Schapelle Corby’s Daily Struggle

WHO takes you back to Bali one year after Schapelle Corby was released from prison. Photo: WHO Magazine

One year after her release from prison, Schapelle Corby is struggling to rejoin society.

Corby’s close friend Ally Jeffers, who was one of Corby’s travelling companions on her fateful 2004 trip to Bali, tells WHO that Corby’s family are encouraging her to “get out more” after she developed fears of “being watched” and being around new people.

“Being in prison for that long has taken a toll on her,” says mother-of-two Jeffers, who visited Corby, 37, in Bali. “I think it will take longer than a year for her to get back to her old self.”

Corby, who served nearly 10 years in prison for attempting to smuggle 4.2kg of marijuana into Bali in 2004, lives in the Kuta home of her sister Mercedes and her family. Jeffers, who lives on the Gold Coast, says Corby cooks for Mercedes’s three children, likes to watch The Bold and The Beautiful and is learning how to use the internet. “She has her own room and ensuite,” says Jeffers, 35. “She has magazines and photos of friends and family in her bedroom.”

But Corby, who must remain in Bali until 2017 as part of her parole conditions, suffers bad days. “That has a lot to do with being incarcerated for nearly 10 years,” says Jeffers. “When she does go out in public she looks over her shoulder as she feels she’s being followed. She’s not comfortable with a lot of people around her or people she doesn’t know. Her close friends and family are just trying to get her out more to get used to the idea of being in society. She still jokes around, though, and tries to make light of things. She says: ‘Make love not gossip.’ That’s her motto.”

And she hopes to one day start a family. “Schapelle loved spending time with my two-year–old son, Ethan,” says Jeffers. “She adores him and says, “He’s so cute.” She loves kids and one day wants to have kids of her own.”

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