John Darwin has revealed in his memoirs that he almost killed himself while faking his own death in a canoeing accident.
Darwin, who became known as the 'Canoe man', wrote all about his bizarre tale while in jail serving his sentence for the £500,000 life insurance fraud. He sparked a huge search back in 2002 after he "vanished" in his kayak.
But the ex-teacher and prison officer was alive and well and lived as a "dead man’" for five years with wife Anne, 69, first in a room hidden by a wardrobe. Now 71, Darwin has spoken about the day he went out to sea in his memoirs, the Mirror reports.
Read more: One of John Darwin's sons sneaked onto set of new ITV show about canoe fraud couple 'in disguise'
In his unpublished memoir, seen by the Mirror, he tells of the day he went out to sea near his home in Seaton Carew, County Durham. He writes: "I started to paddle again, heading towards the pier which I had spotted a few minutes earlier.
"It then struck me that I couldn’t see the South Gare [breakwater at the mouth of the River Tees]. I’d actually paddled out much, much further than I intended. To my total horror, I realised I could have been swept away and died. I had nearly done it without meaning to."
Darwin, who spent two-and-a-half years behind bars for fraud, still kayaks off the Philippines where he now lives with his second wife Mercy May, 48.
He loves to head out in the summer to escape the crowded streets of the capital Manila. Earlier this week we reported Mercy’s bizarre claim that her husband wants to fight in Ukraine, despite his age.
He and Anne divorced after 38 years while both were in jail. Anne has since rebuilt her relationship with sons Mark and Anthony, who she lied to about their dad’s "death".
The astonishing story is to be told next month in a four-part ITV dramatisation The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe starring Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan. It was inspired by a book by former Daily Mirror journalist David Leigh, who found Anne in Panama after John returned to the UK in 2007.
