Sally Faulkner's ex took her kids on 'holiday'. A decade later, she's finally got them back.

In May 2015, Sally Faulkner's two children, Lahela and Noah, then aged five and two, were spending time with their father, Ali Elamine, during what was meant to be a short holiday in Lebanon.

More than 12,000km away back in Australia, Sally's Skype rang. It was Ali with a message about the children.

"Plans had changed."

"Lahela and Noah aren't coming back to you. They're staying here with me," Sally recalled him saying.

It's a moment that's been forever seared into her memory.

Not able to sleep, Sally began contacting everyone she knew, including frantically sending emails to every media agency she could think of.

What happened next made headlines around the world.

The Brisbane mum attempted to retrieve her kids with the help of a child recovery agency called CARI. Channel Nine’s flagship news program 60 Minutes offered to pay for the recovery in return for exclusive coverage of the story.

On April 6, 2016, the child-recovery attempt took place, with Sally briefly being reunited with her two children before a police hunt ensued and she surrendered.

Her children were returned to the custody of their father, and Sally and members of the 60 Minutes crew, including seasoned reporter Tara Brown, were briefly detained before charges were dropped, and they returned to Australia.

For almost 10 years, Sally has reportedly had occasional video and telephone contact with her children, and has been desperate to reunite with them.

Now, that moment has finally come.

Watch: Sally Faulkner on the moment her kids were torn away from her in Beirut. Post continues below.

The Guardian exclusively reported Sally returned to Queensland in January with her daughter and son, nearly a decade after she last saw them in person.

She was granted custody, after Ali and the children fled Lebanon for the US state of Georgia during last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to court documents released to the publication.

When Sally first learned of Ali's plan to relocate the children to the US, she reportedly signed a "consent agreement" giving him sole custody. Her lawyers claim she only did this under "coercion and duress" in the hope Ali would get them out of a dangerous situation.

In November 2024, Sally travelled to Georgia to see her children. But, as The Guardian reports, she had filed a temporary protection order in Georgia, accusing Ali of family violence during their marriage.

When Ali arrived at the meeting, sheriff's deputies served him with the order, and Sally left with the children.

The order was later dismissed, but in January, a judge granted Sally temporary custody so she and her children could participate in a "family reunification program" that excluded Ali.

By late August, The Guardian reports, the court ruled the program should end, allowing Ali a 30-minute phone call with his children.

The case continues in Georgia.

Ali and Sally. Image: ABC Australian Story.

'I never gave them up.'

Appearing on To Be Frank, Sally recalled going into "desperation mode" after the Skype call from Ali back in 2015.

"I fell to the ground, the laptop fell to the ground and I just thought, 'What am I going to do, this can't be real?' I felt like I'd left my body. It was instantaneous trauma as I knew for real he wasn't messing around. It was like there was no one else in the world," she said.

"I've had to disconnect myself a lot from it to recover and function. I feel really, really numb talking about it. But it has taken a long time to get to this point."

She said not a day had gone by that she hadn't thought about her children.

Listen to Sally on No Filter back in 2016. Post continues below.

Sally broke down as she told Constance about an Australian mum in Lebanon who sent her a short video of Noah in a soft play centre a few years back.

"I hadn't seen or heard from the kids, or even seen any photos of them for about two years," Sally said.

"And this mum had noticed Noah in his little Spider-Man outfit and secretly filmed him. She knew I was desperate to see him and even just to hear his voice. [In the video] she said, 'Do you know that your Mummy loves you? And he just stood there in the ball pit and she told him I loved him...

"I was so thankful to that mum as I watched it over and over again. It made me cry, of course but it was the one time in two years I'd got to hear his little voice."

She said while she knew the children were being well cared for, she worried particularly about her daughter Lahela and whether they had been manipulated.

"Ali has told the kids that mum is 'at work', which is why I wrote the book so that one day they will find and read that and everything on the internet, and know how hard I tried to find them," Sally said.

During a rare conversation with her children without Ali in the room, Sally said she "told them everything".

"I told them I never gave them up," she said.

"I told them how their whole family in Australia had been in agony... that I never had a choice. I told them the truth and I could tell [Lahleh] was really taking it all in."

Sally with her children in Beirut. Image: 60 Minutes.

Sharing a post on Instagram in January 2023, Sally wrote, "Quite literally I have not gone one day where I haven't cried or had to hold back the tears over what happened. Sometimes life just isn't fair."

It only takes a quick look at Sally's Instagram page to see her kids are always in her thoughts. Her page is full of photos and videos of the children, accompanied by heartfelt messages.

She now also has three more children — Eli, Izac and Lylah — with her partner, Brendan.

According to Sally's Instagram, they would occasionally chat to their older brother and sister on FaceTime.

A post from January 2023 shared the caption: "I dream of the day you are all back together again".

Thankfully for Sally, that day is now.

Feature image: Instagram/sally_a_faulkner.