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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kyle O'Sullivan

Anne Darwin's stunning glow up, new life after John split and career since prison

Anne Darwin looks completely different now to the miserable figure we saw after the fake canoe death scam was exposed.

There was no mistaking Anne when she was led into court with her bright white bob and trademark glasses and a rather dowdy cardigan.

The softly spoken former doctors' receptionist was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for fraud, which was longer than the six years that husband John Darwin received.

Back in 2002, Anne lied to the police and even her own sons as she played the grieving widow after her husband's supposed death in a tragic canoe accident at sea.

However, Anne was fully aware that her husband was still alive as he was secretly living next door to the family home and ever sharing her bed while she collected his £250,000 life insurance policy.

The former couple used their ill-gotten gains to fly around the world in a bid to start a new life, eventually purchasing a £200,000 tropical estate in a village in Panama in 2007.

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But a change in Panama's visa laws meant John couldn't stay and sensationally returned to the UK.

He walked straight into a police station, stated his actual name, then tried to claim he had been suffering from amnesia for five years.

The pair were rumbled when a photo emerged of them in an estate agents during the time John was supposedly missing - as well as sordid emails between him and Anne.

Anne was released from prison in 2011 and used the qualifications she gained in prison she found a job with the RSPCA and moved to a village outside of York.

The 70-year-old had a glamorous makeover, changing her hair colour and a trendier set of specs.

She now lives a quiet life in a small one-bedroom bungalow in a village in North Yorkshire - where few of her neighbours know her identity.

Anne has taken up hiking to clear her head and embarks on walks around the North Yorkshire Moors and Cleveland Hills.

According to The Daily Mail, she has reverted to her maiden name and would not commented when asked about the new ITV drama.

Stunning Anne transformed her look (MDM)

One neighbour told them: "We simply know her as Anne. She is very quiet but friendly. She has never mentioned what she did, but then why should she.

"I do remember the whole canoe story. It’s quite amusing that she is living here, but I suppose it was a long time ago and she is just getting on with her life."

Anne has given her own account of the scandal in her book, Out Of My Depth, which was labelled the "true story" of Anne's journey from an ordinary housewife to "Canoe Widow, Panama and prison".

She explained that she wrote the book to help herself and as a love letter to her children, in a bid to make them understand why she went along with the nasty scheme - and donated the proceeds to charity.

Anne had been publicly disowned by her sons, Mark and Anthony, who were furious at both their parents' deception and said they didn't wish to see them ever again.

"After the truth came out that we’d been living in Panama together, I continually wrote to Mark and Anthony to say, 'I am so sorry. I really do love you'," explained Anne to The Guardian.

"But they refused to see or talk to me. The first time I set eyes on them [afterwards] was at my trial when Mark was the first to testify against me. After he left the witness box, he only lifted his eyes fleetingly to meet mine. I was totally shocked by how dark and full of anger they were. To see that was absolutely horrendous."

Monica Dolan as Anne Darwin in The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe (PA)

After nine long years of building bridges, Anne has now been forgiven by her son Mark and started to have a relationship with Anthony.

Mark said: "It was a cruel act of betrayal that no parent should ever inflict on their children - the pain and suffering it caused me and my brother is indescribable. The horror of the discovery, my sheer fury and what they put me though, is something that will taint my life forever."

He added: "I have forgiven her, to some degree, but I will never understand, nor forget."

It's a very different story for John, who now lives in the Philippines with his new wife Mercy, who is 23 years his junior.

He now flogs his market trader wife's £4.35 a time undies and T-shirts in a giant indoor market and reportedly still gets a UK state pension of around £134 a week.

While Anne is still believed to be single and enjoying spending time with her four grandchildren.

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