Kate and Gerry McCann are going through a fresh bout of anguish as police in Portugal try to find out what happened to their missing daughter Madeleine.
The latest development in their 18-year search is a new dig for evidence on land close to Praia Da Luz, where she went missing.
But while the McCanns' heartache and yearning is the public image Britain is used to, there is a private side to the couple - as proud parents of Maddie's two younger siblings.
Today MailOnline can reveal details of the successful young man Maddie's younger brother has become. Sean McCann is now an elite swimmer training like an Olympic athlete.
Meanwhile, officers in Portugal have been seen clearing vegetation around abandoned buildings, wearing protective gear such as hard hats and face masks, and a digger was used to move rubble.
The area where they are working is an area of fields and scrubland between a main road and the sea, with a few buildings including a vineyard.
Back in Britain, Maddie's brother Sean, seen below posing proudly in his royal blue Scottish Swimming shirt, is being tipped to compete at the 2028 games in Los Angeles for Team GB.
The 20-year-old was snapped with a gold medal around his neck after competing in an open water swimming festival in the Mediterranean.
He and his twin sister Amelie were just two years old when Maddie disappeared from their holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort on May 3, 2007.
Sean and Amelie have grown up being known as 'Maddie's younger siblings', as she continues to be a regular in the news to this day.
The younger siblings were photographed regularly as young children as the story went global.
Their parents later did their best to keep them out of the spotlight, although Kate once recounted publicly how as an infant Sean had brandished a toy sword and said he was going to get the 'bad man' who had snatched his sister away.
In 2023 Amelie, then 18, publicly joined her parents for the first time in years for an informal prayer gathering on the 16th anniversary of Maddie's disappearance at the family home village of Rothley, Leicestershire.
And Sean, who is studying chemical engineering at university, has been swimming competitively for nearly ten years.
He revealed in 2023 he had been getting up at 4am to swim before school since the age of 11, and going to the gym three times a week.
The student has set his sights on representing Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year and competing in Los Angeles in 2028.
Sean was pictured grinning on a beach last May after winning gold in the men's 1,500m race without a wetsuit at the Best Fest Open Water Festival in Colonia Sant Jordi, Mallorca.
In the same festival, he scooped up bronze in the men's 5,000m swim with a wetsuit while competing as part of Scottish Swimming's Open Water Development Squad.
A report of the event said he had been part of the leading pack and broke from the rest of the field to finish in 1:00.53 - nearly two minutes ahead of fourth place.
Sean was also part of Team Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago in 2023 where he took part in the 400m and 1,500m freestyle finals.
And he represented Great Britain in the 10km race of the European Junior Open Water Swimming Championships in Corfu in 2023 when he came 20th.
Sean, who joined Scottish Swimming's national squad due to his father's Scottish roots, spoke of his training regime after being awarded a £400 Inspire Award grant by a charity set up in memory of Joe Humphries, 14, from Rothley who died suddenly while jogging in 2012.
The Joe Humphries Memorial Trust aims to promote research into and awareness of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, which caused the death of the youngster, described as 'fit, healthy, vibrant and fun loving' by his family.
Sean wrote on the charity's website: 'I started competitive sport when I was eight, joining Charnwood triathlon club. It was here that I discovered my passion for swimming and I joined Loughborough Town swimming club to increase the number of swim sessions I did per week.
'At the age of ten I was selected to swim at City of Leicester (Leicestershire's performance swimming club), and I have since gone on to win multiple county titles as well as becoming regional and national champion in my age group.
'In order to have achieved this, I have had to remain extremely dedicated, getting up at 4am multiple mornings each week to train since the age of 11.
'I am currently studying chemical engineering, and train nine times a week in the pool, as well as three gym sessions, totalling over 20 hours of training (per) week. I am aiming to compete at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and also the 2028 Olympics in LA.
'The Inspire awards will help me to fund travel and accommodation for the Scottish National Swimming Championships in Edinburgh, where I will gain valuable racing experience prior to the Olympic swimming trials in April 2024.'
Meanwhile, Sean's sister Amelie has been described as popular and outgoing as well as athletic - she is known to have competed in cross country and triathlon events at school.
When not at university, Sean and Amelie still live with heart specialist Gerry, 56, and former GP Kate, 57, who works with dementia patients, in the same £800,000 redbrick detached house on a cul-de-sac in Rothley they have been in since 2007.
The UK's best-known missing person case is once again back in the spotlight after it emerged this week that police in Portugal are to carry out fresh searches.
They are searching the land close to the former home of Christian Brueckner, a convicted sex offender who is the prime suspect in Maddie's disappearance.
The latest police activity in the case involving their missing sister comes after a tip-off from German police about Brueckner, currently in prison for the 2005 rape of an American pensioner in Portugal
He was working as a waiter in Praia da Luz at the time of her disappearance and was formally declared a suspect by Portuguese police in 2022.
The following year, a former friend claimed he had all but confessed to the abduction, by saying: 'She didn't scream', during a conversation about the case at a music festival in 2008.
German investigators later scoured the Arade reservoir in the Algarve, 31 miles from the holiday resort, for evidence connected to Maddie - but to no avail. Images of Brueckner posing naked beside the same reservoir were found on his hard drive.
Brueckner continues to deny any involvement and has never been charged. Indeed, last year he was acquitted on unrelated rape and sexual assault charges.
He is due to be released from prison in September - unless there is an appeal or further evidence emerges linking him to Maddie's case.
The McCanns have made no comment on the latest revelations.
But disgraced former Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral branded the new searches over the top and wheeled out a sick theory about her disappearance.
The ex-detective, who was sued over a 2008 book about the 18-year-old mystery in which he wrongly pointed the finger at the missing youngster's parents, also accused his own former police force of 'connivance' with 'shoddy' German cops.
Amaral, thrown off the Madeleine investigation in 2008 after publicly criticising British police involved in the case, revealed his theory to Portuguese daily Correio da Manha.
He claimed of the fresh searches that are taking place: 'This much wasn't needed. A plane with geo-radar would have been enough and reduced the search area.'
Amaral added: 'The Germans should have had nothing to do with the investigation. This was a British police strategy with support from the Portuguese police.'
It comes as a McCann family source told the Mail they were somewhat 'in the dark' because it is 'an ongoing investigation' and they have no direct contact with German or Portuguese police.
'We don't know what evidence police have,' the source said.
'If it is him, and there's no direct and conclusive evidence, he may never say a word. He's not saying a word now. It may be, sadly, that we never know what happened to Madeleine. But we hope to find out. We keep hoping after all these years.'
The Metropolitan Police's investigation into Maddie's disappearance, called Operation Grange, has received £13.2million in Home Office grants, including £108,000 this year.
With no arrests or formal charges in 18 years, some have questioned the viability of the fund.
Kate and Gerry have also faced hurtful personal attacks, most publicly in 2007 when it was revealed they had used donations from the Find Madeleine appeal to pay their £2,000-a-month mortgage. Both had taken unpaid leave from work to join the search for their daughter.
This year they have faced yet more anguish as two women were accused of sending them letters and text messages, making phone calls and turning up uninvited at their home.
One, Polish-born Julia Wandel, 23, made headlines in 2023 after claiming to be Maddie.
A DNA test proved she was not, but Wandel continued to speak out on social media, and it is alleged she travelled to the UK in May last year to attend Maddie's annual memorial service.
The second, Karen Spragg, 60, from Cardiff, faces one charge of stalking involving serious alarm or distress between May 3, 2024, and 21 February this year. Both pleaded not guilty at Leicester Crown Court last month and are due to go on trial in October.
They are also alleged to have stalked Amelie and Sean who have, until recent years, stayed completely out of the spotlight at their parents' behest.
'They've always been in Madeleine's shadow, and just been the McCann twins,' a family friend told the Mail. 'But now they are young adults, they are carving out their own lives.'
In March, Gerry won a prestigious award, totalling £80,000, to fund his ongoing research into heart disease. Colleagues praised his 'life-changing work'.
