HOLLYWOOD actress Sharon Stone has spoken of her “heartbreak” following the death of veteran peace campaigner Betty Williams last year.
The Irish American A-lister, turned human rights activist, told the Late Late Show how she travelled to the north with her partner Enzo Cursio to visit the Nobel laureate and peace activist just weeks before her death in March 2020.
Betty Williams helped found the Peace People in 1976 with Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Ciaran McKeown.
Sharon Stone forged a close relationship with the Belfast campaigner in Poland in 2013 when Betty Williams presented a Peace Summit Award to the Hollywood actress for her work in fighting HIV/AIDS.
“I was very blessed to have met and become so close with Betty Williams. It was a tremendous heartbreak when we lost her,” she told Ryan Tubridy.
“Betty and I had done some good things together and so we really wanted to see her.
“We just really wanted to see her and get to spend some time with her, just come and give her some love.
“I didn’t realise she was so close to the end of her life at that time, or that we would lose her to Covid.”
The Hollywood actress also recalled how she was left deeply moved by the experience of visiting sites associated with the Troubles in Belfast.
“I hadn’t been to Belfast before and I was fortunate enough to take one of those black cab tours, spend a day with a really great driver and have the opportunity to walk and look at all these different places.
“So many things just broke my heart. I remember just standing in the street and crying. It was so heartbreaking to imagine.”
