Paula Williamson’s grieving mother has said she has never understood why her ‘lovely’ Coronation Street actress daughter wed Charles Bronson.
Hazel, 80, has said she was just as bemused as the rest of the country by her daughter’s relationship with Britain’s most dangerous prisoner.
Speaking from the home she shares with her husband Clive, 81, in Stoke-on-Trent, Hazel insisted she never let Bronson come between her and her cherished girl, who she describes as her ‘most beautiful butterfly’.
She told MailOnline: ‘It was wrong. I said: “I don’t like what you are doing, but I still love you, I don’t want you to be estranged from me.”
‘I could not understand what had possessed her. I had never heard of him, but when I knew I thought “for goodness sake”. It was unfathomable. She said: “You do not know him, he is ever so nice”. But the things he had done were not very nice.
Paula Williamson’s mother Hazel, pictured together, has said she has never understood why her ‘lovely’ Coronation Street actress daughter wed Charles Bronson
Speaking from the home she shares with her husband Clive, 81, in Stoke-on-Trent, Hazel insisted she never let Bronson come between her and her cherished girl, who she describes as her ‘most beautiful butterfly’
‘She seemed to think it was glamorous. But we would not go to the wedding.’
Miss Williamson married the notorious criminal, currently serving a life sentence, at HMP Wakefield in November 2017.
Their romance quickly soured, but the actress was still married to the lifer when she died suddenly at home aged just 38 waiting for the marriage to be annulled.
‘Paula put weight on and he called her a “fat cow” and that was the beginning of the end,’ said Hazel.
Bronson, 66, was also reportedly left outraged by a photograph of the actress with a man’s head in her breasts on holiday in Tenerife.
For Paula’s mother, she was just glad the relationship ended.
Miss Williamson married the notorious criminal, currently serving a life sentence, at HMP Wakefield in November 2017
Hazel confirmed the annulment of their marriage, which is due any day, did not arrive before Paula’s body was discovered at around 7am in the Sneyd Green area of Stoke-on-Trent.
Staffordshire Police have said the death is not being treated as suspicious.
Surrounded by photographs, of their children, including Paula, Hazel and Clive said their ‘theatrical’ daughter brought them so much joy.
Hazel last saw her daughter on Friday evening, when she popped in with a fan because of the hot weather. She visited Paula three or five times a week.
‘She looked ever so nice, she looked happy, and that is the last I saw of her,’ said Hazel, who is left with only questions about her daughter’s death.
Hazel woke up to the tragic news at 7am, when she received a text message from Paula’s new lover, a 53-year-old man, who moved in to her home after they began a relationship in February.
‘He is devastated,’ she said. ‘He is all over the place.’
With tears in her eyes, Hazel said: ‘She was a good daughter as well as a friend.
‘She was an unusual daughter, but she has always been a good daughter. We were very proud of her.
‘I loved her very, very much, and she loved me. I don’t know what I am going to do now without Paula.’
The couple had a tumultuous relationship, and often hit the headlines.
They first started exchanging letters in 2013 and continued writing them while Bronson was engaged to his former partner Lorraine Etherington in 2015.
Paula Williamson (pictured), Charles Bronson’s ex-wife, has been found dead at her home aged 38. She previously starred in Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, before she met Bronson in 2016 in prison
They finally met in 2016, and Bronson later proposed to her in 2017 by serenading her a version of the Frank Sinatra classic My Way, from a prison pay phone.
They married in November 2017, and walked down the aisle to the Death March.
In April 2018 Miss Williamson admitted they were facing problems after numerous strange demands.
For example she had reportedly been ordered by Bronson to stay slim by doing 400 sit ups a day as he told her ‘don’t get fat’.
Shortly afterwards a furious Bronson hit out at Miss Williamson after pictures surfaced of her being intimate with men on a booze-fuelled night out.
Paula had been at a gay bar on holiday in Tenerife when one of the men she was partying with was dared to put his face in her cleavage and she obliged, which was caught on camera.
In the furious rant, Bronson labelled her a ‘drunken tart’ and said: ‘Without booze I loved her. But she choose booze instead of me.’
Miss Williamson’s death came on the same day Bronson announced he wanted to marry a pensioner called Joan when he is released from prison.
Britain’s most violent prisoner said he will marry 63-year-old Joan after he leaves prison so they can be ‘two old people together’.