SAD NEWS: Coronation Street star found de@d at home by partner after night out with friend as police issue major statement
The actress appeared in Coronation Street between 2008 and 2012 and was found de@d at home by her boyfriend after a very public marriage to a felon.
The actress was only 38 when she d!ed (Image: Julian Hamilton/Sunday Mirror)
In a devastating tragedy, an actress who famously appeared in iconic British soaps like Emmerdale, Coronation Street, and Hollyoaks, was found de@d in at home by her boyfriend after a night out with a friend the previous evening.
She was only 38 when she d!ed, but Paula Williamson was known to millions around the world after she married ‘Britain’s most notorious prisoner’, Charles Bronson, a few years before her passing.
On July 29, 2019, Staffordshire Police confirmed the Emmerdale star had been found de@d in her Sneyd Green home in Stoke-on-Trent.
Life and Career
Born and bred in Staffordshire’s Stoke-on-Trent, specifically the Sneyd Green area, Paula Williamson graduated with an acting BA from Manchester Metropolitan University School of Theatre in 2005.
She appeared in iconic British shows like Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and Hollyoaks (Image: ITV)
Her onscreen career included small roles in iconic British television shows like Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Scott and Bailey and was one half of the comedy duo Brides of Comedy.
Paula appeared in Coronation Street three times between 2008 and 2012 as an unnamed nurse at Weatherfield General Hospital. She also came onscreen twice in Emmerdale, once as a stripper named Holly, and once as the leader in-charge of an ante-natal class. In 2012, she played the role of a doctor in Hollyoaks.
In 2013, Paula made a famous pen pal – notorious jailbird Charles Bronson – and so began the most publicised chapter of her life.
Married to ‘Britain’s most notorious prisoner’
Charles has been labelled one of the UK’s most violent offenders – and has spent over 50 years of his life in prison. During this time he has held at least 11 hostages in nine different sieges, his victims including doctors, governors, staff, and even his own solicitor.
She became famous for marrying Britain’s most notorious prisoner – Charles Bronson (L) (Image: SWNS / Daily Mirror)
Paula first began writing to Charles in prison in 2013, after reading the felon’s book about his time in Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital. Speaking about her decision to write to the ‘UK’s most violent prisoner’, she told the BBC: “I wanted to thank him – it [the book] had hope, and really helped me mentally.”
After three years of writing to Charles, Paula was finally granted visitation rights and met the infamous prisoner face-to-face in West Yorkshire’s HMP Wakefield in November 2016.
By Valentine’s Day 2017, Charles had proposed over the phone by singing My Way, and by November 2017, the unlikely pair had taken the leap and said ‘I do’. They were wed in Wakefield’s prison chapel, with then 64-year-old Charles handcuffed to a guard.
In an interview with the Daily Mail after her unique prison wedding, Paula shared: “I’m madly in love with Charlie and he’s madly in love with me. But even I can’t believe I’m marrying Britain’s most notorious prisoner. We just want to be a normal couple.”
Their relationship’s break down was as quick as its build-up, with the former bare knuckle boxer claiming he wanted a divorce in 2018 after seeing scandalous pictures of his wife with a mystery man while she was holidaying in Tenerife.
She was found de@d in her bed at home by her boyfriend (Image: Benjamin Paul/SWNS)
Paula followed up with a tearful appearance on ITV’s Loose Women, with Charles giving a statement to the show saying his wife had ‘disrespected’ him.
Britain’s most notorious prisoner said: “I can’t accept that kind of behaviour from somebody supposed to be my wife.”
The felon added he believed Paula had a ‘drink and prescription drug problem’, sharing: “I absolutely abhor alcohol and drugs. She needs to get help. I’ll miss her but she needs to sort herself out or she will be de@d in two years.”
Paula tearfully agreed on the show: “I have got an alcohol problem. I’ve got a drug problem – a prescription drug problem. I’ve had it for years. Every single messed up thing I’ve done for a long, long time is through alcohol. And it needs to stop. It needs to stop. He’s made me realise that.”
The final straw in their marriage, however, came in March 2019, just a few months before Paula d!ed, and this time it was the Coronation Street actress who announced she was divorcing the convict.
Paula appeared on ITV’s Loose Women to discuss the breakdown of her marriage to the infamous felon (Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Paula’s decision was reportedly owed to Charles asking her to dress as a cat during her next visit to impress other Wakefield inmates, something she found to be humiliating. Charles allegedly sent his wife a chunk of his moustache as a parting gift.
By June 2019, roughly a month before her de@th, the 38-year-old Hollyoaks actress had reportedly applied for an annulment of her marriage to Charles on the grounds that it had not been consummated.
Tragic de@th at 38
On 29 July 2019, Paula’s body was discovered at her Stoke-on-Trent home by her new boyfriend, Peter Jones, 53, at around 7am.
The inquest into the actress’ de@th heard that she had d!ed after taking drugs and alcohol and the cause of de@th was recorded as multiple drug toxicity.
The inquest heard evidence from Peter, who had been in a relationship with Paula for around six months, and had been the one to find her de@d in her bed.
Peter said Paula had gone out with friends in Hanley on the afternoon of July 28, despite saying that she felt unwell. The actress reportedly came back to her Sneyd Green home at 11.15pm with a friend who was staying with her. Peter told the inquest Paula and her friend had reportedly been refused entry into two nightclubs because Paula was drunk.
Peter shared: “She was angry with the doorman. She said she wanted to go and stab him. She had a knife in her hand. I calmed her down and said I would go and have a word with him. I went out on my motorbike and drove to Morrisons. When I got back she had calmed down.”
She was in the middle of writing a tell-all autobiography when she d!ed (Image: REX)
Peter recalled that Paula went to bed around 1am, and he slept on the sofa downstairs. The next morning, when he went to check on Paula at 6.40am, Peter found her lifeless on her back in the bed and dialled 999. When paramedics arrived, they confirmed the actress had d!ed.
Peter told the inquest: “I knew something was wrong. I tried to wake her. I couldn’t wake her up.”
Staffordshire Police’s DC Phil Pegg said the investigation into the ex-Corrie star’s de@th found there were no suspicious circumstances. The area coroner, Emma Serrano, ruled Paula’s cause of de@th as multiple drug toxicity.
There were signs that Paula had vomited, and close to where her body was found were reportedly two white self-seal bags – one containing cocaine and the other empty, with remnants of the white powder.
Peter told the inquest they were ‘planning on getting married’ and there was ‘a lot to look forward to’.
Paula’s mother, Hazel Williamson, shared that her daughter had been suffering from depression as a result of her acting career not progressing in the way that she had hoped, adding that Paula had seemed ‘much happier’ since she began her relationship with Peter.
Hazel also shared Paula had been writing her tell-all autobiography, which she began to write at the start of 2019, and reportedly felt under pressure from the de@dlines she was set.
