Romance could be in the air for notorious Milton Keynes prisoner Charles Bronson - with his ex-wife

Charles Bronson's ex-wife has come to Milton Keynes to visit him for the first time in nearly 50 years - and says he wants to "buy her a ring."

Irene Dunroe, 71, said she went to talk about their relationship and claims Britain's most notorious prisoner wants them to get back together.

The pair split in 1976 but remained in contact. But after the recent meeting at HMP Woodhill in MK, Irene says Bronson, 70, wants to try again.

She says the infamous lag is even talking about buying her a ring.

And she is not ruling a new start out - but wants to take things slowly and get him his freedom first.

The mum-of-three, who works for Ann Summers and lives in Merseyside, spent two hours with Bronson and is hoping to see him again before Christmas.

She said: "I think he probably does want more than friendship... I just want him out.

"He said I haven't changed at all and he was looking into my eyes and saying you've still got the same gorgeous eyes. He was full of compliments.

"He's always saying that he wants to try the relationship, and that he's always loved me - that I'm his first love.

"We don't know what's in the future but he says he wants to get a ring for me for Christmas so he is thinking things like that. But I'm not sure on all of that yet."

Irene and Bronson met when they were teenagers and married soon after. Back then he was known as Michael Peterson and Irene still affectionately calls him Mick.

She said she was taken by his dapper dress sense and Cockney accent.

The couple married in 1971 and have a son, also Michael, now aged 51. But the pair divorced just five years later while Bronson was serving time for armed robbery.

Both remarried, Bronson twice and Irene once.

But both are now single again - and she visited him to talk in person for the first time in almost five decades after exchanging phone calls and letters.

"I ran up to him as soon as I walked in,” she said.

"He picked me up and spun me around as I hugged him.

"He showed me some of his tattoos and he took one of his socks off which had moustaches all over them and the tattoo had my name on it, which I didn't know about.

"He was talking about when he gets out he said he's going to take me on holiday.

"It was so lovely to see him and he was laughing with the guards and they all said he was a nice bloke and does no harm to anybody.”

Irene said she was “upset” to see how her former husband has changed.

"His skin was as white as a sheet, it was like white snow and his eyes have gone so pale. He used to have jet black eyes and had naturally tanned skin like me and that's what really upset me.

"It shows you what he's been through - kept in the dark in solitary confinement for years and years.

"But he's so positive and he's behaved well for eight years now, he's not violent now… He was singing his head off to us and he's got an amazing voice."

Bronson has spent most of his life behind bars. He was first jailed in 1974, aged 22, when he was given seven years for armed robbery.

But bad behaviour inside gave him a reputation as a dangerous inmate, and he wasn't released until 1987.

Bronson then spent just 69 days as a free man before being rearrested and jailed again after robbing a jewellery shop.

He was sentenced to another seven years and, bar another brief spell of freedom in 1992, has been in prison ever since.

He was last denied parole in March this year.

Irene says she hopes Bronson gets out soon so he can live out some of his dreams.

She said: "When he's released he wants to open a studio called the Salvador Studio and he wants to buy 12 old prison cell doors and create artwork over the doors and sell them as a set.

"He's also been offered to do a one-off bare knuckle fight and Mick was telling us about that.

"The whole visit was just amazing, he's so cheerful and he makes you laugh, you certainly don't feel threatened by him.”

Irene said she and Bronson kept in touch via letter before they started speaking over the phone.

She said: "We've become more and more friendly over the years.

"When he rings me we always talk about the old days. It seems like yesterday.

"He's very generous and he sends me a hamper every Christmas."

Although she's not sure on their future yet, Irene says she "might consider" getting re-married.

She said: "I might consider it, but I don't know. I'm not sure about all that yet, but we'll see.

"We're always going to be very good friends, and we did think a lot of each other. You don't know how things are going to pan out, I never thought 50 years ago that he'd still be in prison.”

"We have a lot of respect for each other."

Earlier this year Bronson appeared in a Channel 4 documentary called 'Bronson: Fit to Be Free?'. It told Bronson is hoping to be freed after the latest public parole hearing.