A woman who married Paul O'Grady in the 1970s has spoken out about his death. Paul previously admitted he had married Portuguese ex wife Teresa Fernandes in 1977 to stop her from being deported.
Teresa Fernandes was married to the much-loved star for 28 years, as Paul previously said he had forgotten he had married the barmaid all those years ago. It was only when his manager Brendan reminded him that he remembered. His manager had told him: "If anything happened to you, everything would go to your wife. It's like a real-life Corrie storyline", the Mirror reports.
Teresa has now revealed her sadness over her beloved friend's death. "We probably enjoyed one of the longest marriages in showbiz!" she quipped to the Daily Mail.
The presenter met Teresa in a gay club where they worked, and he decided to marry her out of "convenience" and to stop her being "hassled" by her family.
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Despite losing contact, they only legally divorced in 2005 after being married for 28 years, but Paul said he had never been in a relationship with her. And Teresa said they never slept or lived together
Paul had said when speaking about the marriage: "Teresa, I call her the lesbian Portuguese barmaid, was lovely. She looked like David Cassidy.
"We worked in a club in Westbourne Grove, London, when I was 22. She was from a very strict Catholic family and was always being hassled by them: 'Why aren't you getting married?' So I said: 'Come on then, we'll get married', and we did. We were married for 28 years."
The Radio 2 star went on to marry Brazilian ballet dancer Andre Portasio, who was 25 years his junior, in 2017, after meeting at London-based gay club Showplace and becoming friends.
Paul also had a daughter, Sharon, with his close friend Diane Jansen, in 1974. He also had a grandson, Abel and a granddaughter, Halo.
Teresa told how the pair carried on working after they got married but then eventually drifted apart and had other partners. She thinks she last saw Paul in the 1980s while he was performing at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern where the pair caught up about the past.
The pair were eventually divorce in 2005.
She said "Paul was a lovely man", and 'him offering to marry me to help me out was just one of those things that Paul would do, he would help anyone."
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