(RNN) – Winnie Madikizela Mandela, former wife of Nelson Mandela, has died at age 81, according to the BBC.
Her personal assistant said a family will be issuing a statement later on Monday.
Mandela was born in the Easter Cape in 1936, and moved to Johannesburg to study social work.
She met Nelson Mandela in 1957and married in 1958. The couple had two children together.
An active anti-apartheid lawyer and activist, Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to live in prison for treason. He was released in 1990, and the image of the two walking hand-in-hand from the prison was seen around the world.
During her husband’s time in prison, Winnie Madikizela Mandela was placed under house arrest at one point, and banished to another city.
She was detained for 18 months in solitary confinement in prison in 1969 for violating the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950.
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