'I just couldn't handle the thought of them taking her': Lindy Chamberlain recalls the agony of being forced to give up her newborn daughter after her wrongful murder conviction
Lindy Chamberlain has told of her pain at having her newborn daughter taken away from her after she had been wrongfully convicted of the murder of her nine-week-old girl Azaria.
The mother-of-four was sentenced to life in prison in 1982 after her daughter Azaria disappeared from her tent, despite Ms Chamberlain's insistence the baby girl was taken by a dingo.
It was a case the divided the nation between those who were sure she was guilty of killing her own daughter and those who insisted on her innocence, and the case was made into a hit Hollywood movie starring Meryl Streep.
Speaking to Anh Do on his ABC series Anh's Brush With Fame, the now 71-year-old said the birth of her fourth child Kahlia later that year was a 'very painful process'.
'A very painful process': Lindy Chamberlain has told of the moment she had to give up her newborn baby after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of her nine-week-old daughter
'I knew the minute she was born they were going to take her off me,' she said.
'Every moment of the birth, I fought it. It's like, "you keep her inside, she's yours - the minute she's out, she's not'.
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'I just couldn't handle the thought of them taking her first. I had to take myself out of the room.'
Her second daughter was born at Darwin Hospital, but then sent to a foster family - before being reunited with her mother upon her pardon and release in 1986.
Injustice: The mother-of-four was sentenced to life in prison in 1982 after her daughter Azaria disappeared from her tent, despite Ms Chamberlain's protest a dingo stole her
Almost four decades since she was sent to jail for a crime she did not commit, Ms Chamberlain also opened up about her eldest son's reaction upon being told his mother had been imprisoned.
'My mum had to tell them [Chamberlain's children] they'd sent me to prison - which haunted her until the day she died,' Chamberlain said.
'It was the worst thing she had ever had to do. She'd never heard a noise come out of a kid like that in her life before.
'She said he did these big dry sobs, that was the only way to describe it.'
The 71-year-old also addressed her subsequent campaigns for reform in the Australian judicial system.
Candid: The 71-year-old also addressed her subsequent campaigns for reform in the Australian judicial system in conversation with Anh Do (right) - who was painting her (left) while they talked
'If I hadn't gone through all that we wouldn't have the laws that we've got in Australia right now, we've got independent forensic science now as a result of that trial,' she told Do.
'What's happened to me has been able to make it better for other Australians and for that I'm grateful.'
Now known as Ms Chamberlain-Creighton, she was exonerated after the matinee jacket she said Azaria was wearing was found in 1986.
It was not found until Englishman David Brett fell to his death while climbing Uluru and landed beside the jacket, which was vital to her defence.
She told Do that she always had faith she would be released thanks to her belief in God.
'I always had the feeling that at some stage, God would say "Enough's enough and you're coming out".
Family: Lindy and Michael Chamberlain pictured with their two sons and youngest daughter Kahlia, who Lindy gave birth to while imprisoned. The Chamberlains later separated
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