She talks to her cats, lives alone . . .
The following article was published by the Sunday Mail, Glasgow Scotland, on August 31, 1997 and was written by Andrew Gold:
She talks to her cats, lives alone in the shadow of hookers, grieves for her murdered friend … but for Iris the wild life with Billy Connolly is just a memory.
Haggard and drawn, she shuffles across the sun-scorched yard of her secret hideaway. For half an hour, Iris Connolly chats to her beloved cats, as if talking to her best friend. These days, Iris - the dumped wife of Big Yin Billy - seldom ventures far from her beloved animals. Her reclusive existence near the Spanish resort of Benidorm is a million miles away from her stormy relationship with Scotland's comedy king. The champagne life, arm-in-arm with funnyman Connolly, is just a distant memory.
Iris, 54, has finally settled for good after moving house 24 times in her troubled life. In her first interview since quitting Scotland for Spain six years ago, she reveals how life without Billy has led to even more heartache. Shuffling nervously behind the locked iron gates of her home, she told how: Her only true pal was cruelly EXECUTED by drug barons. She was forced to BORROW cash from a close friend to survive after her divorce settlement. And gossips who thought she'd pocketed a fortune from Billy were making her life HELL.
Iris's tanned face cracked into a nervous grin as she looked back on their volatile relationship. She said: "People have written so much rubbish about myself and Billy. I've been told that somebody wrote I was getting as much as pounds 40,000- a-year. The truth is that when I came here the money situation was very difficult. People think I got a fortune, but that's not true. The real reason I'm here is because I wanted to get away from it all. I don't mix with the expats here. In all the years I've lived here, I've only been in the resort of Benidorm maybe 10 times. I'm here because I don't want to talk to anyone. If I wanted to talk about Billy, I would have done it. My mum and dad are old and I've taken them out of Britain for a new life here. I'm doing nothing else - I have nobody in my life. I have a padlock on my gate and I don't really want to talk to anybody."
TRAGICALLY, her lone true friend in Spain was killed in a bloodbath a year ago. For the first time, Iris spoke of her deep distress over the slaying of Jan Juri Slivinski. Her pal, who was part of a famous British circus family, was brutally stabbed to death during a raid on his Benidorm home last August. His Hamilton-born mum Eva suffered near-fatal stab wounds in the attack, which was believed to have been carried out by paid assassins. Iris claimed Jan had known too much about the local drugs trade and had paid the ultimate price. Wiping away a tear, she revealed: "He knew too much. He saw what was happening in the drugs scene. I think about him every day and miss him terribly. He was just a very soft guy and a nice man. When I came here, the money situation was difficult and he helped me a lot. He was three years older than my son Jamie and was a great friend. He had nothing to do with any drugs himself - I'm convinced he just knew too much."
BEHIND the wrought-liron gates of her simple one-story home, Iris has a painfully lonely life. Many of her closest neighbors don't even know her name, while others often deliberately mislead strangers to try to protect her anonymity. On her rare excursions out of her house, Iris spends time at a tiny rundown bar in the sleaziest part of town. Close by, truckers and Spanish businessmen travelling on the busy Alicante-Valencia road, take their pick of a chain of seedy sex clubs. At places like Club Brasilia, punters pay 20 pounds to buy the girl of their choice and a tiny glass of champagne, while sex services cost a minimum of 40 pounds.
Yards away at Rafters bar - close to the town of Altea - Iris enjoys a quiet drink in the sun, oblivious to the sordid surroundings. Disheveled and distrusting of anybody who attempts to talk to her, she shares her life with her cats and Alsatian dogs. Her daily routine begins around 9am when she steps into the morning sunshine to feed her beloved cats. Iris shuns the sangria-swilling lifestyle of her fellow expats in this Mediterranean hot-spot. Her parents - William and Helen, both in their 80s - live close by in another house. The purpose-built complex is surrounded by cactus trees and barren stretches of dusty land ready for development. It is mainly comprised of holiday homes built for rich Brits.
But, at this time of the year, it resembles a ghost town … and Iris strikes a solitary figure, who only comes alive when she's talking about her dogs. She adds: "My dogs don't know anything and I love that. If we had been in Scotland, they would be barking at you but here they don't know any violence. It's a totally different life here. It is much more relaxed and that's how I like it."
FORMER interior designer Iris wed the comic in 1969, then 16 years later fought a bitter and painful divorce action. Eventually, she was humiliated when welder-turned-royal confidante Connolly ditched her for Australian funnygirl Pamela Stephenson. Iris was forced to drag the comic through the courts to get a decent divorce settlement. But she lost custody of Jamie, 27, and her daughter Cara, 23. Millionaire Connolly - who is basking in the glory of the new Mrs Brown movie - now lives with Stephenson at a pounds 2 MILLION Victorian mansion near Windsor, in the south of England. Nearby are the Big Yin's royal buddies Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, the Duchess of York. Connolly also owns a luxurious pounds 1 million home in America's Hollywood Hills. Changed days indeed from his time living in a tenement in Partick, Glasgow.
Meanwhile, the woman he cruelly spurned is destined to spend the rest of her days recovering from life with the Big Yin.
Daniel Pinna 
Kathy Pinna 
