Joan Hannington Biography: Husband, Age, Parents, Net Worth, Children, Height, Books, Wikipedia

Biography

Joan Hannington is a British author and a former notorious jewel thief. She was widely known as “the Godmother” of London’s criminal underworld in the 1980s.

Born in 1957 in London’s East End to working-class Irish parents, she was the youngest of six children. She endured a difficult childhood marked by alleged abuse and ran away from home at age 13.

After early hardships, including a marriage at 17 to an armed robber and becoming a single mother, she turned to crime and became a master diamond thief. She specialized in high-stakes jewelry thefts, often using disguises, accents, and clever tactics to evade detection.

Hannington worked closely with her second husband, antiques dealer and thief Boisie Hannington (Ronald Thomas Hannington), until his death in the 1980s. She served prison time for check fraud, but was never convicted for the major jewel crimes she described.

Later, she turned her life around by flipping council houses in real estate. In 2002, she published her memoir I Am What I Am: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief, later reissued as Joan: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Diamond Thief. This book inspired the 2024 ITV/CW miniseries Joan starring Sophie Turner.

Now in her late 60s, she lives quietly on England’s South Coast with her dogs. She is a mother of two and a grandmother, reflecting on her past as a determined provider for her family rather than expressing regret.

British author and jewel thief
Joan Hannington
Wiki Facts & About Data
Real Name:	Joan Hannington O’Leary
Stage Name:	Joan Hannington
Born:	1 January 1957 (age 69 years old)
Place of Birth:	Acton, West London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality:	American
Education:	N/A
Height:	N/A
Parents:	Richard O’Leary, Josephine O’Leary
Siblings:	5
Spouse:	Ray Pavey (m. 1974-?), Ronald “Boisie” Hannington (m. 1980)
Boyfriend • Partner:	Not Dating
Children:	Debbie Pavey, Benny Banks
Occupation:	Author • Jewel Thief
Net Worth:	$3 million (USD)

Early Life

Joan Hannington (née O’Leary) was born on January 1, 1957, in Acton, West London, England. She is of Irish ethnicity and was raised in a working-class Irish family.

Catholicism shaped the household amid poverty and hardship. She was the youngest of six children. Her parents were Richard O’Leary, a former boxing promoter known for violent and abusive behaviour, and Josephine O’Leary.

Her childhood in London’s East End involved extreme poverty and severe physical abuse from her father, including regular beatings. There was a harrowing incident in which he allegedly attempted to drown Joan and her siblings in the bath.

These traumatic experiences drove her to run away from home at 13. She left school at 13 with no formal qualifications and received no further education. Details from her memoir and interviews focus mainly on familial struggles and survival instincts that defined her formative years, rather than specific religious practices.

Career

Joan Hannington started her criminal career in the late 1970s after a difficult period in her personal life. She had gone through an abusive first marriage, and her daughter Debbie was placed in foster care. Wanting to rebuild her life and regain custody, Joan faked references to get a job at a high-end jewelry store in London around 1979.

While working there, she once found herself alone near an open safe and swallowed a handful of loose diamonds. She later estimated that the first haul was worth about £800,000. This became her trademark: swallowing gems to smuggle them out, then cleaning them in gin.

She called her stomach the “best hiding place” and kept using this bold method, sometimes swapping real diamonds for fakes or stealing valuable rings and bracelets. In 1980, soon after marrying her second husband, antiques dealer and skilled thief Ronald “Boisie” Hannington, she was arrested, not for jewel theft but for possession of a stolen chequebook.

She served a 30-month sentence at Holloway Prison. After her release, Joan hid her criminal record and got another job at a jewelry store, where she continued her activities. She reportedly swallowed about 20 more diamond rings and swapped over £500,000 worth of diamond bracelets for fakes.

Working with Boisie, who taught her tricks like cheque and credit card fraud, disguises, and high-society scams, Joan became an expert at deception. They posed as wealthy tourists, often Americans, and wore wigs, furs, and designer clothes to target luxury jewelers in London and beyond.

Together, they made millions, some estimates put it at £3 million from fraud alone, and lived a lavish lifestyle with Ferraris, first-class travel, daily hair appointments, and a huge wardrobe, including 2,000 pairs of shoes.

Joan became known as “the Godmother” for her leadership in London’s criminal underworld during the 1980s, combining jewel theft with fraud for nearly 20 years. She was never convicted for her major diamond thefts or smuggling, only for minor related crimes.

In 1987, she had a son, Benny, and started to slow down. In 1990, Boisie died in a failed insurance scam involving a house fire and explosion. Heartbroken and wanting to give her son a stable life, Joan left crime for good.

Afterward, she sold Boisie‘s antique shops, moved to Islington in North London, and started a legitimate business. She became successful flipping and renovating ex-council houses, using her savings to invest in real estate.

In the early 2000s, she wrote her memoir, I Am What I Am: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief (reissued in 2024 as Joan: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Diamond Thief). The book became a bestseller and inspired the 2024 ITV/CW miniseries Joan, starring Sophie Turner.

Personal Life

Joan Hannington is currently 69 years old, born on January 1, 1957.

She has been married twice. In 1974, at the age of 17, she married her first husband, Ray Pavey, a convicted armed robber. The marriage was abusive and produced one daughter, Debbie Pavey, who was later placed into foster care.

Joan eventually left the relationship. Six years later, in 1980, at age 24, she married her second husband, Ronald “Boisie” Hannington (full name Ronald Thomas Hannington), an antiques dealer and thief who was 17 years her senior.

The couple had one son, Benny Hannington (born 1987), who later became a rapper known as Benny Banks. Tragedy struck in 1990 when Boisie died in a botched insurance fraud after a house fire he set caused an explosion.

After Boisie’s death, Joan found love again but has kept her post-1990 dating life largely private. Nonetheless, in interviews, she has openly discussed one later boyfriend who embezzled more than £1 million from her legitimate business, saying she now knows “what it’s like to be robbed.”

Meanwhile, Joan’s height has never been publicly disclosed in interviews, her memoir, or any biographical sources. She is a proud grandmother through her son Benny and lives quietly on England’s South Coast.

Net Worth

Joan Hannington‘s net worth is estimated at around $3 million as of recent years. This figure reflects the substantial wealth she accumulated during her criminal career in the 1980s, when she and her husband Boisie reportedly handled several million in stolen gems, cash, and assets,often stashing valuables in bank vaults or even burying them in biscuit tins, while living extravagantly with Ferraris, designer wardrobes, first-class travel, and luxury homes.

Although she never faced major convictions for her diamond thefts (only serving time for cheque fraud), she retired from crime after Boisie‘s death in 1990, declaring she had “more than enough money to last for life.” She invested her proceeds into legitimate ventures, notably flipping and renovating ex-council houses in London, which proved highly profitable in the property market.

A later setback occurred when a boyfriend embezzled over £1 million from her business, but her real estate success, combined with earnings from her bestselling 2002 memoir I Am What I Am (reissued in 2024) and the rights to its adaptation into the ITV/CW series Joan, have sustained her comfortable lifestyle.

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