Amy Winehouse’s father has been ordered to pay almost £1million to two of the late singer’s friends after losing a High Court case over the sale of her belongings.
Mitch Winehouse must make interim payments of £569,330 to the singer’s former stylist Naomi Parry and £394,521 to her friend Catriona Gourlay within the next two weeks. He has also been ordered to cover their legal costs on an indemnity basis.
The order follows the dismissal of his claim against the two women in April.
Acting as the personal representative of his daughter’s estate, Winehouse claimed that Parry and Gourlay had profited from selling items connected to the singer at auctions in the US in 2021 and 2023.
He argued that the women had deliberately concealed their intention to sell the possessions and sought more than £700,000 from them.
Parry and Gourlay maintained that Amy had either given them the items or that they had already belonged to them.
Deputy High Court Judge Sarah Clarke KC dismissed Winehouse’s claim in April, finding that neither woman had deliberately concealed the disputed items from him.
She also concluded that he could have established which items they possessed by exercising “reasonable diligence”, and found that he had known about the intended sales before the first auction took place.
In a costs judgment handed down today (July 29), Clarke said Winehouse had chosen to pursue an “inherently weak claim” both “aggressively and relentlessly”, while asserting that his allegations had significantly damaged the women’s “reputations, career prospects, financial security and health”.
The judge added that Winehouse had “deliberately turned this case into large-scale and expensive litigation” in an attempt to exert commercial pressure on the defendants.
Clarke said his conduct was particularly serious because Parry and Gourlay were two women who had “stood faithfully by Amy”, as well as by Winehouse and his family.
The items included a silk minidress worn by the singer during her final performance in Belgrade in 2011, which was sold for $243,200 (£182,000), as well as clothing, accessories and other memorabilia.
Winehouse died from accidental alcohol poisoning at her Camden home in July 2011, aged 27.
Last week marked the 15th anniversary of her death, with her mother Janis leading tributes and reflecting that she had been “a victim of her own success”.
Earlier this month, The Rolling Stones also reflected on their friendship with the singer after recording a cover of ‘You Know I’m No Good’ for their album ‘Foreign Tongues’.
Ronnie Wood recalled trying to support Winehouse during her struggles with alcohol, saying: “I’m sad because she didn’t do her full span. It was like saying goodbye to Billie Holiday again.”