“I didn’t believe it was real!” Jason Manford reveals he ‘freaked out’ after his young daughter’s cell phone and social media accounts were hijacked by a complete stranger
Jason Manford has revealed he was forced to call the police after his young daughter’s cell phone was ‘taken over’ by a complete stranger, causing him to ‘panic’.
The comedian, 41, who maintains a veil of privacy around his family and refrains from sharing his children’s identities on social media, says alarm bells started ringing after he received a call from his daughter’s number, only to discover that he spoke to a grown man in India.
Manford, the father of six, discusses the bizarre incident with Instagram followers, saying it started when he received repeated text messages from his daughter asking for her phone’s password while unaware she was next door fed up with him.
“I thought someone had somehow hacked into my daughter’s phone and sent them back to find out what was going on,” he said.
“I didn’t believe it was real and then they sent me real pictures of her and her friends from her iCloud! As well as screenshots of her Snapchat chats with her friends!”
After receiving a call from the number, the aggrieved star was told that his daughter bought the phone from a dodgy shop and it couldn’t be reset without the original password, prompting Manford to take action.
Concern: Jason Manford has revealed he was forced to call the police after his young daughter’s mobile phone was ‘taken over’ by a complete stranger, causing him to ‘panic’
There it is: While discussing the bizarre incident with Instagram followers, the father-of-six Manford revealed he had managed to track the unknown caller to India’s Rajasthan
Family: Manford keeps his children shielded from the public eye and never shows their faces on social media
“I told him I called the police and he deleted everything he sent and blocked me!” he said.
But the penny eventually dropped, when Manford realized his daughter’s old phone had been lost on a trip to Australia in 2022 and had somehow ended up in the wrong hands.
“I found out my dad took (and lost!) my daughter’s old iPhone 6 to Australia in February and it must have found its way to a phone shop in Dubai or elsewhere and this Indian guy must have it,” he revealed.
“Anyway, it came back online today because my daughter saw pictures that weren’t hers in her photos! I’ve now managed to log in, find it (somewhere near New Delhi!) and erase and remove it from her iCloud etc!”
The incident comes after Manford, who married his second wife Lucy Dyke in 2017, revealed that his beloved grandmother Leah, 99, was rushed to hospital in February.
Happy days: The comedian with his six children outside Mayfair’s Chesterfield Hotel in an undated social media photo
The Other Half: Manford and second wife Lucy Dyke at the 2019 Olivier Awards; the couple married in 2017
The comedian posted pictures of himself and his loved ones at the elderly lady’s bedside when he revealed that she had sadly stopped eating.
An emotional Manford told his followers that despite the distressing situation, the family was doing their best to “stay strong.”
“Unfortunately she is still in the hospital. Everyone is doing everything they can to get her home, but she just stopped eating (even if she gets a box of her favorite chocolates for Mother’s Day!)”
“I’m not sure why, she says she wants to come home, knows food will help this, but for whatever reason, maybe her dementia, she just doesn’t want to eat.”
He added, “It’s heartbreaking if I’m being honest, especially to see my father upset. But we stay strong as a family, we laughed a lot and spent more time than necessary rubbing hand cream into that 99-year-old’s hands…thanks again for all your kindness in messages.”
Concerns: The incident comes after Manford revealed that his beloved grandmother Leah was rushed to hospital in February