Not many people said no to Reggie Kray, an East End gangster who alongside twin brother Ronnie chilled the spines of people they met.
But one woman, who was 34 years his junior, flatly refused to marry him after he became obsessed with her 34DD assets.
Her name is Debee Ashby, a Page 3 legend who is still selling nude pictures today some 40 years after her topless debut.
READ MORE: Page 3 legend from the 1980s is now a black cab driver who still sells nude pics
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She now lives a quiet life with her boyfriend Johnny Mills on the Isle of Man but things could have been completely different had she said yes to the mobster.
Reggie, who served 33 years behind bars for murdering Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie, died of cancer in 2000, the same year Debee gave birth to a baby boy.
Debee, now 56, sells saucy content on a racy subscription site called Fanvue for just over a tenner a month. And her bio reads: “Page 3 girl in the 80s/90s etc now run a renovation business as I just like getting mucky!”
And despite staying out of the spotlight since she quit glamour modelling in 1996, she broke her 30 years silence in 2014 when she told all to the Sunday Mercury.
And in that interview she spoke about her connection to Reggie Kray who started writing love letters to her from inside Maidstone prison before relaying a marriage proposal via someone he knew in showbiz.
Debee was picking berries on the Isle of Man when she talked about what could have been with The Firm gang leader.
Laughing, she said: “Reggie Kray wanted to marry me. I said ‘No’. I think he married someone else in the end.”
The mum added: “That was a mad time. What an idiot I was. Reggie Kray asked to meet me – I think his brother had died the week before. He wrote to me with about five words on each page. I still have one of them.
“Then my manager said ‘Why don’t you marry him for publicity? Reggie had been talking to a friend, apparently. I was speechless.”
She actually met him behind bars during a visit alongside Eastenders actor John Altman, something she later described as a mistake.
Reggie had previously been married to Frances Shea, who took her own life two years after the wedding. And after being ditched by Debee he married Roberta Jones who he met in Maidstone nick.
Roberta later said: “I didn't know much about the Krays at all. It wasn't love at first, no chemistry or flying sparks.
“I thought he was interesting but what was most fascinating was how he had managed to survive that long in jail without going completely mad.”
Debee meanwhile rose to fame when she was just 16 after her pictures were printed in The Sun newspaper.
She then had to leave Coventry’s King Henry VIII public school and start her glamour career early after her mum took her to a photography studio when she was just 15.
Recalling it, she said: “I will never know why on earth she took me to that sort of place. I was 15, I didn’t understand.”
However, she added: “There are no regrets. But I do sometimes look back and think ‘why on earth did my parents allow me to do that’?”
And despite not going on to tie the knot to the notorious Kray twin, her own love life has been widely speculated on.
The 80s pin-up was just 17 when she was rumoured to have dated Hollywood acting star Tony Curtis who was 59 at the time. And speaking to the Sunday Mercury, she recalled: “He was 59, but seemed more like 79. I didn’t realise it at the time, but he was on drugs.”
She added: “He was a lonely person. No-one called. The only person who called was his drug dealer, although I didn’t realise it at the time. I’d look around and think ‘If this is the A-list, they can keep it’.”
Debee was also said to have had a fling with Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt – but she said he also had a drug problem.
Remembering the “fun but flawed” fling, she said: “He had no money and he was on drugs. I looked after him. It was just a laugh, just a laugh.”
After divorcing Dave Wookey in 1999 she went on to settle down with Johnny Mills and the pair continue to live a peaceful life on the Isle of Man.
But despite enjoying her privacy, fans of Debee still laud over her to this day. Under a recent post on Instagram, where she described herself as an agony aunt, a follower called Shaun said: “I remember when you had your first topless pic taken… and it was with your mum. Wish I could find that beaut. I bet your dad nearly had a heart attack.”
Another wrote: “Debee is still as beautiful as ever, but that’s obvious. She’s also really kind and lovely to talk to if you need to chat.”
A third said: “Hi Debee, I remember when you were posing in Mayfair and Penthouse. You were as thin as you are now but you were gorgeous all the same.”
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