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Stalker haunting Joost, Amor
03/12/2006 18:49 - (SA)
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| Former Bok star Joost van der Westhuizen and his singer wife, Amor Vittone. (Beeld) |
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Gavin Prins, Rapport
Johannesburg - One of South Africa's most-glamorous couples, former Springbok rugby captain Joost van der Westhuisen and his singer wife, Amor Vittone, have been living in fear of a stalker for the past three months.
They have been receiving threatening calls from an Afrikaans-speaking man since mid-August and things are so bad that their children, Jordan, three, and eight-month-old Kylie, are no longer taken to shopping malls or play parks.
The police have been called in to help, and the family has drastically stepped up security measures.
A bodyguard has been hired to protect Amor.
Warned about their children
Joost and Amor also have changed their cellphone numbers.
Perhaps the most-chilling message was when the man said in one of the calls: "You must take good care of your children."
The man followed Amor to one of her shows, and phoned Joost from the audience to say: "I see you're not here with your wife."
There have been short, threatening calls to Joost every day and it's suspected that the stalker tried to force him and his 4x4 off the road.
"You had quite a scare on the road the other night," the man said to Joost later.
The calls, which never lasted longer than 30 seconds, stopped suddenly at the end of October, probably after a breakthrough in the enquiries.
Joost did not want to comment, for fear of hampering the case. The celebrity couple have appeared in many glossy magazines, but since the calls they have refused 12 requests from the media to get more-recent photos of their children.
The family still lives in fear, and they have frequent sleepless nights.
Joost said: "I can't sleep. Every half hour, I am awake.
"It's a man with an Afrikaans accent. He began phoning in August, every afternoon, just after five.
"He must work in an office and he sounds professional.
"There was never any discussion of money, and the conversations were never long," said Joost.
Although the family lives in a secure complex in Johannesburg, they have appointed a security guard to watch their home.
Joost said: "I didn't want to take any chances. My family is my first priority.
"I can't understand why a person should live in fear in your own land."
He did not tell his wife about the calls for the first two months. "I did not want to make her nervous, because she was producing a CD (Voluit)."
Amor said: "I had a premonition something nasty was going to happen to our family. I often have these feelings."
"I also had a premonition when they broke into our home at a security complex in Silver Lakes, Pretoria."
Amor told Joost of her feelings, and he told her about the stalker's calls.
Baby boy was threatened
Amore said: "I felt so afraid. You're a prisoner in your own home. But my husband is a strong man and he handled it well." This was shortly before the calls suddenly stopped.
Amor's mother, Delyse, who is her manager, also had phone calls when Jordan was six months old, in which the caller threatened to harm the boy.
It's not known if this was the same stalker.
- Rapport
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