Parents of a Bradford schoolgirl who ran away with her chemistry teacher today revealed they are reconciled with their daughter.

Robert and June Russell, whose daughter Rachel lives with former Wyke Manor School teacher Michael Edson, said they had been in regular contact since November.

But later this month a Channel 5 documentary - filmed when the couple and Rachel's parents were feuding - will be shown.

Mrs Russell, who lives on Bradford's Canterbury Estate, said: "We started talking again soon after filming was finished in October.

"The programme shows things that were said when we were still angry but we've managed to work through a lot of things since.

"It's been hard for us all but we've tried hard to make things work."

Mr Edson was arrested after Mr and Mrs Russell alerted the police of his affair with their then 15-year-old daughter in October 1998 - soon after the couple ran away to London.

But charges of abduction and indecent assault were dropped when the Crown offered no evidence against Mr Edson at Bradford Crown Court.

Mr Edson and Rachel hired publicity guru Max Clifford to sell their story and struck a £40,000 deal with the Daily Mail.

But claims by Mr and Mrs Russell that Rachel had miscarried her lover's baby in the News of the World further soured the relationship.

In the programme, Rachel brands her mother "sick" for telling the Sunday newspaper she had suffered a miscarriage - an allegation she denies.

Mrs Russell accuses Mr Edson of being "32 going on 16", and says he has a hold over Rachel.

But Mr Russell tells an interviewer the couple now regretted the miscarriage story.

Trainee nursery nurse Rachel, 16, and Mr Edson, who resigned from his job in September, now live together in Scholes near Cleckheaton.

A holiday in Florida for the couple was paid for with money from their newspaper deal.

The documentary, entitled Gymslip Lover, was made for the Family Confidential series and will be aired on February 29.

Both Rachel and Mr Edson and Mr and Mrs Russell were interviewed in their homes but separately from each other.

Mr Edson says in the film: "Living with Rachel helps me feel young, I like to be young.

"It's not something I went into blindly, I felt continuing (with the relationship) would do Rachel more good than harm and it was what I wanted."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.