The famous former wives and girlfriends of Australian bikies

While many Aussie bikie WAGs enjoy the spoils of the luxury lifestyles, others are often left with a broken heart. See who has been left behind.

Women in relationships with bikies may be more likely to be victims of domestic violence — but there are others who live safe and comfortable lives.

So what attracts them to the lifestyle and how do they often turn a blind eye to alleged criminality involved in the bikie gangs?

Relationships Australia NSW CEO Elisabeth Shaw said women often search for relationships where they feel wanted and protected — and the bikie image can be romanticised.

The clinical and counselling psychologist described these relationships as being part of a sub-culture showcasing a close knit, and often exclusive, community.

“I think there is something about how bikies have been romanticised … that being on the fringes of some danger is appealing to both men and women,” Ms Shaw said.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 3 OF THE BIKIES INC PODCAST:

“There could be something seductive about what the lifestyle represents … where they feel protected and part of something and loved.”

Ms Shaw said she understands why it would be so difficult for women who are victims of domestic violence to leave bikies.

“Those who have the criminal element … may threaten their female partner with injury or death if they threaten to leave,” Ms Shaw said.

And for the women who stay with men within bikie gangs, Ms Shaw said either they could be left in the dark about the full scope of their partner’s involvement in the gang, or there is a “flirtation with danger that could be appealing” — without the violence.

While some bikie WAGs enjoy the spoils of the luxury lifestyles, others are often left with a broken heart.

We take a look at some slain bikies and the women they have left behind.

MICK HAWI

The Comanchero bikie, who was gunned down outside a Rockdale gym in February 2018, was essentially a one-woman man. He was in an exclusive relationship with Carolina Gonzales since they were 15 years old, until the day he died.

They married in 2002 and had two sons.

Mick Hawi and Carolina Gonzalez were together since they were teens.

Mick Hawi and his wife Carolina in 2015. Picture: Facebook

Ms Gonzales even applied to the NSW Supreme Court to preserve sperm from Hawi’s his body so she could have more children with him. She was given permission to take the sperm but decided against it at a later date and had it destroyed.

The widow, who discovered Hawi was a bikie six years into their relationship, always stood by her husband, saying she had no issue with him being involved in what was essentially a social club.

And she continued to support him after he was charged with the 2009 murder of Anthony Zervas at the infamous Sydney Airport brawl. He spent 1781 days in prison, regularly visited by his wife and kids, before the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal overturned his murder conviction in 2014.

YUSUF NAZLIOGLU

Slain Lone Wolf bikie Yusuf Nazlioglu was gunned down in front of his wife, Jade, 27, outside their Rhodes apartment in June 2022.

The couple married in January this year and regularly posted loved-up pictures on social media.

After the shooting, a neighbour told The Daily Telegraph: “She was wailing, she was really upset. She was saying: ‘Why did they have to kill him, he’s a new man, he hasn’t done anything wrong, he’s not what he used to be’.”

Yusuf Nazlioglu and his wife Jade Nazlioglu. Picture: Instagram

The couple married in January. Picture: Facebook

Nazlioglu, 40, was found not guilty of the murder of Mick Hawi, who died in a hail of bullets in the car park of Rockdale Fitness First gym.

He was jailed for seven years from 2002 over a vicious stabbing attack on a man who he did not know as he was walking with his wife and child.

Nazlioglu split from his ex-wife Monique in 2016, who faced her own charged in 2019 after police found almost two kilograms of drugs and more than $124,000 cash in her Bankstown apartment. In 2021, she was sentenced to an intensive correction order for one year and nine months and community service.

MARK BUDDLE

The Comanchero boss left Australia for overseas many years ago with his then-partner Mel Ter Wisscha and their two daughters.

But after he was arrested in Northern Cyprus in early July, it came out the pair were no longer together — and that the bikie boss had fallen in love and married an employee, identified only as Ozge, within a few months of arriving in Northern Cyprus in 2021.

Mel Ter Wisscha and Mark Buddle have two daughters together.

The couple are no longer together and Buddle has a new wife.

After this was made public, Buddle’s glamorous longtime partner said she had not seen him for close to a year.

“I haven’t seen Mark for a year. He’s the father of my children. They see him, I don’t,” Ms Ter Wisscha told News Corp Australia.

“I haven’t left Turkey. My kids have gone to and from (Northern Cyprus) but I have stayed away.”

Ms Ter Wisscha travelled with Buddle to Dubai in 2016, where Buddle is said to have travelled to Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. When Buddle continued on to Northern Cyprus, it is understood Ms Ter Wisscha ended up residing in Turkey, where in July she was detained at a detention centre because of visa issues.

Not long after that, Buddle was extradited to Australia on August 3 to face charges linked to importing 160kg of cocaine into Melbourne in mid-2021.

Ms Ter Wisscha had been living in the glitzy suburb of Bitez, about 4km east of Bodrum, where she often posted stunning images of her surroundings, including a few bikini shots she posted on Instagram.

JOHN MACRIS

Sydney gangster John Macris left behind his model wife Viktoria Karida and their two children, Alexandra and Achilles, when he was gunned down in a seaside suburb in Athens in October 2018.

Ms Karida was a former playmate and reality TV star. She married Macris in 2016 in Mykonos and after his shocking death, told police they “led a quiet life”.

John Macris was gunned down in Greece leaving Viktoria and their two children behind.

It is understood Macris fled to Greece to avoid a warrant out for his arrest in NSW for failing to attend court for sentencing on a conviction for driving while his license was cancelled.

One year after his death, Ms Karida appeared on Greek television saying she was still “completely lost” without Macris and that along with their two children, found it difficult to move on.

“I sit like a vegetable in the house,” she told With You host Tatiana Stefanidou during an interview on SKAI TV.

“I’m completely lost.”

FARES ABOUNADER

Two years after Comanchero bikie Fares Abounader’s execution outside their Wall Ave, Panania home in 2020, his widow Kristia Gabriel was still coming to terms with his senseless death.

Abounader had just parked into the driveway when a gunman ran up alongside the car and opened fire.

Kristia Gabriel, the widow of slain Comanchero bikie Fares Abounader. Picture: Facebook

Fares Abounader was shot dead outside his Panania home in front of his wife in 2020.

Ms Gabriel was the one who pulled him from the driver’s seat and tried to help him but he died at the scene.

“It is what it is, they’re just killing each other, there’s nothing I can do about it,” Ms Gabriel told The Daily Telegraph in 2022.

She said she didn’t see any point in discussing her husband’s murder any further.

“There’s no point … what’s it going to do?”

Ms Gabriel runs a hair extension business based in Bankstown.

NICK MARTIN

Rebels bikie president Nick Martin was shot dead during a drag racing event in Perth in 2020 from what police believe was a sniper shot.

He was shot once in the torso while watching he Outlaw Nitro Challenge at Perth Motorplex in Kwinana in December of that year.

Nick Martin was shot dead at a drag racing event as his wife Amanda was by his side. Picture: Supplied

His widow Amanda and stepdaughter were with him at the time and watched as he collapsed and then died from his injuries.

She said she was kissing him and trying to give him CPR but he never opened his eyes again.

In 2021, it was revealed Ms Martin was the director and sole owner of a tattoo parlour Emerald Ink Tattoo in Perth’s north, which was damaged in a suspected arson attacks.

In 2021, a man who cannot be identified, admitted to planning and carrying out the shooting for $100,000 in payment. He agreed to testify against the alleged mastermind of the execution and was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Originally published as The famous former wives and girlfriends of Australian bikies