon proposed, but Carrie initially refused his advances. She held nothing back, detailing her birth at the notorious Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork and her adoption by a single, wealthy British woman.

Her childhood was filled with protest marches, feminism and lots of money. To be exact her family worked in the diamond cutting abrasives industry and had multiple factories in northern Israel.

It’s an incredible story, it’s a shame it’s all fake.

What you’re about to find out, it took us almost a year to discover. And it changes how you’re going to listen to it. Almost everything in the email that the woman says about herself is completely and utterly made up – Justine Stafford

Identity Report:
After the team discovered the truth about Carrie Jade, they did some digging. All around Ireland and the UK, different victims knew our protagonist by other names – ‘Rebecca’, ‘Lucy’, ‘Sadie’, ‘Claudia’, the list of aliases went on and on.

But she altered more than her title… When the documentary makers met Carrie Jade she had fair hair with auburn highlights, blue eyes and a full figure. Others knew her as bleach blonde, short-haired, and slim.

One victim recalled her immediately dyeing and cutting her hair on arrival at their home.

But the thing she never changed was her voice, it was posh, soft-spoken and sweet. Well, until she got angry, then victims said she behaved like something out of a horror movie. Remember, at this point in the story, the team thought they were working with a saintly woman trying experimental surgery to treat her terminal, degenerative illness.

She said she couldn’t drive anymore, make certain life decisions, or even go rock climbing. When a 32-year-old tells you about being on the verge of death, it alters how you treat them. In the words of narrator Justine Stafford, “they hold the upper hand, as you feel just so so sorry for them.”

These are the red flags, but there were also many reasons to trust Carrie Jade.

For one, she had won (yes really) prestigious literary prizes in the UK for her short stories about her supposed disability. She could describe the perils of her condition in detail from dropping plates to eye problems that led to her alleged diagnosis. She even described the perils of going through the health system as the child of adoption.

By the time we’d met her, she’d already had won prestigious literary prizes in the UK for her short stories about her supposed disability. And she actually did win those prizes – Justine Stafford

Huntington’s Disease:
To add context to Carrie Jade’s story, Huntington’s disease affects not only the body but also the mind. It can lead to depression and affect the sufferer’s ability to plan. But none of this appeared to phase Carrie Jade. She claimed her disease made her fearless. She told RTÉ Documentary on One (before they knew the real story) that she was not afraid of the end.

“I might get a miracle in the morning, and I might be miraculously cured, but I might not.”

In the US, doctors (allegedly) were testing out a pioneering treatment based on deep brain stimulation, a treatment mainly used for Parkinson’s disease. The procedure would involve a piece of technology being placed in her brain to interrupt the brain’s electricity to keep it running normally.

The goal, according to Carrie was that this technology would effectively hit pause and slow down the progression of her Huntington’s disease.

But first, she would have to go to Los Angeles where American surgeons would drill a 15-millimetre hole into her skull.

According to Carrie Jade, she would have to be awake for the procedure and in the right mood. Her preparation would involve a trip to the dentist and, while in the dentist’s chair, watch episodes of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”. Don’t ask, just hit play…

Not only did this 32- yr old Irish woman with a terminal illness want to share her story, she was now heading to Los Angeles to have an experimental operation to save her life, and she invited us to come along and record the whole thing, meaning we’d have a front row seat at pioneering brain surgery… – Justine Stafford

Media Darling:
The team recorded with Carrie Jade multiple times, racking up about four hours’ worth of material. All of these exclusive interviews are scattered throughout the podcast as they piece together the truth about this mystery woman and the victims she left behind.

As the producers asked more questions the gaps in Carrie Jade’s story grew, and her willingness to communicate diminished until she went silent.

However, it turned out that RTÉ wasn’t the only media outlet in Carrie Jade’s life. She sold her story to multiple podcasts, radio shows, magazines you name it.

She appeared on the hit UK podcast The Guilty Feminist to talk about her disease (which she did not have) and to promote her unfinished novel. While she was actively trying to avoid the makers of this RTÉ podcast, she appeared on Newstalk about her Huntington’s diagnosis.

She also stopped by Radio Kerry to discuss falling in love and getting engaged to a (non-existent) Kerryman. And yet, she still had time to secure a writer’s residency and an arts festival performance based on the (fictional) premise of dying and leaving a husband behind.

Then, in October 2022, things escalated as the real story of Carrie Jade Williams leaked on social media… But her legal name was not Carrie Jade, and the RTÉ Documentary on One team was not her first victim…

Be warned, in the next episode, this story will take a dark turn with shocking revelations involving lost children, broken relationships and the manipulation of vulnerable families.

This woman is obviously a danger to children. And she came into my home. She knew how unwell Daisy was and offered to spend time on her own with her so I would have a break. Thankfully, I know that that is not something I should have done and thankfully didn’t – Lynn McDonald

New episodes of the Real Carrie Jade are available weekly – catch up here, or via your preferred podcast source.