Underbelly family: ‘I don’t want my children to follow in my footsteps’, Roberta Williams says

ROBERTA Williams, the ex-wife of crime figure Carl Williams, reveals in an exclusive interview she was devastated after she got the call her eldest daughter had been charged with attempted murder.

Roberta Williams with daughter Dhakota Willimas. Roberta Williams poses up exclusively for The Daily Telegraph after her daughter, Danielle Stephens was granted bail after being charged with attempted murder of a Melbourne man. Picture: Bradley Hunter

ROBERTA Williams says she just wants a better life for her children.

So when the infamous ­­ex-wife of crime figure Carl Williams got the call that her eldest daughter had been charged with attempted murder, her heart sank.

“I’m devastated,” Williams said.

“I don’t want my children to follow in my footsteps, hence the reason why I have tried to give them that private school education, the things I didn’t have in life, the mum that is there if they need someone to talk to.

“I want to be mum that they can turn to.”

Danielle Stephens, Williams’ 22-year-old daughter, was on Friday released on bail after being charged with the attempted murder of Serkan Kala in Melbourne.

Sanar Ghanin, Stephen’s boyfriend, is in custody after also being charged.

“I often say to my kids, ­‘society owes you nothing, you owe it to fit in and be a normal everyday citizen’ and that is how I bring them up,” Williams, 45, said.

Carl Williams with his daughter Dhakota.

Williams believes her daughter to be innocent.

“Of course I am going to stand by my daughter, no matter what,” Williams said.

“She is a good kid. I can see in her eyes and her emotions that she is shocked by it all herself. I hope that Danielle can get past this and we move forward and she gets back to work and continues with the future that she had planned, just working, travelling, having some children.” Williams concedes the public sees her as a hard person after years in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

While she admits she is unlikely to shake off her criminal past, Williams said the reality of her day-to-day life is very different these days. “People see me as a hard- arse person,” she said.

“People don’t have the right perspective of me in that regard and that shatters me a little because I feel I was put on this earth to be a mum, that is a job I take very seriously and I look after my kids very well and treat them with the respect they deserve.”

Danielle, brother Tye, 27, and sister, Breanane, 20, a beauty therapist, are from her relationship with Dean Stephens, who was a close ­associate of the Moran crime family. Dhakota, 13, is her daughter to Carl Williams — who was beaten to death in Barwon Prison in 2010.

Roberta Williams at home with her daughter Dhakota. Picture: Bradley Hunter

She also has a nearly four-year-old son, Giuseppe, with her current partner, Rob.

Walking into her home is warm and inviting.

Giuseppe, who is autistic, is playing with a Buzz Lightyear toy and Dhakota is pouring a glass of water.

“I didn’t have an upbringing at all that I would have liked to have had, no mum and no dad that cared for me.

“I was in and out of foster homes,” she said. “I made sure I ­instilled in my kids that Year 12 was a certainty, no ifs or buts or whats about it.”

“People see me as that hard person that is out there and running around doing business or seeing other criminals, hanging out with other criminals or partying with other criminals.

“Nobody has really seen me where I’m mum on the couch, hugging my daughter and arguing about Big ­Brother cos I don’t like it. I’m more likely to be in a cafe ­ordering a coffee than in the park talking to drug dealers.”

Roberta Williams with her then-husband Carl during happier times.

Williams, who is working on a new book and represented by Steven Gold Management, wants to see her children ­become parents.

“I want grandkids more than anything on this earth to love and spoil,” Roberta Williams said. “I have a collection of clothing and furniture and stuff like that that I have put away to hopefully have for them.”