As a child, Matthew Johnson was known as “Britain’s sickest boy” – but in reality, his illness was just a fantasy made up by his mother to gain publicity and financial rewards.
For six-and-a-half years, Lisa Hayden-Johnson claimed Matthew had a long list of illnesses including diabetes, food allergies, cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis, but years later it emerged she had made it all up.
Hayden-Johnson, from Torbay, Devon, was jailed and Matthew went into foster care and started a new life in Sheffield.
Both were interviewed for a Channel 4 documentary called Love You To Death but after hearing his mother speak, Matthew said he had “mixed emotions” and it reinforced his decision not to speak to her.
Speaking to the BBC about how it felt to hear his mother’s point of view, he said: “It was a lot of disappointment but I think also frustration as almost two decades on, there is still a lack of accountability from her side.
“When I could see, even after two decades… she still holds the same story and believes that she did the best by me… that obviously isn’t right.”
Hayden-Johnson was 35 when she was jailed for three years and three months by a judge at Exeter Crown Court in 2010.
The court heard her lies began when Matthew was born prematurely in 2001 and given a tube for feeding.
He recovered but his mother insisted that this was not the case.
