Rachaele Hambleton AKA Part Time Working Mummy Wiki

For links and resources on domestic abuse, please scroll to the bottom of this wiki page.

Background and Family

Rachaele Hambleton or "Part Time Working Mummy" is 41 years old and lives in Devon with her husband Josh, and her children and stepchildren.

The three girls, Betsy, Tallulah and Edie, are all Rachaele's from 2 previous relationships. The older boys, Seb and Isaac, are Josh's from his previous marriage. Wilby is Rachaele and Josh's child together. Out of the 5 older children, only one of them has any contact with their other parent. From posts and comments on the other parent's Facebook page, it would appear that Rachaele stopped contact at one point when the relationship broke down, and there was a legal case which resulted in the current regular contact.

Rachaele also sometimes refers to having stepdaughters, or her eldest daughters' older sisters. These are the three daughters of her first husband from a previous relationship, making them the half sisters of her daughters.

Social Media/Viral Posts

Rachaele initially gained popularity on Facebook in 2016 via a post that went viral about a "woman on the bridge" that she passed every day on her way to work who apparently inspired her to reduce her working hours in order to spend more time with her children.

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2016-02-02/mother-writes-touching-facebook-post-to-a-stranger-on-the-school-run-who-changed-her-life

After this a second post went viral, this time about an encounter with a new mum at a Mothercare store who was having a difficult time with her new baby.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-five-writes-touching-facebook-8113080

Between these viral stories, Rachaele posted on her social media about a "woman in the doorway", an alleged victim of domestic abuse. This paved the way for Rachaele's future claims of "rescuing" women and getting them into refuge, and ultimately setting up her PayPal fund in order to collect donations.

Rachaele built a following on her Facebook page "Part Time Working Mummy" with tales of the ups and downs of being a working mum and navigating having a ‘patchwork’ family, sharing snaps of her family and pets and anecdotes about their daily lives.

Childhood and Upbringing

Rachaele has often posted about her difficult childhood, noting that her mother left when she was 4, and that she was drinking, taking drugs and sexually active in her early teens, and was put into foster care by her father at one point. She claims to have moved into a bedsit at 16 which was (according to her own reports) either filled with used needles as it had previously been occupied by a junkie, or stank of urine as it had previously been occupied by an incontinent old lady. No report on whether the drug addict and the incontinent old lady were one and the same. Most of this information is available on her social media pages and/or her book.

Despite often talking about her "toxic" mother, how damaging her mother's leaving was to her childhood, and how difficult their relationship is, Rachaele has by all accounts had a relatively close relationship with her mother over the years, including allowing her to choose the names of all three of her daughters.

Marriage and Husband

Rachaele initially met her husband Josh through his sister, Hannah, whom Rachaele was friends with in her teenage years. Rachaele has stated that she used to sneak into Josh's bedroom to sniff his pillow, and would kiss a photo on the mantelpiece and tell Hannah and Josh's mum that one day she was going to marry him.

Rachaele and Josh's relationship allegedly started while Josh was married to his first wife, and Rachaele was pregnant with her third child and still in a relationship with the father. Rachaele has never admitted this, but does concede that locally "everyone hated" her and Josh when they got together, which it is speculated is due to the fact that her partner at the time was popular in the local area, and also because Josh is alleged to have left his wife on their son's birthday. In her book Rachaele proclaims the entire town held venom and poison against herself and Josh for the first two years of their relationship, even going as far to say she thought the stress would actually kill Josh’s mum.

Rachaele and Josh deny that they had an affair, however the various timelines that Rachaele has given for aspects of their relationship contract each other - as an example, she states that they didn't have their first kiss and properly get together until May 2014, however she has also stated that Josh did a lot of night feeds and most of the weaning with her youngest daughter, who was born in August 2013. A 9 month old baby who was born at full term would have weaning well underway at that point. There are also posts on both of their Instagram accounts showing each other's children from around February 2014, which would indicate a more accurate time for them to have moved in together.

In a podcast which was published in August 2023, both Rachaele and Josh admitted that they were messaging each other on Facebook while they were still in other relationships, and did message saying they loved each other, and subsequently left their partners for each other, but do not consider this to be an affair.

In October 2017 Rachaele and Josh married at Gretna Green with their children present. Following this, Rachaele was often posting about wanting a baby and encouraged her followers to direct comments and messages at Josh to persuade him to have a baby. Rachaele announced her Pregnancy at Christmas 2018 and Wilby was born in August 2019.

Domestic Abuse Work

At some point Rachaele started claiming to be "working with" charities and providing support to people (mainly women) who have been subjected to domestic abuse (she calls these "warriors). Rachaele claims to have been a victim herself when she was with the father of her two eldest daughters, however in her book in 2018 she admits that this was a mutually violent relationship. The below is a media story where she admits that she planned to kill her then husband:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/real-life/new-mum-took-kitchen-knife-10380592

Most of the so-called work appears to have been undertaken completely off Rachaele's own back, with no intervention from other services, professionals or organisations. This is obvious from her
blatant disregard for safeguarding and privacy. This is a huge issue when working with victims of domestic abuse. Rachaele has shared many intimate and personal details of ‘warriors’ she claims to have ‘saved’, possibly enough to reveal their identity and location to internet savvy people with a motive.

PayPal/Go Fund Me/Patreon

Rachaele began advertising a PayPal fund which she asked for donations to in order to enable her to have money available to help these "warriors" at short notice. Many people signed up to send a monthly donation, with the figures donated and the items the money was spent on only known to Rachaele.

These screenshots were taken from Rachaele's website, which is no longer available. However, it is clear that people who read this and wanted to donate were led to believe that their money would be going directly to people in DA situations, or genuine charities and organisations which helped them. What Rachaele did not make clear was that she would be using the donations to enable her to give up her paid employment under the pretence of "helping".







Rachaele claimed that she wanted organisations to be able to access funds immediately - which begs the question why she is so often asking for specific donations for "warriors" - pushchair, baby clothes and items, furniture, and carpets for someone moving out of refuge are just a few examples of things Rachaele has requested be donated at short notice. These items are exactly the sort of thing the PayPal funds should have been used for according to the description on Rachaele's donation page.

Rachaele and her family moved into a rented property in 2017 and shortly after posted that they may have to move out again as the landlady wanted to sell it. Several GoFundMe campaigns were started presumably by different people, including at least one to raise money for their deposit. Altogether, £27,772 was raised, this money was not returned to the donors and no updates were ever provided as to where the money had been spent. Additionally, at the time, someone by the name of Gabriella had responded to messages on the PTWM Facebook page asking where money could be donated towards the house deposit by giving Rachaele's personal bank details. Like the PayPal fund, there is no record of how much money was raised or where this went.




In the summer of 2019, people started to question where the PayPal money had gone, as despite a statement on the website saying that all donors would receive a regular newsletter, nobody appeared to have received this. Rachaele uploaded a video called "Tattle rant" and saved it to her highlights (now deleted), During this video she was tearful, stating that she had been stalked and was too afraid to leave the house without Josh (while sitting in her car, without Josh). She mentioned Tattle by name and claimed that users on there were trolling her with statements that they hoped she would lose her baby, and that there was a poll on when Betsy would fall pregnant (neither of which was true). She stated that there were accusations that she had kept the money which had been intended for victims of domestic abuse, which were not true, and that her accountant had all the details and logged everything that was going in and out of the PayPal. At the time of writing this (January 2023) Rachaele has still not provided any concrete proof of where the money donated has been spent. One tattler tried to enquire as to where monthly donations went and got a vague reply as seen here. The monthly updates via social media have not been given. Rachaele has only ever been shown making up one box to donate, which appeared to only contain items she had been gifted but did not want to keep herself, such as fluffy clouds, and notebooks with inspirational quotes on the cover. Rachaele claimed that this box was being sent to Warrington Women's Aid, however although the Instagram account was active, they never confirmed via a post or stories that they had received this box.

Rachaele has put a filter on her Instagram comments so they have to be approved before showing publicly and she will not accept any that mention the funds. Additionally, anyone who messages or emails Rachaele directly asking about the money will usually get a passive aggressive reply, an offer of a refund if they have donated, and will be blocked. If a refund is issued this has often been under PayPal goods and services, so the donor does not receive the full amount back. Rachaele no longer promotes the PayPal donations, but has not closed this or asked her followers to stop donating. The full extent of the amount raised via PayPal donations is unknown, and it is likely that money is still being paid in this way, as the page had an option to make a regular monthly payment.

Rachaele often talks about "working with" domestic abuse charities and organisations, and mentions important work and meetings "behind the scenes". What exactly this work consists of is unknown. She often shows she has little or no professional knowledge - stating that she has been involved in getting 6 women a week into refuge (according to people who work in this field, this is impossible), stating that she has been reading through case notes (this would not be allowed under GDPR). She has befriended "warriors" and shown them in her home and on her public page - having personal relationships with these people would not be appropriate, and usually people who have fled an abusive partner will either not have social media, or will be extremely vigilant about security online in case it enables their abuser to track them down.

In October 2021, Rachaele launched a Patreon account, offering extra content to her followers in exchange for paying a monthly subscription. This promised regular writing/journals, podcasts, and live Instagram streams. Alongside this, Rachaele set up a private Instagram account, called @rachisonpatreon, which will only accept followers who have paid the monthly subscription. This Instagram account is where Rachaele posts extra content, only really using the Patreon platform to collect money. As at August 2023, the private Instagram account has around 4000 followers, which means that if each of those are paying the minimum £5 per month subscription, the approximate income from this is £20,000 per month (and the actual amount is probably much higher, as there are also options to pay £10 or £20 per month). As with the PayPal, Rachaele has been deliberately vague around where the money raised via Patreon will go, stating "Funds from this platform will help to enable me to continue doing what I love & you get to be part of the journey". At no point has Rachaele explicitly stated that the money will go towards helping victims of domestic violence, however it appears from comments from her followers that this is what they believe they are paying towards.

Ignored Messages and Requests for Help

Having somehow gained herself a reputation as someone who can assist those in domestic abuse situations, Rachaele is often contacted by people looking for help either for themselves, or a friend or family member. Unfortunately, many users have reported on Tattle that they either did not receive a reply at all, or a generic "that's shit babe" response. Rachaele has never set up an auto reply to include useful contact details of abuse charities, nor does she make any effort to pass these on. Likewise, her website has never had a "quick exit" button which is a common feature on sites detailing help and support available for abuse victims.

In November of 2022, a Tattle user shared her story of having messaged Rachaele asking for help and being ignored, and then being physically abused in front of Rachaele and Josh, neither of which stepped in to help.

Safeguarding

Rachaele is often under criticism on Tattle for her lack of safeguarding of children, both her own and others. A few specific examples include:
-Posting photos of her children and stepchildren in their school uniforms.
-Sharing details of where her teenage daughter worked, including that she walked home after closing up alone.
-Her youngest child being left unattended long enough to get himself into situations that could be dangerous - playing with the toilet, licking firelighters, playing with his own faeces, laid on the sofa where he could easily fall or roll off. He also banged his head after being left unsupervised playing with his sister, who was 7 at the time. On one occasion, Rachaele was in the lounge filming herself trying on bikinis, while her young son was in another room and managed to switch on an electric fan.
-While in Rachaele's care, her niece fell off a climbing frame and Rachaele posted about what a drama queen she had been about it, she hadn't even fallen far etc. Later it transpired that her niece had broken both wrists, and Rachaele had not sought any medical attention.
-Rachaele's oldest stepson fell off his scooter and had a swollen arm, around a week later at a dentist appointment the dentist recommended that medical attention be sought, it transpired that his arm was fractured. In a video taken in the car on the way home from hospital, Josh was seen berating his son for "all the worry you've caused Rachaele", no mention of the pain the two adults had put the child through in not seeking medical advice sooner. Following this incident a referral was made to children’s services, in January 2020 regarding alleged physical abuse of ‘Josh’s sons’. Rachaele shared the letter from children’s services closing the case, where she accused trolls of making false allegations and ‘wasting’ the time of professionals, and proclaiming that another child would be being abused ‘in ways you can’t imagine’ while social workers were tied up investigating her.
-On another occasion the same stepson broke some fingers while on his scooter and Rachaele filmed him struggling to hold a plate of food with his bandaged hand. He dropped the plate and Rachaele berated him for the waste of food.
-prior to moving out, Rachaele's eldest daughter did not sleep in the house, she moved into the shed which was converted to make room for a nursery when the youngest child was born. This is outside of the house, and while it does have electric, it does not have any running water or washing facilities.
-Allowing her two older daughters to have open Instagram accounts (despite one of them at the time not being at the allowed age of 13) and encouraging her (mostly adult) followers to go and follow her page.
-Allowing her two underage daughters to have TikTok accounts, at least one of which was public until it was shared on Tattle due to the inappropriate nature of the videos being posted after which it became private.
-Allowing her toddler son to play in the toilet, sometimes when it had been used and not flushed.
-Rachaele's youngest daughter was taken abroad on holiday with her other parent, while she was there a follower messaged Rachaele to say that she was in the same resort and seen her there. Rachaele reposted this, stating that she didn't need to worry as there are thousands of people "looking out for her babies". Most parents would be horrified at their children being recognised by strangers while in another country.
-Rachaele's eldest daughter has been recognised while out in the local area, and has also been approached and spoken to by a follower on at least one occasion. Rachaele shares these instances and says they are "lush", thus encouraging strangers to approach her children.
- for Rachaele's birthday in May 2021, a follower looked up the address of Betsy's place of work (after it had been tagged multiple times by both Rachaele and Betsy) and sent a bouquet of flowers there to be passed on to Rachaele.
- in late December 2022, while visiting Liverpool, Rachaele stated that her middle daughter (who was 13) had been having an extremely heavy period, and was passing blood clots "the size of a fist". Rachaele said that she had photographed a clot and sent the picture to a friend who is a gynae nurse, who advised her to seek medical advice. Rachaele took her daughter to an A&E in the local area, but as the waiting time was 10-12 hours, she did not want to wait and so took her daughter back to the accommodation without being seen.

In addition, Rachaele has disclosed that:
- Betsy often brings strange men home for one night stands, and which type of contraception she uses
- Seb has visited the sexual health clinic, and had male cystitis twice
- Seb started smoking weed at the age of 13 and smokes it regularly
- Isaac has been vaping at the age of 12
- Isaac and Tallulah have been sneaking in their friends late at night to hang out in Betsy's bedroom
- Tallulah has been vaping at the age of 13, and admitted that she is addicted.
- after Christmas 2022, the family visited Liverpool and stayed in an Airbnb. Rachaele went live on her Patreon account and stated that Tallulah had been having a very heavy and painful period, and had "passed a clot the size of a fist which had veins". Rachael stated that she sent a picture of this to a friend who was a gynaecological nurse, who advised that she should take Tallulah to hospital to be checked over. However, upon arriving at a local hospital, the waiting time was approximately ten hours, and as Rachaele had plans, she did not stay, instead noting that she had put the blood clot into the freezer so she could take it to show a doctor when they got back home.
- Rachaele and Josh often have no idea whether their children are home, and if not, where they actually are. They are also often unaware that their children have friends staying over.
- Rachaele filmed herself talking to her middle daughter (who was 12 at the time) about going to watch her boyfriend play rugby at the weekend. Tallulah said she didn't want to go as she found it boring, Rachaele told her "if you loved him you would". This is alarming coming from a so-called advocate of organisations such as Women's Aid.

Policing

When Rachaele first built her following, she often posted about the fact that Josh was a police officer, and would share photos of him in his uniform, the police vehicle he was using, and talk about the shifts he was working etc. Rachaele no longer refers to Josh as being a police officer, and if asked about his job they are both extremely vague. During the national lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2021 Rachaele referred to Josh as being a "full time key worker", however he appeared to be around the house more than a full time role would allow, and despite Rachaele's claims that he regularly worked nights, Josh was often seen on her stories in the evenings, also drinking (therefore not going to work later on) and early in the morning either in bed or clearly not long having woken up. This has led to speculation that Josh is no longer a serving police officer, and that he may have either moved to a civilian role, or left the service altogether.

In June of 2022, Rachaele announced that Josh had been approved to take a 5 year career break in order to spend more time with the children, specifically Wilby, whom she presents as having additional needs.


Towards the end of March 2021 there were protests in Bristol due to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill, and over the weekend of 27/28 March a video which was being streamed to YouTube by a freelance journalist showed him being tricked into approaching police officers and then being arrested. The clip quickly went viral and was trending on Twitter. A Tattler noted that one of the officers involved appeared to be Rachaele's husband, Josh (it looked like him, and the voice when he spoke sounded like him). Rachaele had stated prior that Josh was on leave, however Devon and Cornwall police are a neighbouring force to Avon and Somerset and it would not be unusual for riot trained officers to be called in from leave to assist with a situation such as the one that took place in Bristol. There were comments on the YouTube video which named him as "the husband of Part Time Working Mummy Rachaele Hambleton". Given that Rachaele has shared so many aspects of her family life, including details such as where the children attend school/college, where her teenage daughter works, details which mean their address can be easily identified, this is a major safeguarding concern. Usually serving police officers are very wary of what they share on social media, often taking steps such as using a fake name or a generic profile image, due to concerns that someone could potentially take a grudge against either them personally, or what they represent as a member of the police force. Unfortunately Josh is regularly featured on Rachaele's social media, and has his own public Instagram page. If someone with ill intentions decided to retaliate against Josh, it would not be difficult for them to find details which would enable them to track down the entire family and/or their home.

Josh's sons

Josh's two oldest sons live full time with Rachaele and Josh, and have no contact with their mother. Rachaele has intimated on more than one occasion that this is due to their mother having had an alcohol dependency, she has stated that one of the adults always has to remain Sober as it causes upset to the oldest son due to what he witnessed when his parents were still together. However, Josh is often seen drinking, with a glass and/or open bottle in shot, and is regularly heard to be slurring his words. Rachaele claims that she does not drink, as she "doesn't like the taste", but her Instagram photos show plenty of photos of her drinking, both at home and while out, and captions confirm this. Rachaele also uploaded a video from her wedding reception where she states "I am so drunk" while she was sitting on the toilet. During the Covid-19 national lockdown Rachaele stated that she had had a gin and drunkenly ordered herself a flower subscription.

Josh was once asked via comments why he features his stepdaughters more prominently on his social media than his two sons, his response was that he rarely featured his sons following the court case which led to both children living with him full time and having no contact with their mother. However, Rachaele often features both older boys on her public account, and often uses them in her paid advertisements as well. Rachaele often makes out that both older boys call her "mum", but both are shown in videos calling her "Rachaele". She often posts things with no sensitivity to their mother, such as photos and videos of them cuddling her or rubbing her feet, and she calls them "my boys". This is despite also posting that "parental alienation is a form of abuse", and supporting Sally Faulkner (an Australian woman whose children were taken by her Lebanese ex-husband in 2015 and she has not seen them since). Rachaele has also publicly supported Trevi House, a charity local to her that supports mothers suffering from alcohol and drug dependency issues in recovering while providing support for them to live with and look after their children, which is contradictory to how her and Josh have treated his ex wife.

Advertising and Influencing

During the national lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring and summer of 2020, Rachaele was regularly posting about non-essential deliveries she was having, including expensive purchases such as an egg chair and large trampoline. During this time Rachaele also filmed and shared videos advertising non-essential items such as sweets from Poundland, at a time when people in England were being urged to stay home as much as possible and only make trips to shops for essential items.

Despite knowing that a lot of her followers will be on low incomes, Rachaele often shows purchases she has made which are excessive and extravagant - such as clothes and shoes costing hundreds of pounds, baby clothes costing in excess of £30 per item, Apple products including watches, iPads and iPhones, two bespoke neon lights (one of which Rachaele stated she had ordered, but also said Josh had bought for her birthday).

As an influencer, most of Rachaele's income will come from the adverts she does for various items and companies. Despite a claim that she is a "responsible" influencer who will only advertise things she "loves", Rachaele does an average of 19 adverts per month, often in contradiction with each other, or with other information shared on her social media. Some examples are:

-Advertising a Kindle tablet and stating it is used "all the time" by her youngest daughter. The only time this child is seen using this tablet is for a paid advertisement, any other time she is shown using an iPad.
-Advertising Bluetooth ear buds shortly before Christmas, again these were only seen in the paid advertisement, all family members are otherwise seen using Air Pods.
-Taking part in a "healthy eating" campaign, despite multiple posts about McDonald's breakfasts and "cup of tea and a chocolate bar before bed". Shortly after this campaign, Rachaele was advertising Nutella chocolate spread for breakfast, and was also seen berating her husband for giving the children yoghurt and fruit before school as there was no cereal.
-Advertising McCain frozen roast potatoes, despite mentioning and showing home made roast potatoes regularly.
-Advertising P&G laundry products, shortly after sharing text messages from her mother in law indicating that she (MIL) had done all the washing and ironing and to drop round anything else she had.
-Advertising Lego, when no child has ever been shown playing with Lego outside of a paid advertisement.
-Advertising reusable wipes from Cheeky Wipes, but showed disposable wipes being used.
-Advertising Lidl and Tesco after stating that she always did her grocery shopping at Morrisons
-Advertising a cardboard desk for her youngest daughter when the child does all her school work at the kitchen table.
-Advertising Kinder Egg chocolates and toys
-Advertising a Nintendo Switch with her stepson, who mostly games on a console.
-Advertising Johnson's baby shampoo for cradle cap, which it had never been mentioned the baby suffered from, and was not mentioned since.
-Regularly advertises Iconic make-up, she has showed the lip oils and claimed that she uses them as she no longer wears lipstick due to wearing a face covering when out, however can often be seen wearing lipstick. When she shows herself doing her regular make up, she uses a range of different brands.
-Advertised RSPCA assured eggs, despite the fact there was a chicken run in the back garden and she often showed how many fresh eggs had been produced by their hens.
-Advertised Fit With Flash, a campaign showing how cleaning products can be used as part of a fitness regime. She only completed one day's worth, and the rest of the campaign was sped up and featuring various children.
-Advertised Regatta, building dens in the garden with the children. Yet very rarely does she show the children playing in this way, nor does she play with them.
-Advertised Woodland Trust by walking in woods, despite being inappropriately dressed and having never shared that she and her family enjoy walking.
-Advertised a drinks bottle with a scent capsule which she stated she hadn't tried herself.

In addition, Rachaele often advertises items which are likely out of the price range of her target audience, such as Pranamat, a massage mat, the cheapest of which available on their website is £157 (January 2021). In relation to this particular item, Rachaele initially advertised this when she was pregnant, and stated that it was amazing. It was only after someone pointed out in the comments that the product website stated that it was not suitable for use during pregnancy that Rachaele advised that she had only used it for her hands and feet.

Total adverts per month:
July 2020- 17
August 2020 - 19
Sept 2020 18
Oct 2020 - 18
Nov 2020 19
Dec 2020- 16
Jan 2021 - 18
Feb 2021 - 17
March 2021 - 27
April 2021 - 25
May 2021= 22 (inc 2 reposts, her own book and 2 that were marked as gifted. I'm not sure if she then gets paid for the post too),
June 2021 - 28
July 2021 - 26
August 2021 - 19, plus 3 ads for gifted items.
September 2021 - 21 + 2 for her own book
October 2021 - 14
November 2021 - 28
December 2021 - 20
January 2022 - 16
There was also a tracksuit that Rachaele said was not an ad, but then later said would be available on the website later that day, so she could not have bought it.
March 2022 - 18

As of January 2021, the highlights on Rachaele's Instagram include the following:
Shagging dogs
German Me
Shit Gate
My horses mane (not immediately obvious, but this is about her sister in law Hannah trimming Rachaele's pubes)
Piss breath
My boobs
Period
Period 2
These are hardly appropriate for a so called "family" blogger.

Like many social media influencers, Rachaele is gifted a large amount of items. On occasions, these have been of high value items, which include:
-Dyson vacuum cleaner
-Conservatory makeover from SCS - this caused a large backlash against Rachaele for accepting such a high value gift and keeping it for herself.
-Pram (almost £1,000 in value, and several weeks later Rachaele was asking for a donation of a second hand pram for a "warrior")
-DFS sofa, despite already having 2 sofas in the house, and having given one away to her friend Emily.
-3 Emma double mattresses, worth approximately £750 each.
- a Sky Glass television

Friends, family and "toxic" people"

Historically Rachaele has had a long list of what she calls "best friends" that seems to be ever changing. Some of these disappear and are later branded "toxic" by Rachaele. The so-called "best friend's" include:
Josh's sister Hannah
Jo S, Rachaele's PA
Charlie, whose father Rachaele used to know from work
Laura/Knee Deep In Life, another blogger
Astrid, an influencer who relocated to Devon
Katy, who has a conviction for cocaine smuggling
Dani, a mum whom Rachaele met at the park, and who now works in the Patchwork store.
Jen, who had her own shop locally but closed it to go and work for Rachaele


Those who used to feature in Rachaele's life and posts, but are now no longer seen or heard from include:
Leisa, Rachaele's sister
Matthew and John, Rachaele's brothers
Josie G, who is referred to as "Stabby Jo" by Tattlers because her partner went on trial for being the perpetrator in a near fatal stabbing. Rachaele was due to be a witness in court as it was alleged that Jo and her partner had gone to Rachaele's house after the incident, however she did not go. Jo's partner was found not guilty, seemingly because he has been used as a police informant.
Emily, a "warrior" who contacted Rachaele through social media.
Lianne, who was apparently one of Rachaele's best friends from school, who she lost touch with for 20 years, reconnected with, and has now disappeared again.

These friends will feature on Rachaele's social media with captions about how much she loves them, how amazing they are etc, and then are not heard from again.
In addition, Rachaele is always "adopting" people as family members, calling them mum, dad, sisters, aunties etc. These are often the family members of her friends.

Emily

In December of 2020, Emily Holman relocated from Surrey to Devon, near to where Rachaele lives. Rachaele always presents Emily as being a "warrior" who managed to leave an abusive relationship. What she doesn't share is that Emily had actually left the abusive partner several years before, and did not get in contact with her until the related court case was in progress. Emily had successfully rebuilt her life with her young child, was living with her parents and had a full time job, all of which she gave up to move to Devon as her partner's son lives there and he wanted to live closer to him. Many of Rachaele's followers jumped to the conclusion that Emily was fleeing domestic abuse at that time, and some even asked if they could donate money to help her set up her new home. At no time did Rachaele correct this assumption. Rachaele also stated that Emily was "bubbling" with her family. This is in breach of Covid guidelines at the time, firstly because Emily did not isolate between leaving her previous household with her parents and joining Rachaele's, and secondly, because her then boyfriend had been visiting her at her home and staying overnight.

In the summer of 2022, Tattlers noticed that Rachaele was no longer showing or tagging Emily, and Emily stopped posting stories from and about the centre. As Rachaele had previously lovebombed Emily, including referring to her as a BFF, saying "love you forever", and buying her expensive gifts, this led to speculation that they had fallen out. In September, Emily announced that she was pregnant, and Rachaele noticeably did not congratulate Emily and her partner. Despite receiving plenty of questions about what had happened with Emily via comments, Rachaele did not disclose any reason as to why Emily appeared to no longer be part of the CIC until several months later, when she stated that Emily had "left to focus on her family". This was around a similar time that Rachaele claimed to be Whatsapping a solicitor about trolls, the solicitor turned out to be an employment law specialist. In October of 2022, Emily was removed as director of the CIC and replaced with Jen, who used to have her own shop locally, but closed it to come and work in Patchwork The Store instead.

House Purchase and Renovations

In December 2020 Rachaele and Josh posted that they had bought the house they had been renting for approximately 3 years. There has never been a mention of, or thanks for, the Go Fund Me donations that were made with the intention of going towards a house deposit. Rachaele immediately set up a second Instagram page, thehomeofourpatchworkfamily to document the renovation work they were starting. Despite Rachaele saying in a comment that they had initially been turned down for the mortgage in early 2020 due to not having enough of a deposit, and having to save all year in order to get this, the renovation work started almost immediately. This appeared to be haphazardly planned and with more than one room being renovated at the same time. This was in the middle of winter during a pandemic lockdown, and Rachaele had multiple builders and tradespeople in the house every day. Part of the plans included Rachaele and Josh's bedroom moving into the loft, which was finished in February 2021. Unfortunately this is not big or high enough to be a functional bedroom, and would not meet planning and fire regulations, due to a very small, narrow set of steps and a half door sized hatch for entry. Rachaele has acknowledged that the room could not be considered a bedroom if selling the property, stating that it was "one brick too short" to do a proper conversion that would meet the regulations. This a floor away from their toddler, and two floors away from both teenagers.

The plans included a seperate bedroom for each child (except Betsy, who already had her own room in the shed). A bedroom was created in the current utility room off the kitchen for Rachaele's then 15 year old stepson, this room had an external door, which Rachaele stated had been closed up, however the light from the window in the door can still be seen on her videos, and when videoing she was careful not to show that part of the room. Her then 11 year old stepson moved into the smallest bedroom (which was previously the nursery) so that the toddler could have the larger room that the older boys previously shared. Rachaele's middle daughter moved into her and Josh's old bedroom, while her youngest daughter has remained in her current bedroom by herself.

The small downstairs toilet has been converted into a shower room, much like the loft bedroom this does not appear to be big enough to accommodate everything that is required, with the shower accessed through a small gap (from the plans Rachaele shared, approx 50cm) and the basin and toilet being combined.

Books

In 2018 Rachaele published a book, "Part Time Working Mummy: A Patchwork Life". Readers of this book have reported that it does not contain anything that hasn't already been posted on Rachaele's social media, and is poorly written.

Often, if questioned about her income and some of the high value items she has purchased, Rachaele's response will be that her "book money" has paid for them. This includes:
-Her braces
-A family holiday to Lanzarote.
-A french bulldog puppy, Ethel
-The wedding and reception
-The debt from the court case relating to Josh's sons
-Gucci belt
-£400 leather jacket
-Rental deposit and furniture for house
-Mulberry handbag

Rachaele embarked on a tour to promote her book, which visited 12 locations. Tickets to the tour were £20 each, and approximately 200 tickets per venue were available. At the tour, Rachaele was joined by Josh, who was selling tickets for a raffle before the show. When asked what the raffle money was for, Josh was vague and mentioned "Rachaele's warriors". Like the PayPal donations, no update was ever provided on what this money had been spent on.



Rachaele wrote a second book, which is a fictional novel about a couple who have a blended family and live near the sea (in essence, based on her family life). This was initially due to be published in May 2020 but seemingly needed a lot of editing. On 16 April Rachaele announced that her book was finished and would be released in July 2021.

In early June, Tattler @Lucyinthesky88 was able to receive an advance copy of Rachaele's new fiction book, which was due out in July, and shared some screenshots ( these can be found on thread 79, from page 44 onwards). Rachaele has attempted to write it in the style of her main character's journal, however it reads like a primary school child who has been asked to write an account of what they did on their holiday. In terms of plot, Rachaele's main character "Jo" is the mum of 3 children, who meets a man with 2 children and they all move in together to a large house near the sea (sounds strangely familiar ). Unfortunately, Rachaele has used this as an opportunity to write the story of her stepsons and their mother, with names changed (mostly to the names of people she knows, such as Jo, Laura etc) to be able to pass as "fiction". As well as being very badly written (switching around from present to past tense and back again, overuse of certain words and phrases that are part of Rachaele's usual repertoire etc), the character of "Laura" (the mum of the stepchildren) is portrayed as being an alcoholic with severe mental health problems. However, despite Rachaele being an ambassador for Trevi House, she paints this character as a terrible person, and referred to her as "broken", as well as insinuating that having mental health problems and needing support/medication/hospitalisation makes someone a bad person. Some of the situations and events that take place in the book are directly influenced by things that are known to have happened in real life. The main character "Jo" is only ever concerned about how things impact on her, which funnily enough is exactly how Rachaele herself sees everything.

In early July 2021, Rachaele's second book "A Different Kind of Happy" was published. Very quickly, a number of reviews were posted on Amazon, including ones by Jo Smerdon, Rachaele's PA, and Hannah Marshall, Rachaele's sister in law. Neither of these disclosed their relationship to Rachaele, which is misleading and unfair to have been presented as unbiased opinions.





In addition, a number of these reviews were openly admitting that they hadn't even read the book, yet gave five star reviews.

Oversharing

Like many family bloggers, Rachaele often overshares what should be private details of her family life. Some examples include:

-Court document relating to an abuse case regarding the father of her two eldest children, in which her oldest child (who was 5 at the time) was named. The photo Rachaele showed did contain some detail about one incident that her daughter was involved in, and she had not very thoroughly blanked out the name of the perpetrator, so this could be worked out. This case was neither Rachaele's, nor her daughter's (it was relating to one of her daughter's elder half sisters).
-Sharing details of her daughters' menstrual cycles, including that one of them prefers to wear period pants, and also the size she wears.
-Rachaele once sent an entire set of court documents to a follower, regarding a case in which her second daughter was involved. Nothing was redacted or censored.
-Rachaele often films conversations and arguments between family members, sometimes covertly, and shares these on her Instagram. Rachaele has also filmed arguments between herself and Josh, and stated on at least one occasion that she had hidden her Instagram stories from him so he would not know she had shared them.
-Rachaele has often stated that her second daughter has anxiety and sees a therapist for reasons related to her father. Rachaele often involves this child in adverts for Rescue Remedy.
-Rachaele shared a photo of one of her stepdaughters after her horse had died, this was an extremely intimate photo showing the stepdaughter in a state of extreme distress.
-Rachaele asked on her stories for details of fertility clinics on behalf of one of her stepdaughters who was struggling to conceive.

Patchwork House CIC

In the autumn of 2020 Rachaele started posting about an organisation local to her called Eat That Frog, who are given surplus food from supermarkets etc, and either redistribute it to families on low income, or cook it into meals that can be passed on. Rachaele often posted about Nina, stating that she works tirelessly to make sure hungry people are fed. What Rachaele doesn't share is that Eat That Frog is NOT a charity, it is set up as a CIC and Nina is actually a paid employee. Rachaele has often posted about "helping" at Eat That Frog and getting her children and stepchildren involved, however all Rachaele's actual input seemed to be was filming, laughing, and touching the food items (during a pandemic). At least one of the children has treated the venue as somewhere to sit and do their homework - this could cause embarrassment if families that know them are having to come to the venue to collect food parcels. Rachaele has also asked for donations of food to be made, despite this being yet another thing that her PayPal fund could be used for.

In late 2020 an eagle eyed Tattler discovered that Rachaele was in the process of setting up her own CIC, The Patchwork House. This led to speculation that Rachaele's interest in Eat That Frog was less about being involved in a community project, and more about finding out more about the process of setting up and running a CIC.











Rachaele announced the news of the Women's Centre on 20 April 2021. Some of her followers have been stating that she is setting up a refuge, at no time has Rachaele corrected this.

Initially, Rachaele was listed as a Director, along with Jo who is Rachaele's PA, and Vanessa, who is the mother of Rachaele's stepdaughters. However, Vanessa has since resigned, allegedly due to having been duped into leaving her job under false pretences to take up this role. In February 2021, a Tattler noticed that the wording on the website was word for word the same as the website of another organisation, after this was noted on Tattle the website wording was deleted and just showed a "coming soon" message.





On 1 September 2021 Rachaele announced the women's centre on a grid post. Many of the comments included people saying they "couldn't wait to visit", including Astrid. This is concerning, as a space for vulnerable women should not be treated as a tourist attraction and somewhere to hang out and take selfies for Instagram. Rachaele then did a Q&A on her stories, where she contradicted herself, firstly by saying that men would not be allowed in the centre, and later saying that they would be delivering courses to men who abuse to attempt to change the behaviour. Quite how she intends to run these courses without having any men in the building is as yet unexplained.

Many of Rachaele's followers have been stating that she is opening a refuge, this has not been corrected by Rachaele. In actual fact, the centre will be providing hot drinks, laundry services and cake, and very little else.

Rachaele then opened a second centre in Torquay, and started delivering a course loosely based on the Freedom programme, but tweaked, and at a cost of £240.

Criticism

Rachaele has often attracted criticism from users on Tattle, some of the incidents over the years include:
- buying a tent for a homeless man, and going with her mother in law to drop it off. They also bought other items and Rachaele filmed herself and her mother in law laughing and joking about giving away items, including her mother in law saying a torch they had bought looked like a tampon. After the items had been dropped off Rachaele filmed herself saying they'd "had a nice day, it's something to do isn't it", seemingly oblivious to the fact she had treated a homeless person like their life was a spectacle.
- on Rachaele's website (which is now not available) she used a photo of herself heavily pregnant with her third daughter to illustrate a blog post about miscarriage/baby loss - this is extremely insensitive, and could have been interpreted as making it look like she had lost the child she was carrying in the photo which was not the case.
- Rachaele is apparently an ambassador for Kidscape, however what this role entails is not really clear, other than her children occasionally wearing branded t-shirts. Rachaele claims to be against bullying, however she has on occasions allowed her followers to abuse people online who don't agree with her or question her publicly, and has even doxxed people in order for this to happen.
- despite painting herself as a saviour of people suffering domestic abuse, Rachaele often posts things that could be triggering to survivors. Examples include photos of someone's self harm scars, and photos of herself with her husband's hand around her neck. Rachaele very rarely if ever uses trigger warnings on content that may be upsetting.
- Shortly after giving birth to her fourth child via caesarian section, Rachaele posted a long and rambling monologue talking about the horrific pain of being sliced in two in order to give birth. At the same time, one of her daughters posted a video on TikTok in which Rachaele was holding her newborn son and dancing - hardly consistent with the "horrific pain" she had claimed she was experiencing.
- Josh had shaved their baby son's hair with clippers from when he was around 8 months old for no apparent reason. Hairdressers have advised that they would not use clippers on a baby so young due to their sensitive scalp, and would only ever cut their hair with scissors, if required.
- During the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020, Rachaele participated by allowing the owner of a business she had bought and been gifted items from to use her profile. Following this, Rachaele made no further attempt to highlight black owned businesses, share useful links or resources or advise in any way what she was doing to further educate herself, as she had said she would.
- Rachaele stated at one point that her baby son would only settle if she sang him nursery rhymes with a German accent, and filmed herself doing this. She also uploaded these videos to a highlight on her Instagram called "German me".
- Rachaele often shows cards, notes and gifts that she claims to have received from all manner of people - teachers, social workers, health professionals, always in a similar handwriting style to her own, and always consisting of gushing praise for her. Tattlers suspect that these are not genuine, and have been fabricated by Rachaele herself for attention.
- Once Rachaele posted about rescuing some chickens but not having a coop for them, one of her followers who lives in Leeds and has a business making wooden chicken houses offered to make and deliver one to Rachaele for free. When the chicken house was brought to her, she posted a series of stories seemingly belittling the lady, who had driven from Leeds to Devon during a heat wave, stating that she had directed her to the beach "because they don't have beaches in Leeds".
- During the Euro football tournament in June and July of 2021, Rachaele did not share anything in relation to domestic abuse, despite it being a recognised fact that abuse rates rise during large sporting events. The day that England were playing in the final, Rachaele shared posts stating that football and alcohol were not the cause of domestic abuse, failing to recognise that these factors can both be triggers for people who are abusive to their partners. She made no reference to the statistic that when England play, abuse rises by 26%, which increases to 38% if they lose, nor did she share any helplines or websites.
- A number of the England players were subjected to racial abuse on social media following England's loss to Italy in the final, Rachaele shared a screenshot of abusive comments, thus sharing the racism on her own profile, without having blanked out the username.

Stepdaughters

In February 2021, one of Rachaele's stepdaughters (A) joined Tattle and posted the following:







A was asked how she had felt about her childhood story being told in Rachaele's book, this was her response:








A few days later, A returned to Tattle and posted a now deleted message which included the following claims:

-That Rachaele has been smoking weed behind her husband's back, and when he found out, her eldest daughter took the blame.
-That A's mother V, who has resigned as one of the directors of the CIC, had resigned partly due to discovering that Rachaele was planning to make Emily the manager of the women's centre, despite having no experience, qualifications or knowledge in this area at all, and Rachaele would not listen when V expressed concern over this.
-That Rachaele is claiming that V is bi-polar and unstable - this is not true.
-That Rachaele "donated" a sofa (which was initially gifted to her as part of the conservatory makeover) to be used by the CIC but charged the CIC £60 to cover the cost of removal.

Another one of Rachaele's stepdaughters claimed on Tattle (in a now deleted post) that Rachaele was abusive towards her, and gave the example that Rachaele knew that she was scared of Worzel Gummige, so she used to make her watch it before bed and laugh as she turned off the light. She also alleged that Rachaele threatened to "kick her head in" when she was around 11.

CIC

Following V's resignation as director, Emily was appointed as director instead.



In February, the following flyer was posted by a school in Rachaele's local area:



This is extremely vague, and doesn't actually state what sort of support this service is providing.

A tattler texted the number to enquire about booking a session, and received the following replies:







Being unable to even give a name, job title and confirm what qualifications the "team members" have is concerning. No mention of whether the person would even be male or female, as some women may not feel comfortable with a male due to their history, or for a cultural/religious reason.

Claims by stepdaughters' mother

In April 2021, the mother of Rachaele's stepdaughters (V) posted a status on her Facebook, which was removed a few days later. However, it stated:
- Rachaele was never in refuge as she claims
- V had entered into the CIC to run the fundraising side, which she planned to run in the same way as a charity, to be transparent and clear. This was a voluntary position which she did not receive any payment for.
- V then resigned several months later due to the objectives of the CIC being changed with no discussion.
- V had never followed Rachaele on social media, but had come to notice some things which she wasn't comfortable with. She gave an example of videos of Emily being drunk in a hotel room and felt concerned that she was a young woman in a vulnerable situation, being filmed and laughed at by Rachaele and Josh.
- V stated that she had been told initially that 2 experienced women would be in charge of the women's centre, when this was changed so that Emily would be managing it V was concerned, partly due to Emily's fairly recent history with her own abusive relationship, and because she has no qualifications or experience. V doesn't feel that if Emily applied for a similar role elsewhere she would even be shortlisted. When V raised a concern with Rachaele that this was leaving the CIC open to allegations of nepotism, she was shut down. V also attempted to raise her concerns with Jo (Rachaele's PA) who she felt agreed with her, but was not keen to get drawn into taking sides.V also stated that she had asked Jo whether a statement had been prepared in case Rachaele's followers find out that she was never in refuge, Jo just said "no".
- V stated that she was "trolled for being a troll", this is in relation to an Instagram page that was set up. V knew that Rachaele was behind this and informed the police at the end of March, after which Rachaele received a call from the police who advised her not to use her page to spread inaccurate information. The name of the page was changed within a few hours and all posts about V were removed.
- V states that she has emails, texts and videos to back up everything she had said.

V also posted and then deleted a video of Betsy talking to her older sister/s, she was crying and talking about an incident where Josh had bought ingredients to make a meal, but Rachaele wanted a takeaway and screamed at him, calling him a bore. Josh relented and agreed to a takeaway, but Rachaele deliberately knocked a plate onto the floor which broke, and told Josh to clear it up. He was asking Rachaele what he had done wrong. Later that evening Rachaele had hugged Josh, who asked if she likes him now, Rachaele told him to "shut up or I'll leave".

Selling of items

In March 2021, a Tattler noticed that Rachaele's PA Jo had been advertising items for sale on Facebook marketplace, some of which she appeared to be selling on behalf of Rachaele:













The trampoline, beds, cabinet, mirror and curtains all appear to be from Rachaele's house, the football boots may or may not have belonged to Rachaele's children or stepchildren.

Given that Rachaele likes to portray an image of being a selfless person who is constantly working with women in abusive relationships and the charities that help them, and she regularly asks via her social media for donations of things for "warriors", including household items when someone is moving out of refuge, it begs the question why she would ask her followers to donate their items, but chooses to sell her own. Rachaele is clearly not short of money, given how many paid advertisements she shows each month, and could easily afford to donate the items. She claims to be in contact with refuges and charities up and down the country, and therefore should be able to find somewhere appropriate to be able to take the items shown. Instead, she is fitting out her home with all brand new furniture (with some of it being gifted), and making money from her old things while asking her followers to donate things for free.

In March 2021 a user came on Tattle with a screenshot apparently showing Rachaele accusing a long-term Tattler of actually being V (the mother of her stepdaughters and briefly a director of the CIC)

"Ordinary Kindness"

In June of 2021, while the country was still under some Covid-19 restrictions, Rachaele and her friend Jordan embarked on a "tour", to visit various deprived areas and see community projects in action. This took place over the course of a week, and Josh accompanied them, apparently to do the driving. There was also a film crew, to make a film about this which will be shown on Instagram at a later date. The tour started in Chester, with a visit to a gym. Rachaele didn't explain why at the time, just touched someone's baby, but later said that the gym had been set up to help the physical and mental health of local people, and that any profits made are put back into the local community. There was also a visit to Chester Zoo, some playing around on electric scooters and then an expensive evening meal and cocktails. The next stop was Sheffield, where Rachaele toned down the posting about the jolly old time she was having away from all her children and stepchildren. Despite claiming to have lived in refuge herself, and to have worked with women fleeing abuse for a number of years, Rachaele was surprised to learn that people housed in temporary accommodation are quite often put into hotels or B&Bs where they do not have cooking facilities. After this, they went to Banbury, where Rachaele and Jordan went to a mosque, with Rachaele not even covering her hair. They were then shown the mortuary, which Rachaele tactlessly filmed. While Rachaele and Josh were away, Edie went to stay with her dad and the rest of the children were looked after by a selection of Rachaele's friends and employees.

The week following the "tour", Rachaele and/or Josh allegedly tested positive for Covid (this was not admitted publicly, however locals stated that the children were off school isolating, indicating that there was at least one positive case in the household. This was backed up by a public Facebook post by Edie's dad stating that he had dropped off sweets and paints to keep her occupied while she was in isolation). Any comments relating to this on Rachaele's Instagram and Facebook were deleted, however videos showed various members of the family coughing and generally sounding unwell.

Mental Health Podcast

In June 2021, Rachaele guested on a podcast about mental health - the reason she was invited to speak on this is unclear, as the other people who had been on have all been mental health professionals. The podcast can be found on Spotify:


https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Y...eoYQuf68EMlA&utm_source=copy-link&dl_branch=1


In short, the podcast contained the following:

Rachaele said that she worked for 16 years with a company that did provision for people with Aspergers and autism. One day she was driving home and saw a woman with a beautiful mane of hair and loads of children and a puppy (the "woman on the bridge"). She was obviously so lucky for being able to take her kids to school each day,whereas Rachaele felt judged for working. One day Rachaele had a row with Betsy and was driving to school in tears when she saw TWOTB kissing goodbye to her kids so she penned this anonymous letter and it magically went viral - apparently TWOTB couldn’t take her kids to school for five days because the press were camped on the bridge (locals have confirmed that this is not true). Apparently this was when she decided her ‘brand’ was needed because her life was messy whereas other bloggers have it easy. Rachaele tried to talk about all the different types of therapy available such as; CBT and all those other ones, saying that she went for hypnotherapy. Apparently her mum left Devon and moved to Lincolnshire when she was 4 and her childhood was brutal and she went into care at 15. Rachaele admits that if it was Josh who had a social media presence and that was the reason they were trolled she wouldn’t be able to support him. Then she talked about how tough it is to be privileged and for people to not know that you can still struggle. Rachaele said that she doesn’t want to stop influencing even though she’s being bullied and her kids are struggling, because it’s her job. She hopes trolls are gone in 10 years. She said that Seb's behaviour used to be difficult when he first moved in so they sent him to a therapist. Apparently America is so much better than us because everyone has a therapist and by the time Edie and Wilby are Seb's age they’ll be able to openly say they need therapy.
The interviewer asked "what should you do if someone tells you they’re experiencing domestic violence?"
Rachaele replied "just don’t judge really", she talked about how people shouldn’t call the police if you don’t leave.
The interviewer asked her what made her finally leave and Rachaele says when she left refuge she went to live in a flat provided by her employer. She says she was in and out of refuge and her colleagues helped her leave and even banked some of her mileage refund for her. She had planned to wait a year, but left 9 months later after he went mad because she forgot to bring him paracetamol. The violence that happened that day was awful and the girls witnessed it. Apparently they were in family court in 2019. Rachaele stated that if listeners could take one thing away from this episode, it’s being kind. She also says people should volunteer and donate to food banks and charities.

Patreon

In October 2021, Rachaele stated that she had started a Patreon, which her followers could subscribe to for "extra content". This will apparently include weekly journals, a podcast, and advert-free content. Most creators who use Patreon and have a tier system offer different levels of content available for the different pricing levels, however Rachaele has decided that all levels will receive the same content, but some will pay more "because you really love me, and you are awesome". This is at a time when many people are facing the loss of a £20 uplift to Universal Credit, as well as rising energy bills going into the winter season.

As at the end of May 2022, there were 2488 followers on the Instagram account for Patreon subscribers. If each of these are paying the lowest amount of £5 per month, which amounts to almost £12,500 per month (and that's not including those that pay a higher amount).

Wilby and his additional needs

In November 2021 Rachaele showed herself and Josh completing some forms about Wilby's development, and stated that he was missing his milestones. She revealed that they were having Wilby assessed for potential autism, and then started posting lots about "Wilby's World", showing him enjoying walking outside and looking at trees, and lining up his toys. It has been noted that since Wilby started receiving more interaction, he was quickly trying to speak more and had picked up skills that he did not have earlier (such as feeding himself with a spoon). In April 2022, after continually posting about Wilby's needs, Rachaele stated that they had pursued a private diagnosis for him, and shared a document stating that "he meets all the requirements of an autism diagnosis". She has also stated on her Patreon that she has been advised that mainstream schooling would not be suitable for him, so she is looking into a different type of school, where there's no uniform and the teachers are addressed by their first names. Alongside all of this, Rachaele has decided to monetise her son's journey, starting with a jumper embroidered with "Wow" and a palm tree, to symbolise Wilby's first word, and his liking for trees. This was soon followed by a second jumper design, this time with "Oh dear" embroidered on, as this was Wilby's next phrase to learn.

Rachaele appears to be encouraging behaviour that she can present as autistic traits, including fixation with certain toys or characters. Wilby had some plastic animal toys, which he liked to line up around the house. This was encouraged by Rachaele and Josh, who would take his animals out and about and let him make lines in public places (such as restaurants and garden centres), even if this caused an obstruction to other customers. Later, Wilby developed a fondness for dinosaurs, and his animal toys were all disregarded for plastic dinosaurs. Rachaele and Josh again encouraged this, buying him more and more toys, and again allowing him to take a large number of them everywhere with him (filling backpacks, plastic tubs, and a large bucket) and insisting that he won't cope without them.

Additionally, Rachaele portrays Wilby as violent, often making reference to him hitting, kicking, biting and scratching himself and other members of the family. Rachaele over exaggerates these incidents, using phrases like "punched" or "slashed Josh's neck". No injuries have ever been shown on any of the family members to back up these claims. Rachaele has also stated that Wilby has harmed himself, saying once that he had scratched his arms so deeply you could see his flesh. Again, this was not seen on any photos or videos showing, and Rachaele filmed an advert for children's bath products showing Wilby in the bath, with no visible scratches or marks on him.

Rachaele claimed that Wilby was non verbal, even filming herself crying about the "fact he may never speak". In fact, at this point in time, he had been shown saying a variety of words, all in context for what was happening at the time, and since attending a childminder and then pre school from the summer of 2022, his speech developed extremely well, and he continues to have a good vocabulary for his age. Additionally, Rachaele claims that he has little understanding of anything, being "in his own little world", yet often shows him saying things that demonstrate his understanding (as an example, Rachaele said that he didn't know what a family was or who his are, he doesn't understand what a sister or brother is, yet when seeing rhinos at West Midlands Safari Park, he said that one was a mummy, one was a daddy, and one was a baby, and when another one joined them he said it was the grandma).

Patchwork

In December 2021, Rachaele and Emily revealed that they were planning to provide Christmas gifts to the families who access the centre, and released an Amazon wishlist. The goods on the wishlist amounted to around £15,000, and as well as toys, included items such as vouchers for coffee shops and restaurants, as well as wrapping paper, scissors and Sellotape. Shortly before Christmas Rachaele and Emily dressed up as elves and went to deliver these gifts to families. Rachaele has not been clear about the funding for the gifts, as other people tagged her in posts stating that she and Emily had donated the gifts, Rachaele did not make any attempt to correct this mistake. Rachaele has also noted that the Patreon money had gone towards these gifts, which is also not accurate.

Inappropriate content

Shortly before Christmas 2021, Rachaele posted some footage from her CCTV on her Patreon account, showing Josh naked in the front driveway, which is shared with neighbours. When questioned about this by a paying follower, who politely pointed out it was inappropriate, Rachaele was aggressive in her reply, and posted it to her stories showing the person's name. She called the person an "awful human" and said "cheers for the fiver a month".

Prior to Christmas 2021, Rachaele was gifted a number of sets of matching pyjamas, which were for an advertisement. When she posted this to her Facebook (where she very rarely posts her adverts), and someone said it made them feel terrible that they couldn't afford matching pyjamas for their family, Rachaele's followers attacked the person on her behalf, telling them that Rachaele works hard, why shouldn't she have nice things, if the person didn't have anything nice to say they should say nothing etc. In the comment section Rachaele replied and said that she has employed 3 of her friends, paid for the building work at the centre and run the centre for 3 months out of her own money with no funding. When called out on this, with a screenshot showing the lottery funding, Rachaele then stated that she had never said that she hadn't received any funding, and that the centre had been awarded £15,000 in grants.

In March 2022 Rachaele posted on her Patreon a photo of her oldest stepson (who had just turned 16), saying that he was denying that a condom wrapper found in the house was his. In the comments she went on to talk about a supposed visit to a sexual health clinic, saying that he had asked if he could do the swab himself due to being embarrassed, and that the nurse had told him "I follow your stepmum". This is a gross invasion of his privacy, could potentially cause problems for his girlfriend and her family, and also the stepson himself (if his girlfriend is not yet 16). There is also an implication of inappropriate behaviour by the nurse in mentioning being a follower.

Shortly before Easter 2022, Rachaele was (in her own words) "begging" for donations of Easter eggs, to pass on to the users of the centre. The only person who appeared to benefit from this was a friend of Rachaele, who had uploaded stories of Emily rolling around on the floor in the centre. A Tattler discovered that this person was also the sister of Rachaele's accountant, whose family had recently sold a large hotel in in the local area for around £4million, and had already posted a pile of Easter eggs for her children earlier in the day.

Patchwork The Store

In early 2022, Rachaele announced that she had secured the premises next to the women's centre, which she would be operating as a shop, the profits of which would be going towards the running of the centre. She also then announced that the shop would also be available online, and she had secured a further premises, which would be used for storing, packing and distributing the online orders for the shop. She stated that the packing centre would also provide volunteer opportunities for the service users at the centre, to help them to get into work (this was shortly after she had been shocked that some of the women had professional qualifications, degrees, well respected jobs etc).

In early summer of 2023, the opening hours for the shop were greatly reduced, and even dropped to "open by appointment only". In the summer of 2023, Tattlers noted that the premises were available for rent on the estate agent's website.

More Begging

At the end of May 2022, Rachaele went on to her stories and said that although herself and Emily do a big shop every week for the women who access the centre (even though this has never been shown or talked about before), they wanted extra for half term, and so were asking for donations. Rachaele specifically asked for "nice things", such as "snacks, things you'd put in a kid's lunchbox" etc, and even children's magazines. This is despite Rachaele regularly doing adverts for Tesco and various ready meal companies, and a children's magazine. This was shortly before she announced that the recent raffle for the launch of the Patchwork store had raised £7,000. As at the start of January 2023, no winners had been announced for this raffle, and nobody has come forward via Instagram comments to say they have received their prizes. There has also been no accountability for what the £7,000 has been spent on.

Money/Income

At the time of writing (January 2023), Rachaele is currently claiming the following is funding women's centre:
- her own money (probably from the many, many adverts she does every month)
- at least 2 grants (including one from the National Lottery)
- two Patreon accounts
- profits from items sold in the shop and online
- donations from a number of businesses who have created "hero products" and donated the profits from these (including a personal trainer who is running a "couch to 5k programme")
- retail fundraisers, such as one run before Christmas
- in addition, it is likely that she is still receiving donations via PayPal, as although this is no longer advertised, it was never shut down completely.


Rachaele has secured various premises for use under the Patchwork brand, as follows:

1) The original women's centre
2)The Patchwork shop (next door to the above)
3) A distribution centre, for packing and sending items bought from the online store
4) A second women's centre


After months of not mentioning the first centre, Rachaele announced in March of 2023 that it would no longer be used as a centre, instead she would be running a "community pantry" from the premises. Rachaele said that this would reduce food waste while supporting low income families with feeding themselves. She then asked her followers to donate food (by ordering a food shop online to be delivered to the centre) or by donating supermarket vouchers. This was in addition to collecting surplus food from Fareshare. Rachaele noted that anyone could access the pantry, there was no need for referral or any proof that someone was in need of the service, leaving it open to abuse. Rachaele also didn't initially publicise that the items were not free, but that a fee of £4 would need to be paid for 12 items. The pantry opened in June 2023, for only 8 hours per week (10am to 2pm, Monday and Tuesday, not including bank holidays). Rachaele's followers donated entire food shops, which were then sold on (not reducing food waste as Rachaele had stated).

In August 2023, Rachaele then announced that the pantry would be closing at that location, and moving to the other women's centre.

Domestic Abuse Support

Despite PTWM calling herself an advocate for people suffering from DA, she often ignores messages from people asking for help. If you are in an abusive situation and would like some help, here are some helplines and websites that may be of use to you:

National DA Helpline - 0808 2000 247
https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk
Refuge - https://www.refuge.org.uk/
https://www.refuge.org.uk/our-work/...e/domestic-violence/links-and-useful-numbers/
Women's Aid - https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/
Women's Aid rail to refuge scheme (free rail travel for people fleeing domestic abuse) www.womensaid.org.uk/new-rail-to-refuge-scheme-offers-free-train-travel-to-women-fleeing-domestic-abuse/
The Men’s Advice Line, for male domestic abuse survivors – 0808 801 0327 (run by Respect)
The Mix, free information and support for under 25s in the UK – 0808 808 4994
National LGBT+ Domestic Abuse Helpline – 0800 999 5428 (run by Galop)
Samaritans (24/7 service) – 116 123
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-abuse-how-to-get-help
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/getting-help-for-domestic-violence/
National Center for Domestic Violence - https://www.ncdv.org.uk/ call 08009702070 or text NCDV to 60777

Boots, Superdrug, and other pharmacies offer their consultation rooms as a "safe space" if needed to contact any of these agencies.

A mobile app called Bright Sky provides support and information to anyone who may be in an abusive relationship or those concerned about someone they know.

Local resource and organisations can be found by googling your local authority plus "domestic abuse".

You are also able to get help and advice from local services such as GP surgeries and schools.

In an emergency you can call 999, if you are unable to talk you can press 55 which will alert the call handler that you are there and need assistance. You can also sign up for the emergency text service (https://www.emergencysms.net/). If you are going into a new relationship you can call 101 to speak to your local police about making a Sarah’s or Claire’s law application so you can know if someone has previously committed domestic violence or abuse against children.

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