People said I made kidnapping up after I smiled on camera ..but I'm autistic & can't show emotion

AFTER British glamour model Chloe Ayling was drugged and kidnapped at a photoshoot in 2017, she was accused of staging the whole thing.

- BY SASKIA ROWLANDS

The outlandish events she described, coupled with her unemotional retelling in media interviews, led many to believe it was all a publicity stunt.

But a BBC documentary challenges these claims, revealing that Chloe's behaviour during and after the kidnap was the result of undiagnosed autism.

In the documentary, she says: "For ages I just said I'm not an emotional person, but now I realise that, no matter how hard I try, I just can't [express emotion].

"It's a big relief in being diagnosed, knowing I don't have to keep trying to change something. that's not going to happen because there's a reason for it."

Chloe was 20 when Polish national Lukasz Herba abducted her after luring her to a fake fashion shoot in Milan.

She was grabbed from behind, injected with ketamine, bundled into a suitcase and driven to a remote farm building, where she was held captive for six days.

Herba sent pictures to Chloe's manager of her lying unconscious in skimpy clothing along with a €300,000 (£260,000) ransom demand, threatening to auction her off as a sex slave or feed her to tigers if he failed to pay.

Chloe was eventually released and Herba was sentenced to 16 years and nine months after being convicted of her kidnapping.