Cleo Smith’s mum Ellie and stepfather Jake Gliddon announce engagement

Cleo Smith’s mother Ellie and stepdad Jake Gliddon have shared some happy news on social media, a week on from their tell-all $2 million interview.

Cleo Smith’s mother Ellie and stepdad Jake Gliddon have announced they are getting married.

The couple shared the happy news on social media on Sunday night, with photos of a diamond engagement ring and a bed covered in rose petals spelling out “marry me”.

Mr Gliddon proposed to his long-time partner three months on from four-year-old Cleo’s nightmare 18-day kidnapping ordeal in Western Australia’s Carnarvon region. The large diamond ring symbolises “tears of joy” at Cleo’s miraculous rescue that made headlines around the world.

The announcement comes a week after the couple earned a record $2 million for an exclusive tell-all interview about the ordeal with Channel 9’s 60 Minutes, where they revealed new details about Cleo’s discovery inside locked room in a nearby Carnarvon home.

The pair confirmed the news on Sunday night.

The diamond ring represents ‘tears of joy’.

They recently scored $2 million for a tell-all interview with Nine.

Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, is accused of snatching Cleo from her family tent at the Quobba Blowholes Campsite in the early hours of October 16, 2021, and keeping her at his house for nearly three weeks.

Kelly has pleaded guilty to kidnap but is facing a number of other charges including assaulting a public officer.

He will appear again in the WA District Court for a sentence mention in March.

During last Sunday’s interview, Ms Smith, told Nine reporter Tara Brown her daughter had blocked out a lot of the ordeal, but she remembered “why she was taken”.

“She tells us that we she was taken because her baby sister was sick,” she said.

“And so she needed to be taken away from us so that we could help her baby sister.”

Ms Smith said she and her partner were angry after finding out the lie Cleo had been told, but they wanted to focus on helping Cleo heal instead of “having our hearts full of hate”.

During the interview, it was revealed that two pieces of key evidence had been found inside the tent – a footprint and DNA.

Ms Smith said investigators didn’t provide a lot of information about the discoveries and they still didn’t know the full details.

Cleo Smith after being rescued. Picture: Colin Murty

The couple shared new details on 60 Minutes. Picture Supplied

Terence Darrell Kelly has pleaded guilty to kidnapping. Picture: Colin Murty

The interview also uncovered a new detail about an unassuming item that may have led Cleo’s kidnapper to their tent that night.

Cleo’s mum said from what they know they weren’t a target and it appeared to be an opportunistic crime.

“Cleo had a bike at the front which indicated we had a child in that tent and that was all he needed to know,” Ms Smith said, with Mr Gliddon adding it was a “little pink bike”.

“How are we meant to know putting a little girl’s bike out the front of our tent indicated for someone to get her?” Ms Smith continued.

She also revealed that in the almost three weeks Cleo was missing, her hair had been cut and dyed.

Ms Smith said Cleo had told her that pink dye had been put in her hair but it had then washed out.

“She said it didn’t work,” the mum explained, adding that they had to get Cleo’s hair cut again because it had been “cut into chunks”.

“I was just angry that someone tried changing her to kind of fit what they wanted,” she said.

Ms Smith said Cleo hadn’t told them much about what happened, but had said that she was scared.

“She was locked in a room and she was scared and she didn’t know where we were,” she said.

“She’s blocked out a lot as to what’s happened. She kind of went into survivor mode and pushed it very far away.”

— with Rohan Smith