She might rock the tough girl exterior on screen, but behind closed doors, The Bachelor Australia contestant Jen Hawke suffers from a heartbreaking family trauma.
“When I was living in the UK, I woke up one morning and I had a phone call [from my dad] and I had never heard him sound so scared and hopeless. I knew something was wrong straight away,” she opened up to NW exclusively.
“He said ‘Jen, I’ve got to tell you something,’ and he explained mum had been in an attempted kidnapping. She had essentially been car jacked. The offender walked up to her and held scissors to her ribcage.”
Jen’s mum fell victim to an attempted kidnapping. So scary!
He then forced her mum to get into the car with him.
“When my mum tells the story now you can hear the fear [in her voice],” Jen says. “She ended up getting in the car because he was really pressing the scissors into her ribs at this point, and he was like, ‘Get in the car were going for a ride.’”
While thankfully her mum managed to escape unscathed, jumping out of the car to escape – Jen says she was understandably shaken.
“[The offender] ended up stealing the car and she was left on the street screaming and women came and helped her. It was really horrific and it was a horrible thing to hear what your mum went through when you are on the other side of the world.”
“When my mum tells the story now you can hear the fear [in her voice],” Jen says.
Jen says she stayed in the UK for another two months following her mum’s horrific ordeal – which left her suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety and depression – before returning home to Australia.
As for how she’s doing now?
“Mum’s actually really, really good,” Jen says, despite her suffering from short term memory loss as a result of the trauma. “I mean she does get a little bit scared sometimes. This guy only got 10 years [in prison] in 2009, so he only has two years left before he can apply for probation.”
Jen, pictured here with her nephews, is super close with her family.
Despite the scarring experience though, Jen manages to stay positive.
“It basically made my mum my best friend, and we had never had that before.”
