Thelma Madine, resident dressmaker on Channel 4’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding said that going to prison was the making of her. Madine served four months in jail in 2001 for benefit fraud but she said it gave her the opportunity to meet people she wouldn’t have mixed with on the outside.
Speaking to The Observer Thelma said: ‘I’m glad I went to prison. I know it sounds wrong but I thoroughly enjoyed it; I mixed with people I would never have met normally and I saw the other sides to their stories.
‘I am still friends with a woman who murdered her husband.’
The dressmaker claimed benefits after her marriage broke down over 17 years ago but started up a business making christening dresses while continuing to draw the dole.
Thelma and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Star Paddy Doherty
Madine said the hardest part of her prison experience was being away from her children.
‘I remember the prison guards saying: ‘You’re not here for punishment now – the punishment is you being taken away from her family.’
‘And they were right; I spent most of my time in the gym.’
The dressmaker said her time in prison allowed her to empathise with travellers.
‘I only served four months but it was the making of me. I’m not proud of what I did but I learned when I was inside not to judge.
‘That is why I’m supportive of the travellers. They get knocked from pillar to post. Yes, there are a few bad ones, like any group in society, but most of them are decent people.’
