Writing in Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search For Her, Kate shared that they requested the same table in the Ocean Club restaurant every night of their holiday. This is because it afforded Kate and Gerry – and their holidaying friends – the best view of the apartments where they left their sleeping children. In 2019’s Netflix documentary, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the dinner reservation book was also discussed. And, according to author Robbyn Swan, who co-wrote the Looking for Madeleine book in 2014, it was the “stuff of nightmares” for the McCanns. In fact, Swan claimed it was something Kate would never recover from.

Madeleine McCann: Why Kate McCann feared ‘someone was Madeleine McCann: Why Kate McCann feared ‘someone was

She wrote: “We’d all get along, I’d never been to Portugal, although Gerry had been there on a couple of golfing trips a few years before. The suspect is one of 600 people that detectives on the inquiry, known as Operation Grange, originally looked at.Nancy’s biggest career high was interviewing Micheal Bublé - and the story appearing on the cover of OK! magazine

Madeleine by Kate McCann - Penguin Books Australia Madeleine by Kate McCann - Penguin Books Australia

If something had happened to make her cry, it was pretty unlikely that she wouldn’t tell us about it, assuming she remembered what it was. The Covid pandemic has made this year even more difficult for many reasons but thankfully the investigation to find Madeleine and her abductor has continued.”She added: “Later, we were told by the British police that the ground-floor location, access to roads front and side, secluded entrance and partial tree cover made our apartment a prime target for burglars and criminals. The series, presented by Julie Etchingham, will probe why it has taken more than a decade to link the new prime suspect to the case. But it was only after Madeleine vanished that Kate discovered what the person who took the booking wrote in the open reservation book at the restaurant’s entrance. And it was then that she realised it would have been clear to anyone working at the restaurant, or any curious member of the public, that the children would be unsupervised in their rooms. ‘We now bitterly regret it’

Madeleine McCann: ‘Unexplained detail’ from morning of Madeleine McCann: ‘Unexplained detail’ from morning of

The others all confirmed that they were on for it and in the end, I was persuaded by the enthusiasm of Gerry and our friends that it would be fun (at least, it would be once we got there).”Describing their daily routine while on holiday with seven friends – including married couple David and Fiona Payne – she wrote: “We would have breakfast in the apartment, drop Madeleine, Sean and Amelie at their clubs and head to the courts, behind the Tapas bar building, for our hour-long group tennis lessons. Scotland Yard said he was driving the vehicle in the Praia da Luz area in the days before Maddie's disappearance and is believed to have been living in it for days or weeks before and after May 3. She added: “Gerry and I have always quite liked having a routine, though wouldn’t say we were obsessed by it.