A woman who believed she could be Madeleine McCann has apologised to the missing British girl’s parents in a 17-page statement, after DNA tests proved she wasn’t their daughter.

Polish woman Julia Wendell, 21, claimed in February she had reason to think she was Maddie, who vanished from her family’s Praia de Luz holiday apartment in May 2007 at the age of 3 and has not been seen since.

Wendell, who also sometimes uses the surname Faustyna, claimed she had similar facial features, suffered an abusive childhood and had started to question her parentage.

She shared her theories on Instagram under the username @IamMadeleineMcCann.

Last week, however, a DNA test disproved her claim. One 23andMe-style test that examined Wendell’s heritage found she was from Poland with some Lithuanian and Romanian heritage – rather than the British heritage of the McCanns.

In her latest statement, shared to Facebook, Wendell said it was never her “intention to bring sadness or any other negative emotion to anyone, especially to McCann family” (parents Kate and Gerry). She also claimed she never actually said she was McCann.

“I don’t remember most of my memories, but I can remember some things and I never said that I am Madeleine McCann,” Wendell wrote.

Kate and Gerry McCann said through a spokesperson, "There isn’t anything to report at this time." Photo / Getty Images

“I used this sentence to create a nickname for my old Instagram account; it was my mistake and I know it and I apologise for that because I should use words ‘Am I Madeleine McCann’, not ‘I am’.

 “So it was my fault and it wasn’t my intention to bring sadness or another negative emotion to anyone, especially to McCann family. My main purpose was always to find out who I am and what exactly happened in my very hurtful past.”

Despite her apology and concrete evidence proving she is not the missing girl, Wendell added: “I still believe that it’s a possibility that I could be Madeleine.”

Fia Johansson – who until recently had served as a spokesperson for Wendell but has since reportedly cut ties – said she brought the young girl back down to Earth after breaking to her the results of the DNA test.

“At first she didn’t want to believe the DNA results, she was saying, ‘What if someone changed the results?’ but I told her, ‘Stop this now’,” Dr Johansson told the Sun.

Dr Fia Johansson told Julia Wendell to ‘stop this fixation’. Photo / Supplied

“I can understand as a psychologist why she didn’t want to believe her mother is her real mother.

“But I told her she must stop this fixation, now, that she is Madeleine McCann, and accept the result of the DNA test and start to move on with her life.”

A spokesperson for Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, also responded to the results, saying: “There isn’t anything to report at this time. If and when there is, it will come from the Metropolitan Police.”

Wendell’s own family has also rejected – and begged her to stop perpetuating – her claims about being Madeleine McCann.

Despite her apology and concrete evidence proving she is not Madeleine McCann (above), Julia Wendell said she "still believes that it’s a possibility that I could be Madeleine".

“For us as a family it is obvious that Julia is our daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin and stepniece. We have memories, we have pictures,” they said in an earlier statement.

“Julia also has these photos, because she took them from the family home with the birth certificate, as well as numerous hospital discharges.

“We always tried to understand all situations that happened with Julia. Threats to our address from Julia, her lies and manipulation, activity on the internet … we’ve seen it all and we’ve tried to prevent it, explain it, we’ve asked her to stop.

“We always tried to help her get back on her feet. Julia has been of age for several years. She moved out of the house. She refuses treatment, does not take medication regularly. She also did not take advantage of the possibility of treatment at a very good centre in Poland, which agreed to accept her … The internet won’t forget [her behaviour], and it’s obvious that Julia isn’t Maddie. We are devastated at this situation.”

- Natalie Brown, news.com.au