Ferne McCann has reflected on the past year, amid her voice note scandal.
The 32-year-old has been accused of sending a string of “nasty” voice messages; firstly about her longtime friend and former TOWIE co-star Sam Faiers.
She was then accused of sending further “vile” voice messages, this time about her ex-boyfriend Arthur Colllins’ acid attack victim Sophie Hall.
Ferne took to her Instagram Stories on Friday to speak out about her hopes for 2023, as she hinted at a difficult 2022.
She said: “Hey my darlings, wow this feels strange. This feels very, very strange because I haven’t spoke on my Insta Story or spoke to you guys for such a long time.”
“It kind of feels strange not doing it because I’m so used to sharing everything with you, silly things that have happened throughout my day, but also it feels strange because I feel rusty and I feel like there’s been a lot going on that has just made me pause and want to take time away, even though I’ve still been sharing stuff, but time away from getting so swamped in an Instahole.”
The reality star continued: “New year is approaching and I always feel very excited about welcoming the new year in and setting my intentions and figuring out what I want from the new year.”
“I’m going to go so gung ho on manifesting and just being really pure and clear with my intentions and goal setting. I just really wanted to send you guys all love as I’s not always easy is it?”
“If you’re going through a hard time and you’re feeling like life isn’t easy and you’re stuck in a situation where you that feel you just can’t escape from, my advice to you is to just surround yourself with those that love you the most and make it through to the next day.”
“One step in front of the other. There is always good times ahead that’s why I feel super excited about the new year, it just brings so much hope for everyone and I just feel like it’s going to produce so much positivity in my life.”
“By creating that list and setting my dreams and goals and I wanted to share that with you. I’m sending so much love to everyone single one of you,” Ferne added.
It comes weeks after Ferne issued an apology to victims of her ex Arthur’s acid attack, as she addressed her leaked voice note scandal for the first time.
In a statement shared to Instagram, she wrote: “I am aware that people will have a number of questions about the voice messages being put into the public domain and purportedly sent by me.”
“I feel I have no choice but to address these — to the extent that I can as there are restrictions on me.”
“Most importantly I want to apologise to all the victims of Arthur Collins’ abhorrent actions in 2017 that they have to relive that night and the pain that followed because this matter is again in the public domain.”
“Arthur Collins’ crimes created genuine victims, so I am not trying to portray myself as one,” Ferne continued.
“I am unable to say much because there are important and significant legal proceedings that prevent me from setting the record straight at this stage.”
“What I can say is that the voice messages that are being released are manipulated; edited and taken entirely out of context.”
“Even so, I will have said things that are untrue, and I did not believe – but I did so to protect my family and myself from serious harm and in the face of significant threats.”
Ferne’s apology came after an anonymous Instagram account with the handle @ladywhistledown released an audio clip, and said: “This is the real Ferne talking about the acid victims.”
“This is disgusting and vile that she could ever talk about innocent victims. What a disgrace of a woman,” the account continued.
At the time, @ladywhistledown195 claimed that the voice is that of Ferne’s, discussing the victim entering a beauty pageant and wearing a dress made from recycled headlines about the attack.
The voice says: “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. The silly b**** has made a dress, a papier-mâché dress out of the newspaper cuttings from the event.”
“She’ll probably win it I’m not gonna lie, only because the event and the awards that she has entered or beauty competition, whatever it is, they’re probably loving all this free press for their event so they’ll probably fix it, she’ll win it,” the voice continues. “She is one ugly f**king c***.”
Ferne shares five-year-old daughter Sunday with her ex-boyfriend Arthur.
In April 2017, he threw acid in a packed nightclub and was subsequently sentenced to 20 years in prison for the attack, which blinded two people and injured 18 others.
Ferne has since moved on and announced her engagement to boyfriend Lorri Haines back in July.
Take a listen to our latest episode of The Gosscast, where we chat about the biggest showbiz stories of the year. The breakups, the makeups and the most shocking celeb moments of 2022.
