A retired British couple have emerged from a year-long captivity at the hands of Somali pirates to learn that a close family member passed away during their ordeal.
Paul and Rachel Chandler were released from captivity on Sunday, after being held against their will for the previous 388 days.
Soon after their official release, the couple were informed that Paul Chandler's father had died four months ago.
In a statement released Monday, the couple asked for privacy as they grieve his loss.
"We have just learned that Paul's father died in later July, and we obviously need to come to terms with that," the couple said.
The Chandlers had been sailing around the world when they were captured by pirates last year.
The couple had put much of their life savings into a yacht they were using on their ill-fated trip.
Pirates initially asked for a $7-million ransom in exchange for their release, though the captors reportedly settled for a six-figure payment in the end.
CTV's London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy told CTV's Canada AM that the Chandlers may end up selling their story, so they can pay their family back for the cost of their release.
"This is not a rich couple at all. They are retired, they were spending…six months of the year sailing around the world and then this happened to them," Kennedy reported from London on Monday.
"It's believed the family spent close to $500,000 to try to get them released."
British media reports have identified Paul Chandler as a retired construction site manager and his wife, Rachel, as an economist.
The BBC reports that Paul Chandler is 60 years old and Rachel Chandler is 56.
The Chandler family said it was difficult to convince the pirates that the couple was not rich and were simply "two retired people on a sailing trip on a small private yacht and not part of a major commercial enterprise."
They have not offered further details on how the Chandlers came to be released.
Somali pirates are believed to be holding hundreds of people in captivity, the majority of whom are staff on board commercial ships that have been seized near East Africa.
Large companies often pay multimillion-dollar ransoms to free their ships and employees from the pirates.
Terrorism expert Alan Bell said the pirates have no reason to stop what they are doing because they keep getting paid and Somalia has no government to stop them.
"The more you pay ransom, the more people get kidnapped," Bell told CTV's Canada AM during an interview in Toronto on Monday morning.
With files from The Associated Press
