Mitch Winehouse, father of the late British singer Amy Winehouse, has been ordered to pay £950,000 (roughly $1.26 million) to two of his daughter’s friends after losing a High Court case he brought against them over the auction of her belongings.
Winehouse had sued former stylist Naomi Parry and her friend Catriona Gourlay earlier this year, alleging they had no right to sell dozens of the late singer’s clothes and personal items years after her death. Both women denied acting dishonestly, maintaining the items had either been given or lent to them by Winehouse before she died.
Amy Winehouse, celebrated for her distinctive husky voice and rapid rise to global fame, died in July 2011 of alcohol poisoning at just 27 years old. The 155 items auctioned between 2021 and 2023 included clothing, ballet slippers, handbags, earrings and makeup that had belonged to her, along with a dress she wore during her final tour in 2011.
During the trial, the court heard allegations that Parry and Gourlay had taken advantage of Mitch Winehouse’s forgetfulness and profited more than $1.4 million from the sales. But the judge ultimately found that the two women had not deliberately hidden any of the items from him, concluding instead that he had known about the planned sale from the outset and only pursued legal action against them for financial gain after it had already taken place.
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In her ruling delivered Wednesday, Judge Sarah Clarke said Winehouse had chosen to bring an inherently weak claim and pursued it aggressively and relentlessly to its conclusion, making serious and unfounded allegations against the two women that significantly harmed their reputations, career prospects, financial stability and health.
She added that the fact he knowingly and deliberately did this to two young women who had remained loyal to Amy made his conduct especially serious.
In her earlier April ruling, the judge had also noted that Amy Winehouse was widely known for her extraordinary generosity, both toward close friends and toward people she barely knew.
