The widow of paedophile TV star Rolf Harris has died aged 93 – fifteen months after her husband.
Alwen Hughes stood by Harris after he was sentenced to five years and nine months in jail in 2014 for 12 indecent assaults on four underage girls between 1968 and 1986.
Alwen, who had dementia and was previously seen in a wheelchair, spent her final days in the £5million riverside mansion they once shared in Bray, Berkshire.
Harris succumbed to neck cancer on May 10 last year, and is said to have told their only daughter, Bindi, to ‘look after your mum’ in a final intervention on his deathbed.
Today, neighbours told Alwen had spent her final years ‘bed bound with no quality of life’. Her death certificate – obtained by The Mirror – states that she died from a stroke.
A local estate agent predicted the family home would be ‘sold very soon’ and executors would be ‘lucky’ if it sold for £2million now it was in a poor condition and had a ‘dark cloud’ hanging over it.
Harris is believed to have begged his daughter Bindi, 58, to look after Alwen after he died on May 10 last year following 65 years of marriage.
‘I always believed we would go on longer together but, if I go first, promise you’ll take good care of your mum,’ he said.
Before his death, Harris had celebrated his 65th wedding anniversary with Alwen, who always stood defiantly by his side alongside their only daughter.
Alwen was born on December 16, 1931 in north London but grew up in Wales.
A jewellery and sculptor, she met Harris in the early 1950s at an art school in Kennington, south London, before marrying him at St Saviour’s Church in Paddington in 1958.
She was known for her eccentric clothing and is even said to have had a poodle as her bridesmaid.
The couple share one daughter Bindi, 58, and the family of three walked into Southwark Crown Court together every day during Harris’ first trial in 2014.
The Aussie entertainer was convicted of a string of indecent assaults, including one of an eight-year-old seeking an autograph, two girls in their early teens and a range of abuse of his daughter’s friend over 16 years, starting when she was just 13.
He was jailed for five years for 12 indecent assaults on four underage girls between 1968 and 1986 but Alwen never publicly wavered from supporting her husband and refused to believe he was evil.
In 2017, while still in jail, the disgraced entertainer was put on trial for a second time, accused of four indecent assaults on three teenage girls.
He denied the charges and was found not guilty after the jury failed to agree on a verdict.
Following the not guilty verdict, his solicitor read a statement on Harris’ behalf which his client he wanted to spend his remaining time with his wife.
‘Whilst I am pleased that this is finally over, I feel no sense of victory – just relief,’ he said.
‘I am 87 years old, my wife is in ill-health and we simply want to spend our remaining time together.’
He was released in May 2017 after spending three years at HMP Stafford.
Speaking soon after Harris’ conviction in 2014, singer Vince Hill said: ‘Alwen is very poorly. We’re all very worried about her.
‘I don’t know if she will survive his prison term. She’s quite fragile. She suffers from arthritis and she’s had hip replacements and God knows what.’
Best known for hits Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport and Jake The Peg, as well as a string of children’s TV hits, Harris painted the 80th birthday portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
In a 2023 documentary, Harris’ former bandmate Chris Brosnan alleged that his marriage to Alwen had been troubled by numerous alleged affairs.
‘When it came to women, it was impossible for Rolf to think about his wife and his daughter,’ he said.
‘In front of Alwen he’d take a woman’s hand, hold their hand and pull them in closer… then he would start kissing them all the way up their arm and he’d get up to their neck and then he’d be kissing their neck.’
Final photos of the couple show the pair smiling with Alwen wearing a pink coat and slippers while Harris puts his arm around her and holds the paw of their family dog.
Bindi Harris is said to have changed her name to Ava Reeves to distance herself from her father’s toxic legacy.