Real Housewives of Cheshire wag Tanya Bardsley’s glamorous ‘bestie’ is revealed as cocaine jailbird whose gang smuggled £1.6m of class A drugs
- The TV personality has been gushing over convicted dealer Catherine Mason, 34
- Bardsley, 37, struck up a bond with Mason, from Stockport, after her stint in jail
- Sources say friendship will leave Bardsley’s family-oriented reputation in tatters
TV wag Tanya Bardsley is reportedly best friends with a convicted cocaine dealer who was jailed for her role in a gang’s £1.6m smuggling operation.
The Real Housewives of Cheshire personality has been gushing over Catherine Mason, 34, on her Instagram account and describes the felon as her ‘bestie’.
Bardsley, 37, struck up a bond with Mason, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, following her reported four-year sentence behind bars.
Sources close to Bardsley – wife of Burnley FC defender Phil – believe that the revelations of friendship with Mason will leave her reputation as a family-oriented woman in tatters.
The Real Housewives of Cheshire personality (left) has been gushing over Catherine Mason (right), 34, on her Instagram account and describes the felon as her ‘bestie’.
‘Tanya pushes the fact that she is a mum and a family woman, but no parent would want to be hanging around with someone like Catherine,’ the source told the Sun.
‘She was part of a very nasty gang in the area who were rightly locked up for a very long time.’
Some 17 criminals were jailed as part of a 2011 drugs bust of a Stockport store used to hide the cocaine.
Mason was reportedly convicted with conspiracy to supply the drugs after she was embroiled in the gang which was led by her then boyfriend Anthony Carter.
Bardsley, 37, struck up a bond with Mason, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, following her four-year sentence behind bars
Mason was reportedly convicted with conspiracy to supply the drugs after she was embroiled in the gang which was led by her then boyfriend Anthony Carter
In recent months, Bardsley has been showing affection towards her convict companion on her social media channels.
On Instagram, she wrote: ‘Happy birthday to my special amazing kind thoughtful caring bestie @caffy_mason I love you so so much see you later.’
And at this year’s Grand National Mason appeared alongside her famous friend who spoke to Good Morning Britain from the event’s Ladies Day.
Bardsley has starred on the ITV show since its inception in 2014, the year she married Phil with whom she has two children.
Her representatives declined to comment to the Sun.